DIRECTOR INTERVIEW: Adam Bowers

 

Adam Bowers is an independent film maker from Dunedin, Florida that made a big splash in 2010 with his critically acclaimed slacker comedy New Low. Praised for intelligent, quick and witty dialogue, the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January of 2010. The film has achieved a well-earned cult status and Bowers is now poised to make a new movie called Paperback, which will be funded by online fundraising website, Kickstarter.

INVISIBLE VANGUARD: The soundtrack for New Low sets a tone that I find to be an accurate representation of life in Gainesville, Florida. How did you come about selecting the music for the movie?

ADAM BOWERS: Oh, I’m glad you feel that way about it. That was kind of my goal with it, capturing what life was like down there. My other approach for everything in the movie was just trying to use as much of what I liked as possible, so New Low is basically just a big mash-up of everything I was into at the time (that Gainesville sub-culture, the bands on the soundtrack, Woody Allen movies... That sort of stuff).

IV: The quality of the writing in the film is impeccable. When did you start writing the movie and did you find it difficult to make the script into a reality given the budgetary limitations that you must have had to overcome?

AB: That’s really nice of you to say, thanks. I didn’t have much trouble turning the script into the movie, partly because I wrote it knowing I was going to go straight into making it in that DIY, no-budget way, which is how I’d made things up until that point. So I would be careful not to write anything that I didn’t think we’d be able to pull off. I think it helps a lot, too, that the movie is so dialogue-driven, because that’s something you can make interesting that doesn’t cost anything.

IV: The film has some pretty compelling characters, how did you go about casting? Did you intend to play the main part of Wendell all along?

AB: I’d actually made a 40 minute student film version of the movie the year before, for an independent study course at my college, called New Personal Worst, where I played Wendell, Jayme Ratzer played Vicky, and Val Jones played Joanna. I’d wanted Toby Turner for Dave, but he wasn’t available then, so I cast a friend of a friend named Chris Ramenda who was great. But I knew really early on who I wanted for those main roles, and most of the other roles I cast with people I knew. A lot of them came from the college improv group I was a part of called Theatre Strike Force. But as for me playing Wendell, the character was written so much in my own voice that it felt unlikely that I’d be able to find someone who would get it in the small pond that is the Gainesville acting community. So, I just thought it’d be easier to play him myself.

IV: Did the fact that you played the dual role of actor and director slow the shooting of the movie?

AB: I’d say it made it easier, actually. I had to do a ton of stuff on the movie outside of directing/producing, and I was just very OCD about trying to improve the script and everything, so I was kind of just swallowed by the movie for awhile, and that made it so I knew the script front-to-back. So, there weren’t really any times where I would need to take a minute before shooting and learn my lines or anything, because I was just already so zeroed in on it. Not to mention, playing Wendell meant one less person I would have to try and wrangle to the set every day.

IV: The film played at the Sundance film festival in 2010, what is your favorite memory of that experience?

AB: My favorite memory of that is probably going out to dinner with my family after the premiere and just being able to pause for a second. The whole thing, though, was an amazing, nerve-wracking, on-another-planet sort of experience. Sundance is a great organization that really cares about independent film, and I feel very lucky to be welcomed into that community.

IV: The climax of the film might seem a bit abrupt to a lot of people, it’s really up to the imagination of the audience to figure out what happens to the characters next. Have you thought about making a sequel to New Low at some point in the future?

AB: Ha, I have heard it catches people off-guard. I don’t know where it would go, though, after what we see in the film. To me, the ending in the film is the only one that makes sense that I would consider to be a “happy” ending. I think the ending of the film is hopeful, and without spoiling anything for readers who haven’t seen it, I think making things go another way would have meant something sadder for the characters.

IV: I just read today that you are trying to get a new film project going via Kickstarter. Any idea of when you would get started shooting the new film?

AB: Yeah, I just started a Kickstarter for a new film. Actually, to answer your question about the “sequel” to New Low, I look at this movie as a sort-of sequel to that film. It takes place in Gainesville, and there are two characters in it that are very much like Wendell and Vicky from that film, and I think they could be seen as a logical progression of what they would be like five years from the events of New Low, what their relationship would have become. We’re planning on shooting this new film in September. I’m really excited. Please consider backing the Kickstarter, or sharing it with family and friends, so we can make it!

IV: Have you given any thought to what you would like to hear on the soundtrack?

AB: I have, actually. Without revealing too much, it will have a similar tone to New Low’s soundtrack, but I won’t be doing quite the same thing. There will definitely be at least a Gainesville band or two involved, though, that’s for sure.

IV: Can you give any additional information about the project?

AB: Something I’m really looking forward to with this project is working with the team I have lined up. It’s being produced by Andie Bolt, who’s a producer/comedian, and a friend of mine out in LA, and Roger Beebe, who is a UF professor of film and the owner of Video Rodeo, the store my character works at in New Low. It’s being executive produced by Adele Romanski, who’s done a lot of great indie films the past few years, including The Myth of the American Sleepover, The Freebie, and Black Rock, among others, which are all great if you haven’t heard of them. And the director of photography is Jay Keitel, who has made a number of absolutely beautiful small indie movies, like Amy Seimetz’s Sun Don’t Shine. So, I can’t wait to see how it’ll turn out.

IV: If all goes well, when can we expect the release of the new film?

AB: We’re hoping to have it done for festivals in early 2014, with distribution to follow ASAP. The more vocal fans are, the quicker we’ll be able to get it to you guys.

IV: Thank you so much for your time Adam, I look forward to seeing what is sure to be a long and fascinating career for you.

AB: Thanks a lot, I really appreciate that.

You can donate to Adam’s Kickstarter account by clicking  here.

Interview by: Tobias Gaia

ALBUM REVIEW: Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music

I've never really had a religious experience, in a religious place.
Closest I've ever come to seeing or feeling God is listening to rap music.  Rap music is my religion.  Amen.

These days, there are rarely words that resonate with me perfectly.  To me, Michael Render's words at the beginning of the title track is the truest shit I ever heard.  To some, it may be hard to understand, especially if you are not a big fan of rap.  Listening to rap growing up provided sympathy, compassion, understanding, comfort, relaxation, community - well, pretty much everything that religion provides for others.  When you have preachers, parents, or both telling you what you should do as if they have never done it, rap always spoke to me as if it understood how I felt and spoke to me with honesty.  Rap did not judge me.  In fact, it empowered me to do the scariest thing to do these days - be myself.  At the end of the day, any music genre can be this to others, and it probably is.  Unfortunately, of all music genres, rap music always receives harsh criticism from in the media and politics, many of whom simply criticize out of their own ignorance, whether intentional or not, of hip hop culture. Now, there is definitely some rap out there that lacks some integrity and creativity, but it is always the music that has integrity that lasts the test of time.  With his sixth album entitled R.A.P. Music (Rebellious African People Music),  Michael Render aka Killer Mike has delivered such an album.

First, let me apologize again for being mad, mad late on this review.  In fact, I deserve to poke my eyes out with toothpicks.  When I was writing the review for his last album, Killer Mike had already released this album over 6 months beforehand.  This album should not have slipped under my radar but it did.  Once again, however, it's better late than never.  What changed between Pl3dge and R.A.P. Music for Killer Mike?  The biggest change is that Killer Mike elected to have underground hero and producer El-P handle all the beats for this album.  I was definitely a little put off by that, especially with how I felt Pl3dge was Mike's most complete album production-wise with more than one producer behind the boards.  In addition, I was not sure whether El-P's offbeat style would match with Mike's streetwise, aggressive rhetoric.  However, I remember reading about the same skepticism when Ice Cube enlisted the Bomb Squad to produce his first solo album after leaving N.W.A.  It ended up working so well that people were still clamoring for them to collaborate again, and with R.A.P. Music, it is no different.

Killer Mike waste no time with the opening track "Big Beast" featuring Bun B, T.I. and Trouble, opening the album with a fury and intensity that we have not heard since Amerikkka Most Wanted.  Man, I wish other artists had the guts to kick off an album like this:

Hardcore G shit, homie I don't play around 
Ain't shit sweet 'bout the Peach, this Atlanta, clown 
Home of the dealers and the strippers in the clubs doe 
Catch you comin out that Magic City with a snub, hoe 
Lurkin in the club, o' tourists muh'fuckers 
Welcome to Atlanta - up the jewelry, muh'fucker! 
These monkey niggaz lookin for some Luda and Jermaine 
And all that nigga found was a Ruger and some pain
...

I know some dumb country niggaz but them niggaz ain't weak
Know they dress and look the part but them niggaz ain't G
I don't make dance music, this is R.A.P.
Opposite, of that sucka shit they play on TV

Both Bun B and especially T.I. provide stellar verses, and Trouble nails the chorus.  What is most surprising is El-P's production.  The beat is uptempo, hits hard, and perfectly compliments Mike as he puts a lyrical beatdown on the listener.  Any doubt on the Killer Mike/El-P chemistry is now gone, even if it might fall short at some point.  Fortunately, it never does.  The following track "Untitled" featuring Scar has El-P slowing things down with a deep bass pattern alternating between two octaves and congas drumming in the background.  The beat itself is hypnotizing, but Mike makes sure his drops something to chew on as well.

A Word on Behalf of Whizz Bang Brand Snake Oil

-To be read aloud in your best Tom Waits voice.-

We were camped in a pup tent five miles west of Tuscon and you know what it’s like for a guy with two dwarves to feed, they’re each like a teenager with a tapeworm, they never stop eating. Hot as balls all day and any minute the sun was gonna crash out and leave us to the coyotes and desert night winds and all I had was three Pall Malls and a tin of pinto beans for comfort. But thank god the dwarves had tuckered out early and weren’t gonna wait up to hear me sing the full Brunhilde from Gotterdammerung.

Their loss.

I’d just finished my last cigarette, saving the beans for breakfast, and was about to tuck into the full nine minutes of ‘Fliegit Heim, ihr Raben’ When I hear hooves on the dirt and a horse’s snort. I turn ‘round prepared to take my interrupted aria out of the rider’s philistine hide when he holds up a bottle.

Now, he’s a filthy flea bitten jack and smells like boiled armadillo and cabbage, dressed in a hand me down potato sack with a hat he stole from a dead Comanche mental patient, but he says to me, he says, “Drink it pardner. It weren’t on my lips.” That’s all the guarantee I need. What man among you could turn down free hooch, in the desert, when it’s cold?

It tasted like horse piss and back alley Louisiana rum used to bathe cats then ladeled out and sent walking in the desert. But upon finishing the bottle, damned if I didn’t sing Brunhilde’s immolation so sweetly…I’ll put it to you this way, before that night coyotes in those parts only ever barked like rat terriers. I taught those bastards the meaning of sadness. Now they Howl.

And this here’s what I drank

 WhizzBang Brand Snake Oil:

 A Profound Sadness that Still Haunts the Sonoran Desert.

AUDIO SHAKEDOWN - Volume 11

Greetings, dear readers and welcome once again to the one and only Audio Shakedown. It's been a while since the last installment and I've been gathering bits of writing here and there as time has passed, so there's no real theme to the group other than that I've been cramming them all into my head with furious abandon over the past month or two. Listen, read, and enjoy.

Tom Waits - Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards - Tom Waits is an American treasure as incredible and irreplaceable as the Grand Canyon, and if you listen to the 56 songs that comprise the Orphans collection, you'll have a reasonable idea why. The Brawlers disc contains Mr. Waits' careening rock and roll and primal blues stomp, and for my money probably edges out the other two discs, as great as they are. Bawlers contains love songs and assorted weepers, which when done by Tom Waits are potent indeed. Many musicians have a rock side and a ballad side, and most collections could stop there, but Waits is no ordinary musician, so the Bastards disc is necessary, as it showcases his love of oddball spoken word, shambling beat poetry, and bizarre raconteurship. Considering his career spans four decades now, Orphans is not an accurate picture of his entire oeuvre, but it is a fascinating glimpse into a musical mind like no other.

Jerry Lee Lewis - Jerry Rocks - Everyone knows the amazing rock and roll sides that the Killer released on the Sun label in the fifties, but when a compilation of his work is released, it always splits the running time between the piano-burning rockers and the somewhat homogenous country material he released around the same time (Sorry, die-hard Lewis fans, but it's true, if you skip through his country weepers, you hear the exact same four note walkup to the opening chord over and over again, and the rest of those songs usually fare no better where originality is concerned.) But this Bear Family Records collection dispenses with the downtempo business and gives you all the rockers, including some material that rarely shows up on comps. There are some great covers, all the originals you know and love, and even some upbeat country numbers. I'd been looking for a compilation like this for some time, and it definitely delivers.

Voodoo Blues - The Devil Within - A while back I thought, "It seems like there should be a collection of older blues songs about the influence of voodoo and folk magic on black culture in the south." Thirty seconds later, a Google search confirmed my genius. There are a few of them, actually, but this two-disc collection seems to be the most enjoyable. It has a nice balance of material, from the older, creepier material (Robert Johnson, Sam Hopkins, Skip James), to the newer, more tongue-in-cheek sorts of songs, (Howlin' Wolf, Screamin' Jay Hawkins). The range of approaches to the subject matter is beneficial, since a narrow focus on both style and theme could easily render the proceedings overly homogenous, a trap that some of the other collections in this vein fall into.

Them - Them - People frequently overlook Them when remembering great mid-60's bands, but it's fascinating to hear Van Morrison in his rock and roll wild man days. On their self-titled debut, the band occupy the space (both temporally and sonically) between Howlin' Wolf-style Chicago blues and The Stooges' down and dirty ruckus, which frequently ends up sounding similar to the Rolling Stones, an equation that makes musical sense, really. This album is really a perfect status report of mid-decade rock and roll, from the organ heavy "I'm Gonna Dress in Black" that gives The Animals' "House of the Rising Sun" a run for its money, to the incomparable ode to sex "Gloria," which has been covered by everyone from The Doors to Patti Smith. There's no reason this album shouldn't be talked about with the same reverence as Aftermath, Animalisms, or The Kink Kontroversy.

Toad the Wet Sprocket - Dulcinea - It's easy to lose sight of Toad the Wet Sprocket, a statement that was true even in the mid-90's. 1994 was a banner year for musical sadness, but Toad the Wet Sprocket tended to be drowned out by their more histrionic peers in alternative rock. The band's gimmick was that they had no gimmick (other than the band name, which they pulled from an old Monty Python sketch, though that is neither here nor there where their music is concerned). They played well, but had no showiness about them. They weren't the loudest or fastest, or even most miserable. In fact, compared to the wailings of other bands at the time, the glum nature of these songs seems composed and almost elegant. Toad's strong point is that they know their way around a melody, and they crafted solid songs to support them, as is evident here on Dulcinea. It didn't necessarily make them the most newsworthy band, but it did result in several albums worth of great music. Sometimes I need nothing more than their jangly guitars and Glen Phillips' fragile voice, bolstered by the harmonies that frequently crop up behind it in their songs.

Carousell - Black Swallow and Other Songs - Carousell is one of the many guises (A Broken Consort, Riftmusic, *AR, etc.) of Richard Skelton, a UK-based composer of beautiful droning songs made primarily with bowed strings of various sorts. With each new appellation, Skelton displays a different focus on his signature sound, and with that in mind, it appears that Carousell is his most conventional version yet, since there's identifiable notes and very nearly a discernible rhythm to some of the proceedings, unlike earlier recordings. The instrumentation is more diverse as well, including piano, strings both bowed and plucked, what sounds like field recordings, and the occasional whispery, wordless voice, courtesy of wife Autumn Richardson. This record is gorgeous, and while it does cleave closely to his established atmosphere of arboreal melancholy, the compositions here are more lush than his usually spare (though equally compelling) style. The result is a collection of soundscapes that manage to be both earthy and ethereal at once, like being able to touch a memory. This is not a record for everyone (a fact Skelton must understand, since the initial run of discs was limited to 100), and so much the better, because it can live like a secret with those who understand its value.

I'll end this one with a film recommendation (it's musically based, so I think it falls under our focus here). The new Mudhoney documentary I'm Now is an excellent look at a band that's too often forgotten when people talk about early 90's grunge. They outlasted pretty much everyone, even through drug addiction and changing styles, and it's great to be able to hear all of the original members tell the story as they lived it.

FUTURE NEWS: Florida Stands its Ground

In what the state of Florida was quick to characterize as a "...clear case of self defense," in reaction to the continued hostility over the George Zimmerman verdict, the Florida state government in association with local militia groups, commandeered and launched nuclear weapons against targets within the other contiguous 47 United States. The death toll continues to rise as sources within the rogue state remain nonchalant and even defiant, pointing to its own Stand Your Ground statute as justification. The Florida attorney general  said, "We as the residents of Florida felt bodily threatened by the unkind words and aggressive posturing of the rest of America. But we are more than willing to accept any apologies offered. As a gesture of good will, those looking for temporary accommodations should consider Florida's incomparable beaches and resorts." She then proceeded to pitch real estate and timeshare options.

     The Governor of Texas went on record condemning the outrage and expressing sympathy with those in the (largely urban) centers affected, "We pledge the full weight of Texan support to any who require it." Stepping back from the rostrum and not realizing his mic was still on the governor  then joked with his colleagues, "I'm only pissed those orange squeezers thought of it first."

     Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson was quick to blame the incident on the continued gains made by gay marriage advocates. Saying that, "...this sort of righteous judgement will only continue as the outrages against God expand."  He seemed utterly oblivious when questioned that God is not in fact governor of Florida.

ALBUM REVIEW: Kanye West - Yeezus

There are 3 rules that I try to reconcile when it comes to reviewing albums:

1) Music is art, and it takes time to appreciate it in some cases.
2) Personal feelings about the artist must be put aside to fairly review the album.
3) The first impression is usually the right one in most situations.

Since I have been writing reviews, no artist has tested these rules more than Kanye West.  In my younger days, I passed on his earlier albums out of disgust for his unrelenting arrogance and ridiculous obsession with the limelight.  It was not until my wife forced me to listen to his first two albums that I realized that he is a talented artist.  He does deserve the accolades he receives for his music because he does have a great ear for music and can have some intriguing rhymes every now and then.  Of course, we all knew his talent from his production work for artists like Jay-Z, T.I., Common, Mos Def, and Alicia Keys.  Unfortunately, as his career went on, Kanye became more well known for controversy rather than music.  Sometimes it was courageous (his rant on George Bush and Hurricane Katrina relief in 2005); sometimes it was tragic (his mother's death in 2007 due to complications from plastic surgery), and sometimes it was completely ridiculous (his impromptu speech during Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at the VMA's a couple years ago).  Either way, controversy continues to follow him.  For his fans and for critics, controversy has not interfered with the quality of music, for his first 5 albums all had critical and commercial appeal worldwide.

However, critics were not as happy with his performance on the 2012's Cruel Summer compilation album.  The once-potent Kanye lacked focus and inspiration.  Much of the lyrical content fed into the glamorous superstar life without the typical introspective conflict that we are accustomed to hearing from Mr. West.  The radio loved a lot of the songs on off the album, but some fans hoped that his next album would rectify the shortcomings of Cruel Summer and put Kanye back into people's hearts, minds, and ears.  Kanye has shown his ability for redemption: after the auto-tune love-fest that 2008's 808's and Heartbreaks was, his 2010 follow-up My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was musical masterpiece and a trendsetter for rap music after its release.   People believe that Kanye will come with that fire.  His high-profile relationship with paparazzi fiend Kim Kardashian and his pending fatherhood would prompt him to change the game again and rule the airwaves, or at least not distract him from doing it.  Fans have faith in Kanye just like Christians have faith in Jesus.  Hmm, maybe that is why Kanye's new album is titled Yeezus.  He has been pretty consistent among all the rap artists who came out in the 21th Century, so why would he let us down now?

I don't know why, but for me, he did.  I have listened to his album 3 times this past weekend, and each time it has felt like a chore rather than a pleasure.  See what I am doing here?  I am trying to follow Rule #1 and give it a few listens to sink in.  As much as I loathe Kanye for some of the crap he says and does in the media, I know that he has the talent to make good albums.  He deserve a fair listen.  See what I am doing here?  Rule #2 is creeping in.  At the end of the day, Rule #3 triumphs over all: my first impression of the album wins.  I am not feeling it.

I would describe this album as the worst of 808's and Heartbreaks mixed with an half-ass attempt at trip-hop.  It is a shame that his collaborations with Daft Punk on 5 tracks are wasted here.  They do well on "Black Skinhead" and "New Slaves," which happen to be the songs he performed on SNL last month.  The latter is probably my favorite track of the album, and it is far from the best song that I have heard from Kanye (Killer Mike and other artists been saying what Kanye was talking about for a minute).  Still, the grating sounds and explicit imagery makes Yeezus a tough listen.  Like I said, I listened to the album 3 times before I started this review and am currently listening to it now.  I will admit that some songs sound better on further listens.  The king Louie-assisted track "Send It Up" has a chorus that will creep up on you and get stuck in your head, and "Bound 2" sounds like a solid throwaway from Kanye's third album Graduation  (I mean that in a good way).  However, tracks like "Blood On The Leaves" shows how singing with Auto-tune can be a detriment to good song rather than a benefit (and I do not approve of him ripping off the chorus for Snoop Dogg's "Down For My N's").  Even in it better moments, there is nothing pulling me back to this record.  In fact, I have a hard time believing that this was actually the album after my first listen.  I kept believing that this version was for the bootleggers, and a better version would be released on the scheduled release date.  Well, after listening to the album on Spotify today, my beliefs were incorrect.

Perhaps I should not have considered Cruel Summer part of Kanye's catalog.  If not, I could listen to Yeezus with less skepticism and more of an open mind.  I appreciate artists that push their own boundaries as well as the boundaries of music in general.  When everyone tends to play it safe, especially with hip-hop, hearing an artist establishing their own lane and trying to set trends is refreshing.  The main reason why artists do not flex their creative muscles is because they run the risk of going so far into another zone that they simultaneously fail to catch the ears of new fans and alienate their core fan base.  It is a big risk/big reward decision, and it sometimes does not work.  Judging from the reaction that Yeezus so far, most of his fans and critics still have his back and are supporting this album.  I am sure that he lost a few, though, and for better or worse, Kanye does not seem too care.  So be it.  After looking this review over, I realized that similar to Kanye, I am contradicting myself with acknowledging delayed appreciation for art but going with my initial impression with this album.  Well, contradictions seemed to be the mantra for Kanye's career, so it is fitting for me to do the same.  This also could be Kanye's point with Yeezus - we strive to be the best but we end up falling short most of the time.  Interesting.  Still, I have a feeling that Kanye will bring me back on his next release, but for Yeezus, I gotta pass.

ALBUM REVIEW: Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid, M.A.A.D City

Kendrick Lamar has some balls.  He had already developed a huge buzz through his mixtapes and release an independent album Section 80 in 2011 that was critically acclaimed.  His label Top Dawg Entertainment inked a distribution deal with Dr. Dre's Aftermath and Interscope Records, allowing him to reach wider audience.  Hip hop mainstays Lil Wayne, Game, and Dr. Dre endorsed him as the "next big thing" in rap.  On top of that, Dr. Dre was going to add his magic touch to his first major label release as executive producer.  With all these elements lined up, Kendrick could have just made one hot single, get a couple Dr. Dre beats on there, and coast through the rest of the CD while benefiting off his powerful connections and endorsements.  It sounds so easy, but what does Kendrick decide to do?  He decides to make his major label debut a concept album.

Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City serves as a day-in-the-life of Kendrick Lamar as a seventeen year old kid living in Compton, California.  The album chronicles the coming-of-age of Kendrick as lust, comedy, crime, and tragedy shapes his development as the man he is today.  Well, perhaps the coming-of-age story has been done many times in multiple mediums.  Still, even though the story is not new, getting to the beginning to the end can still be entertaining.  The question here is this: can Kendrick Lamar release a concept album that tells an engaging, enjoyable story but still be accessible to the average fan who is not familiar with K. Dot's previous work?  Indeed.

The most impressive aspect of this album is that despite having a larger profile from being released on a major label, it is clearly Kendrick's show.  There is not a track on the album where Kendrick Lamar takes a backseat to the production or the guest artists and uses them to keep the listeners' interest.  It seems easy for Kendrick to hop into the backseat based on the people involved in the album.  Pharell Williams of the Neptunes adds his signature sound and vocals to the track "Good Kid."  Just Blaze puts together a California anthem with the track "Compton."  T-Minus comes through with the infectious hit single "Swimming Pools (Drank)." Scoop DeVille laces two of the tightest tracks of last year with "Poetic Justice" featuring Drake and "The Recipe."  Many of the other producers such as Soundwave and DJ Dahi and are not as well known but will soon be in demand due to their work on "Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe" and "Money Trees" featuring Jay Rock, respectively.  Surprisingly, Dr. Dre has no direct involvement in any tracks but makes two guest appearances on the aforementioned "Compton" and "The Recipe."  Another west coast rap legend MC Eiht makes an unexpected but satisfying appearance on "M.A.A.D City," which should make a new generation of rap fans say "geah" as if it is 1992 all over again.  Nevertheless, Kendrick makes its clear that he is the main attraction.  All of the contributors are in the passenger seat while Kendrick is behind the wheel.  Despite what they bring, Kendrick Lamar controls where the album is going.

What probably helps in Kendrick's command over the album is his clear vision and its flawless execution on the album.  He seems to have thought out every aspect in how the album is put together, and it makes every listen better each time.  I am always a sucker for the subtle moments that make an album intriguing, and there are plenty of them: the interplay of the music and K Dot's lyrics in "Sing About Me, Dying of Thirst," using a snippet of the opening track "Sherane aka Master Splinter's Daughter" to bring the story back to the beginning at the end of "Poetic Justice," the transition of K Dot getting into the backseat of his friend's car before moving to the track "Backseat Freestyle" - it is all there.  Even the interludes demand replay (the interludes with Kendrick's parents are definitely the highlights), and unlike some albums, the interludes help keep the album together instead of shaking up the album's flow.  No album that I have heard since OutKast's Aquemini has been able to achieve this feat so convincingly, and Kendrick should consider this a victory in itself.

Fortunately, Kendrick does not settle for just having an album that comes together musically.  He does not hit you with tongue-twisting, deep metaphors and punchlines.  However, Kendrick Lamar uses his words to weave his tale of youthful angst and loss of innocence to put you right there in the action.  The album cover states that the album is a short film by Kendrick Lamar, and that is exactly the feeling that you receive when you play it.  The highs and lows that one feels when watching a movie is apparent despite being in audible form instead of visual form.  There are still some moments that are surprisingly insightful even when you are likely having fun with it, such as the one on "Swimming Pools (Drank):"

Now I done grew up round some people living their life in bottles 
Granddaddy had the golden flask, back stroke every day in Chicago 
Some people like the way it feels, some people wanna kill their sorrows 
Some people wanna fit in with the popular, that was my problem 
I was in a dark room, loud tunes, looking to make a vow soon 
That I'ma get fucked up, filling up my cup, I see the crowd move 
Changing by the minute, and the record on repeat 
Took a sip, then another sip, then somebody said to me 

 [Chorus] 
Nigga, why you babysitting only two or three shots? 
I'ma show you how to turn it up a notch 
First you get a swimming pool full of liquor, then you dive in it 
Pool full of liquor, then you dive in it 
I wave a few bottles, then I watch 'em all flock 
All the girls wanna play Baywatch 
I got a swimming pool full of liquor and they dive in it 
Pool full of liquor, I'ma dive in it

I am probably the only one who thinks this, but I think this song is as genius as Afroman's "Because I Got High."   Like Afroman, Kendrick makes a song that simultaneously glorifies getting drunk and criticizes getting drunk (he even calls it "poison" on the second verse).  You got to appreciate songs like these because it's so tough to get anyone to listen to a rap song with any sort of substance.  It is also tough to make a song with substance that is sonically enjoyable, and Kendrick pulled it off here.

Other artists have made similar albums, but I have not heard any rap album that was able to pull it off as well as Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City.  Kendrick's vision and courage in making this album definitely paid off, and he clearly released one of the best albums in 2012.  I have no problem recommending this album as well as the deluxe edition to any music fan, whether they like rap or not.  After fully digesting this album, I imagine that when a new crop of rappers rise up 10-15 years later, they will point to this album as one of their biggest influences in their work.  Yep, it is that good.