Undoubtedly the most highly anticipated rap album of the year, Compton native Kendrick Lamar’s full length major label debut dropped on Oct. 22. After releasing the album of the year in 2011 with Section.80, a soulful concept album showcasing mind-bending lyricism and storytelling ability, Lamar’s follow up was always going to be a massively hyped affair.

The first single released earlier in the year was ‘The Recipe,’ featuring hip hop legend Dr. Dre. Following that was the Just Blaze produced ‘Compton,’ also featuring Dre. These two singles served to assure fans that good kid, m.A.A.d city was going to be a bigger, broader and more personal record.

Critics and fans alike can agree good kid m.A.A.d city lives up to and surpasses all expectations.

Top-notch production, dense, personal wordplay from Lamar and cinematic presentation all come together to form arguably the greatest album since Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The album has everything: the hard hitting braggadocio-laden in-your-face freestyles, the cerebral, painfully self aware stories of growing up in Compton, the honest, socially conscious numbers talking about growing up surrounded by drugs, violence, and gangs.

Along with the impressive production value is the unmistakable ‘Kendrick’-ness of the whole album; good kid, m.A.A.d city is not of the standard gangsta-rap aesthetic most expect from a Compton-based rapper. From the beats to the lyrics to the art direction and inclusion of voice recordings of friends and family in between songs as transitions, Lamar’s sensibility permeates the entire work. He is intelligent and innovative, but his roots in Compton are deep, and not once does he look down upon the brothers he grew up with in his hometown.

Chandler Kowtko, a junior at Carlmont said,”Kendrick is crazy. He’s so unusual…real unique, that’s what sets him apart from everyone else, and his stuff sounds good.”

The album is streaming on Spotify and available for purchase on iTunes via Aftermath/Interscope Records.