It functions here as a simple tribute, but what it fails to capture is what the album's other 11 songs do so vividly the beating heart of the troubled, complex city which Kendrick calls home. Because when 'Compton' appears in sequence at the tail end of the record, it somehow feels very different an appropriate moment of recognition for the city to which he owes everything, but that could so easily have swallowed him whole.Īs it turns out 'Compton' is just the beginning of Kendrick's story. But Kendrick is not a singles artist, and we should have known that we were witnessing a pre-emptive victory lap. Perhaps this wouldn't be the life-long classic that the rap media was so desperate to declare it. Surfacing as it did - prior to the album's release - the grand baton passing between Dre and Kendrick was a sobering anti-climax, bogged down by the occasion itself and not playing to the strengths of either artist.
In fact, as a standalone song 'Compton' is lightweight divorced of its context, there is little hiding beneath the gloss of Just Blaze's triumphant horns and clattering percussion. "Compton, Compton…Ain't no city quite like mine." Like many of the lyrics that constitute Kendrick Lamar's much-lauded good kid, m.A.A.d city¸ this hook seems throwaway at first glance.
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