Staff Picks: Every Kendrick Lamar Album, Ranked

Year: 2022

In the five years between DAMN and Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, a lot happened in Kendrick Lamar’s life and career. He became a father, launched pg.Lang with longtime business partner Dave Free, and, as we all learned on his fifth album, embarked on an intensive therapy journey which helped him confront a bunch of longtime trauma. Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers wasn’t the album most Kendrick Lamar fans were expecting after his last hit-filled, Pulitzer-winning, multi-platinum effort, but Mr. Morale was the perfect album for the times. Lamar tackled idolatry, depression, hyper sexuality, social media addiction, and the ways childhood trauma molds us as adults. The album didn’t birth any chart toppers, though its lead single, “N95,” reached No. 3 on the Hot 100. But this album wasn’t made for radio. It was made for introspection. And Lamar does just that no matter how uncomfortable things get. Whether talking to Black fathers about their importance, or detailing the effect his relationship his transgender uncle had on him, or telling his mother that he forgives her for not properly dealing with her own trauma, Mr. Morale holds few punches and covers ground other rap albums rarely ever trod. It may not have been the album Kendrick fans wanted, but it was the album he needed to make for himself.

Year: 2016

Though not considered one of Kendrick Lamar’s official solo albums, Untitled Unmastered works perfectly as one in practice. A very good one, actually. Made up of songs and sessions that didn’t make it onto To Pimp a Butterfly, Untitled doesn’t feel or sound like a collection of leftovers. Sure, it musically hews towards TPAB with loose jazz jam sessions being corralled into beats that fit under a bunch of 16s, but the weight of that album is gone, giving Untitled Unmastered a lighter, freer feel. And, much like TPAB, Lamar raps at a dizzying level, flying effortlessly from tightly wound internal rhyme schemes to airy melodic bars. Fans are fortunate Kendrick decided these gems were too good to remain buried. The result turned out better than most other rap albums that came out in 2016.

Year: 2011

Think back to 2011 when T.D.E. bumrushed the industry with four debut solo albums from four relatively unknown rappers who collectively called themselves Black Hippy. No one knew which of the eccentric LA natives would go on to dominate the game. But if you placed your bet on the youngin’ from Compton who seemed to carry the weight of Black America on his shoulders and rapped like Riley from The Boondocks if he actually listened to Huey, well, you should go play the lotto. Packed with horns and military drums, Section.80 has a young Lamar taking in the world around him and trying to make sense of what he saw. Despite getting a bit too self-serious at times, Kendrick’s rapping on his debut is so tightly crafted, so clever, so…good the only thing that belies his experience, or lack thereof, is the number of questions he poses that he’s unable to answer. But that’s what sophomore albums are for.  

Year: 2024

Kendrick loves subversion. For example, after making the most popular album of his career, Lamar toured, then took a sabbatical and returned with his most personal and somber yet. To say it through fans for loop would be an understatement. Doing what’s expected doesn’t seem to interest him. That said, Kendrick still managed to surprise us all when he dropped GNX out of the blue on the morning of November 22. But the lack of rollout wasn’t the only surprise. After building a catalog full of overly considered high-concept albums, GNX eschews all of what fans and detractors have come to expect from a Kendrick album. Instead, Lamar lets it be known from jump that this is different. “Fuck a entendre, I want y’all to understand this shit,” he raps on “wacced out murals.” There’s no big-brained idea at play here. The only overarching message is that Kendrick Lamar is the best rapper alive. And he drives it home with the help of some of the most promising up-and-coming talent coming out of the West Coast. The album is brisk, clocking in at 44 min. There are no skits, no digressions about hopes and fears. Just dope rap for 12 tracks. It’s the type of album people said Kendrick would never make, which is likely precisely the reason he made it.

Year: 2015

What do you do after you make a classic? Well, you try to make another one, of course. After a frenzied run that included a flurry of mixtapes, a beloved studio debut, and a follow-up widely considered to be the best rap album since The Blueprint, Kendrick slowed down. While on Ye’s “Yeezus Tour” Lamar began sketching out and writing songs for what would become his third album. Over the next three years, Lamar would seek the counsel and collaboration of a varied group of artists, ranging from Pharrell, The Isley Brothers, George Clinton and Snoop Dogg. The throughline would be a warm and loose tapestry that covers the history of Black American music, touching on jazz, soul, funk, and early hip-hop. Lamar continues his exploration of the world that made him, questioning every norm, pushing and prodding at the cultural fabric connecting us all together. It’s ambitious and flawed, but in a way its flaws are the best part. There’s something incredible about watching an artist experiment without prudence. But the real magic trick TPAB pulls off is feeling at once both well-worn and brand new.  

Year: 2017

No one bridges the gap quite like Kendrick Lamar. On his fourth full-length, Lamar enlists the talents of legendary New York hip-hop DJ Kid Capri to add some flair to a couple of his songs. Not that they needed much more. On DAMN., Kendrick swung the pendulum away from the guilt-laden meditation on D’Evils that dominated much of the heavily lauded To Pimp a Butterfly. This is a slightly lighter affair. Kendrick’s not trying to figure out the system he believes entrapped us, instead he’s trying to work out his system for surviving these times.

Doing so has him exploring his romantic relationships, the camaraderie with his fellow MCs and religion. He even ventures all the way back to the very beginning of his life to when his father and his then-label head fatefully met at a fast-food restaurant to explain that all we see was pre-ordained. It all makes for a fuller and, at times, more upbeat offering that really shows the breadth of Lamar’s talents. He’s a gifted songwriter, an even better rapper and a surprisingly effective vocalist; someone able to affect his voice just perfectly to match tones or erect melodies. DAMN proved that Kendrick could do it all: make hits for radio, appease hip-hop traditionalists and continue his personal journey. As we said, no one can do it quite like Kendrick Lamar.  

Year: 2012

Good Kid, M.A.A.D City is the rare album that perfectly pays respect to the forebearers of the genre it hopes to impact while breaking all new ground and resetting expectations for artists to come. Like past rap classics, GKMC plays a bit like a stage play with Kendrick using skits and lively storytelling to reconstitute the world that made him who he is. Older and wiser, with a more substantial budget, Kendrick takes deeper breaths and bigger swings to tackle the questions and subjects he couldn’t quite wrap his head around on Section.80. Along with the T.D.E. in-house producers, hitmakers like Pharrell, Just Blaze and Dr. Dre join in to help create the fun, touching, rowdy and eloquent songs that make up an album that’s perfect yet manages to not collapse under the weight of its own aspiration. For it to come only a year after his studio debut is a feat; a marvel of a project that leaves something new with you after every listen. It’s the modern yard stick; the rap album we’ll all be referencing, comparing, and contrasting for years to come.