It was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in June; for combined sales, streaming and track-sale equivalents of three million units in the US. D City has a low-key, [13] downbeat production, [14] with atmospheric beats and subtle, indistinct hooks. Before and after the album's October 2012 release, Lamar toured as a supporting act alongside Drake and Steve Aoki. Lamar is the James Joyce of hip-hop", he said, "in the complexity of his storytelling, in his knowledge of the canon, and in his continuing focus on the city of his upbringing—Compton. Complex also ranked its album cover as the best of 2012, [88] while Pitchfork included it on its list of the 20 best album covers of the year.

With the weight and backing of Dr Dre (the two recently had a joint xxl cover), Kendrick is ready to release his highly-anticipated major label album Good Kid, Maad City Album through top dawg entertainment / aftermath entertainment / Interscope records. Certain items can take longer to source than the estimated week, particularly during busy trading periods and may take longer to arrive at our warehouse. h] "Compton" contains excerpts from "What's This World Coming To", written by Charles Richard Cason, as performed by Formula IV.The uncle who is holding Lamar also is displaying the Crips gang sign with his hand, and the poster above the head of the uncle features Lamar and his father. Hot single ‘Swimming Pools (Drank)’ serves as a good taster to the album, alongside the previously released warm-up single ‘The Recipe’ ft. The music video for the original version of the single was released on May 13, with comedian Mike Epps making a cameo appearance.

He would later reference Shyne on the song "The Jig Is Up", stating: "I pray to God this beat good enough for Shyne". He explained that the reason why he had not censored his own eyes was that the album's story was told through his eyes, and is based around his experiences. Featuring the introspective woozy lead single "Swimming Pools (Drank)", produced by T Minus and mixed by Ali. Poetic Justice" was released as the third single in North America, and the fourth single overall, featuring Drake.In the album's first week of release, it debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 and sold 242,000 copies in the United States. On March 10, 2015, Lamar unexpectedly released the song "County Building Blues" to iTunes as a promotional single.

The album also peaked in the top ten of the album sales charts in Canada, [70] New Zealand, [71] and the Netherlands. The songs address issues such as economic disenfranchisement, retributive gang violence [25] and downtrodden women, [26] while analyzing their residual effects on individuals and families. D City earned Lamar five Grammy Award nominations at the 56th Grammy Awards, for Album of The Year, Best Rap Album, Best New Artist, Best Rap/Sung Performance for "Now or Never" with Mary J. Besides all the great ideas and life, this journey through the concrete jungle of Compton is worth taking because of the artistic richness, plus the attraction of a whip-smart rapper flying high during his rookie season. It eschews contemporary hip hop tastes [15] and generally features tight bass measures, subtle background vocals, and light piano.D City was being studied as a text in the freshman composition class of Georgia Regents University professor Adam Diehl, alongside other coming of age works such as the James Joyce novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Gwendolyn Brooks' Selected Poems, James Baldwin's short story " Going to Meet the Man", and the John Singleton film Boyz n the Hood. As well as scene stealing features alongside The Game, Drake, Rick Ross and others - Kendrick is poised to be the first artist in a long time to not only change how the country views West Coast hip hop, but how the world sees Hip Hop as a whole.