The violent crime that inspired Kendrick Lamar’s debut album: “That’s what ‘Section 80’ represents”
Before becoming a heavyweight, Kendrick Lamar was just a rising rapper trying to find his footing in hip-hop in 2011. The Compton native followed his mixtape era with Section 80, showcasing his talent across his most focused body of work yet.
The album was mostly made in-house at Top Dawg Entertainment. It featured guest spots from ScHoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, BJ The Chicago Kid, and GLC, with J Cole also contributing a production assist. It debuted at number 113 on the Billboard 200 with around 5,000 copies, but the low charting had nothing to do with the quality; he wasn’t known to most of the public yet.
K. Dot was 24 by the time Section 80 came out. Such a personal album was inspired by a friend who committed a violent crime and, as a result, was sentenced to life in prison. His actions were a product of his surroundings.
“One of the things that really sparked the idea was a memory I had of a close friend of mine, being 17 years old, turning 18 next year, and getting 25 to life for a violent crime,” Kendrick told Billboard. “He had no guidance and was caught in that negative stigma of our generation that don’t care about anything and don’t listen to anybody.
“He was so young and his life is almost completely gone, it’s like he missed the whole world. Just the fact that’s gone from him at such a tender age shows me that we have a lot to go as far as listening and being able to critique ourselves as individuals.”
He added, “That’s what Section 80 represents. [It’s] that particular moment [in which] I thought back to the pain I felt when one of my friends was about to be gone for a minute. That’s the creation process going into the studio, thinking about those emotions.”
Section 80 arrived a year after his Overly Dedicated mixtape, and saw him tackling topics such as racism and the ’80s crack epidemic, naming songs like ‘Ronald Reagan Era (His Evils)’ and ‘Fuck Your Ethnicity’. Kendrick went into detail about the man behind the album, who was attempting not to fall victim to the dangers of Compton.
“I’m a good kid in a mad city,” he said. “When you think of Compton, you think of the stigma of gangs and gang culture. That’s something I’ve been around my whole life. I was always that one individual in my neighbourhood who was always trying to escape the influences rather than being oblivious to it. But, I also had my head bumped a few times to finally know what I was doing.”
Kendrick believes that having his dad in his life massively benefited him, which is something his childhood friends didn’t have. “The only thing that separates me from my friends in jail is the fact I had a father,” he admitted. “He gave me the balance I needed. I put that same balance in my music — the balance of knowing the gang culture from my cousins, uncles, and pops.
“And at the same time, my mother and father gave me the idea of being a dreamer. They taught me the world is bigger than Compton and to go out and explore it. That made me an individual. I actually know who I am, where I come from, and what I got to do to represent and connect people.” Section 80 led to Kendrick signing a deal with Dr Dre’s Aftermath label and releasing his acclaimed good kid, m.A.A.d city album in 2012. The rest is history.