Save for small circles of rap heads in southern California (ahead of the curve by proximity), most early fans were first introduced to Kendrick Lamar through 2010’s O(verly) D(edicated), a glimpse of what the Compton artist would become.
The freebie offering currently sits just shy of one million Datpiff downloads, a sizable number that indicates both the punch the project packed and its self-benefitting aftermath. Although his initial work remained obscure as successive waves of new fans found King Kendrick, natural selection saw the best of those stepping stones enjoy rediscovery. Six years later, OD still stands.
What’s most remarkable about this release is that it was really just practice, the last warm-up in a long line of street tapes. The final domino to fall in fact arrived 10 months later, in July of 2011, when Section.80 solidified Kendrick as the new school champion of the West Coast. It was the year in which a concept called HiiiPower came to be, its three-finger hand symbol appearing both on blogs and in the Facebook photo galleries of teens with increased frequency.
The newly selected XXL Freshman turned heads with his J. Cole-produced single, an immediate segue for fans of the Fayetteville MC. Visions of Martin Luther King Jr. and Egyptian hieroglyphics captivated an audience in search of something fresh and otherworldly. Meanwhile, old heads abstained from hurling insults because, well, how many acts from the “Golden Era” can really out-rap Kendrick?
Section.80 boasted mind-boggling rhymes over upbeat jazz breaks on “Rigamortis” and “Ab-Soul’s Outro.” What’s more, the album showcased Lamar’s penchant for left-field hooks that stuck, employing a bevy of voices—including his own—to express ideas and feelings that pop radio couldn’t.
Case in point: “A.D.H.D.” The song, a rumination on pills in the wake of the Reagan era, sparked chants at shows for years despite its denouncement of drugs—a skill that reappeared most famously, and in sharpened form, on Lamar’s first bonafide hit, “Swimming Pools (Drank).”
Section.80 encapsulates the moment Lamar grew into himself. He wasn’t quite the masterful artist he would become in the years that followed, but 2011 saw him reach a level of comfort that would take him to the very top of the industry.
In honor of Section.80’s fifth birthday, we dialed back the clock to revisit what might just be the most formative year of Kendrick Lamar’s career. To this day, even after two certified classic LPs, you’ll still find a crowd who considers this release Kendrick’s best. Read on to sift through the album’s critical response, Twitter reactions, blog coverage, and footage of pivotal moments that pushed Lamar onto the global stage.
February 2011: J. Cole says mixtape with Kendrick Lamar will “tear up the world,” footage of joint song “Temptation” posted to YouTube.
“Me and Kendrick doing a whole ridiculous thing together that’s gonna tear up the world,” Cole told Sway Calloway that winter.
February: Kendrick is chosen as part of the XXL freshman cover alongside Big K.R.I.T. and Mac Miller.
Fittingly, Lamar sits at the center of the crowd. His XXL freestyle spoke for itself, separating him from his peers by way of technical prowess.
Image via The Early Registration
April: Kendrick shares J. Cole-produced “HiiiPower.”
The blogosphere exploded upon the release of “HiiiPower.” 93 percent of HipHopDX comments were positive. 1,300 people shared 2DopeBoyz’s post. NahRight’s article received 257 comments. The lead single went a long way in solidifying Kendrick’s core fanbase while extending his reach to a much larger audience.
Image via Miss Info
Image via Miss Info
June: Kendrick performs in Toronto for the first time and connects with Drake.
After “Buried Alive” hit the internet, XXL spoke with Kendrick about how he met Drake. He had this to say:
I did a show in Toronto [on June 16]. My first show in Toronto. I think it was the same night, we was going back to the hotel, and he hit my phone. I guess he had got the word that I was in town. He was there for the night working for the album, and he just said [he wanted to] meet up. We met up, chilled out, got to vibe, see where each other was at and shit. Sometimes you like a person’s music but you definitely don’t like the actual artist when you sit down and you talk to them. That’s a real good dude. He got a real genuine soul. We clicked immediately. We had spoken probably one time before that.
He reached out [again], I wanna say, after I dropped Section.80. He was actually the first person to hear Section.80. I gave it to him that night. He was catching a flight somewhere, and I sent it to him through e-mail, and he was just rocking out with it for a minute. Really bigging me up on the project, telling me to keep doing what I’m doing, that it’s amazing. Probably a week after [it dropped], he said, I wanna get you on the album. The first time he told me, he said he wanted to get me on a song with The Weeknd.
The official flyer from Lamar’s first Canada show:
Image via Wristpect
July: Cosigns begin to roll in for Lamar and Section.80 in the wake of its release.
July: The press shower Lamar’s album with praise, picking up on traits that would go on to define his major label projects.
Pitchfork awards Section.80 an 8/10 rating.
Section.80, Lamar’s new album, arrives on a wave of blog-based buzz, but beyond a couple of ill-advised choruses, it doesn’t make much attempt to present Lamar to major-label A&Rs or to a wider audience. But self-serious flaws and all, Section.80 still stands as a powerful document of a tremendously promising young guy figuring out his voice.
The Needle Drop awards Section.80 an 8/10 rating.
There are so many jazzy samples throughout this LP that just reminds me of everything A Tribe Called Quest would have made a track out of… It all just comes together so well because Kendrick is delivering this really consistent personality and message over every song… This LP lasted for an hour and it didn’t bore me once.
XXL awards Section.80 an XL rating.
The stripped down, jazzy production of the 2011 XXL Freshman’s in-house team compliments the duality of Kendrick’s honest raps, but it’s hard not to imagine how the Dr. Dre protégé will benefit when his sound expands in the not so distant future. It will surely be a bit grander and more accessible to the masses—though that doesn’t seem something the wordsmith is losing sleep over in the meantime.
HipHopDX awards Section.80 an 8/10 rating
The Compton, California native delivers one of the year’s sharpest, smoothest albums – a testament to a well-crafted rhyme style, solid production and inspired lyrical swords… This 23-year-old may have been searching for answers, but that journey allowed him to find one of this year’s most outstanding albums with Section.80.
Throughout the internet, small blogs share reviews in line with the sentiments of established critics and publications.
August: The Game and Kendrick Lamar reveal “The City,” a special moment for Compton hip-hop and arguably Kendrick’s most invigorating, stunning vocal performance at the time of its release.
August: Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Game proclaim Kendrick the West Coast’s new torchbearer.
“You’re not good at what you do, you’re great at what you do” — Snoop Dogg.
August: Jay Z’s Life + Times premieres the Vashtie-directed music video for “A.D.H.D.”
November: Lamar stuns rap with his guest appearance on Drake’s Take Care interlude “Buried Alive.”
Reactions to Kendrick’s jaw-dropping feature the night Take Care leaked in November 2011.
Cliché industry narratives exist because they’re proven correct more often than not. Most one-hit wonders disappear, most careers fall short, most classics don’t have the luxury of a fitting successor. The rarity of an artist breaking into the mainstream and racking up wins despite bucking trends, rivals that of any precious metal.
Few career arcs come close to Kendrick Lamar’s transition from indie favorite to a Grammy-winning candidate for best rapper alive. Now three highly esteemed projects into his major label career, Lamar has begun to shift what it means to be a signed star. For all of the praise surrounding good kid, it was quietly met with a sigh of relief, assuaging fears that suits would cramp his style.
Only several months after TDE’s flagship artist flipped a Take Care feature into a moment, news broke that he had officially signed with Interscope. The label’s backing helped, rather than hindered, Kendrick’s creative ambitions. Section.80 could have gone down as the last pure release of Lamar’s career or a blueprint to improve upon for future chapters. It became the latter, and the rest is history.
