Why Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Section.80’ is the best debut album in hip-hop’s modern era
It is a tricky business to make bold claims about this album or that one being the greatest of its era. Somebody is always liable to get annoyed by such an assertion. One person’s favourite is another’s most despised, and that is just the nature of these things. But, that notwithstanding, it is fun to argue about these things. So, here’s a claim: Kendrick Lamar’s Section.80, imperfect though it is, is the best debut hip hop album of the last two decades.
Before Section.80, Kendrick was building up his reputation as K.Dot, performing on stage and releasing mixtapes under the name. He eventually dropped the moniker in an attempt to tap into his truer identity, and, with 2009’s Kendrick Lamar EP, the artist we know today really began to take shape. His debut album, Section.80, arrived two years later, and this, in hindsight, marked a decisive moment in his development.
Section.80 is far from a perfect album, and it is certainly not the best that Kendrick would go on to make. But, with its well-produced, jazz-inflected music and razor-sharp, intelligent social commentary, it hints at the artist Kendrick would soon become. There are moments of utter eloquence, and, while there is a certain, understandable immaturity to the work, it presents a young man who sees the world around him with utter clarity.
Section.80 is preoccupied with the specific state of Kendrick’s generation, that first cohort of millennials who were born towards the end of the 1980s. In the United States that meant growing up bearing the consequences of the Ronald Reagan presidency, which is explored most obviously in tracks like ‘ADHD’ and ‘Ronald Regan Era.’ Kendrick was only two when Reagan left office in 1989, so he didn’t really live through the presidency itself—but its impact on poor, urban Black culture was something his generation felt sharply.
Reagan’s America was a conservative one, and, among other things, it was extremely hostile to the urban poor who took drugs. These people were demonised, to the extent that young mothers who were addicted to crack were portrayed as irredeemably depraved—a pernicious characterisation that was extended to their children, a generation of “crack babies.” “You know why we crack babies,” Kendrick raps on ‘ADHD.’ “Because we born in the ’80s.” The awful consequences of Reagan’s escalation of the war on drugs are still playing out today, with poor drug users still being demonized and subjected to inhumane, wildly harsh punishments.
The post-Reagan reality Lamar describes throughout Section.80 is a dark one, but his ability to tell this story while, at the same time, producing wonderful, listenable music is a sign of what is to come. It is an early indication of his genius, even though, at times, the album does falter. This is, after all, a debut LP from a very young man, still in his early 20s. There are, therefore, moments where his relative immaturity, both as a person and as an artist, are discernible. Some verses don’t really land, as in ‘Hol’ Up,’ and the album does drag at certain points. A sharper ear probably would have pared it back a bit.
Section.80 is not a perfect album. But it is impossible to disassociate it with what is to come. Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, To Pimp a Butterfly, DAMN—all of them are more accomplished works than their predecessor, but their seeds were planted within that first LP. Section.80 is a statement of intent by a man who will become one of rap’s greatest ever artists. It may not be without its flaws, but it marks the beginning of something truly exquisite.