The 60 Best Kendrick Lamar Songs

Paranoia, filtered down into a long hit of something strong. A horror show, live from the back seat. It’s the continued building of Kendrick Lamar as witness and participant, secrets kept tight until the silence is so loud. Connect that with MC Eiht, and two generations link up for more of the same: casualties of capitalism and state intervention, leaving working folks riddled with bullets and needles. Chaos is the constant; everyone else varies within it. —M.P.

“I make music that electrify ‘em, you make music that pacify ‘em,” raps Kendrick Lamar in “Euphoria,” the track that shifted his war of words with Drake into overdrive. For hip-hop heads, this track features his most cutting, devastating lines. Whether you’re a superfan who loves the vibes Drake creates or a skeptic who believes he went astray with too many pop-flavored novelties, Lamar’s contrast between an artist whose music provokes thought and someone who makes Spotifycore for malls resonates. While “Euphoria” isn’t the kill shot – that came later with “Not Like Us” – it’s a thrilling number that epitomizes how the Drake vs Lamar beef unfolded like a grimy old-school NBA playoff game, with plenty of hand-checks and elbows tossed to the ribs.–M.R.

Here K.Dot is in the corner of the function tryna’ politic, party, and parlay, but never in the same order. Section.80 found him zeroing in on this balance, and “A.D.H.D.” gave the strongest glimpse into his future of crafting anthems from collective trauma and overindulgence. These remain salient callbacks, much like his penchant for tilting pronunciations into earworms. Is it “Fuck that” or “Fuck thought”? Kendrick loves leaving us options. —M.P.

Addiction and escapism are as old as the vices they’re associated with. But on “Swimming Pools (Drank),” Kendrick taps into how he and his generation are affected. How did kids in the meme era escape the moment? Here, over moody keys he admits, “Some people wanna fit in with the popular, that was my problem.” Kendrick doesn’t wanna go where everybody knows his name; he just wants to “see the crowd mood.” —W.D. 

Partly inspired by piano-driven hip-hop classics like Marley Marl’s “The Symphony,” “HUMBLE.” finds Kendrick Lamar at his crowd-pleasing, arena-rap peak. Its chorus, spoken with a cadence akin to a head nod, is instantly memorable, while Mike Will Made It’s beat pushes along with a hard pulse. However, Lamar’s lyrics caused controversy: When he rapped about being “sick and tired of the Photoshop,” he was accused of being misogynistic about how women choose to present themselves. —M.R.

Lamar’s call for inner peace despite being “a sinner” remains one of his most soulful tracks. Producer Sounwave’s warm grooves include samples from Boom Clap Bachelors’ “Tiden Flyver,” a canvas on which Lamar raps about scarring changes in his life. Remixes and alternate versions with Emeli Sandé, Jay-Z, and surprisingly, Lady Gaga abound, but the album edition with frequent collaborator Anna Wise on vocals is arguably the best. —M.R.

“All my life, I want money power,” Kendrick Lamar repeats on the chorus of this good kid, m.A.A.d city highlight. “Respect my mind or die from lead shower.” Hit-Boy’s beat, originally made for Ciara, offers Kendrick a wealth of tools. As one of the most dexterous vocalists in rap history, the almost freewheeling melody lets him run loose, experimenting with a dazzling variety of tempos and vocal registers, making for his most purely exciting verse yet. In interviews, Kendrick has said that the verse was modeled from the cadences of Eminem. Kendrick sounds like only he can, though, and this track is dazzling. —J.B.

Listen to the way Lamar Kendrick raps “Ya bish” on his 2012 single “Money Trees.” It’s a syrupy, effortless drawl that lives on as one of the most enduring turns-of-phrases in modern pop culture. He’s rapping over a warped sample of Beach House’s dreamy indie-rock hit “Silver Soul,” courtesy of producer DJ Dahi. And the song, a benchmark for Lamar as a songwriter, finds him at his sharpest. The “Money Trees” in question are the trappings of success, and in what remains the best execution of his career, he confronts the demons that linger beneath ambition, and how the cost attached to reaching the top never seems quite worth it in the end. He measures his elevated skill without compromising any depth. It turns out that Lamar thrives in dichotomies, in the space between two poles — in the real world. —M.P.

The death blow of the Kendrick-Drake feud was also the most decisive victory in the entire history of hip-hop beef. “Not Like Us” not only irrevocably damaged the reputation hip-hop’s all-time biggest hitmaker, it did it while wop-wop-wopping its way up to Number One on the pop charts. Buoyed by that infectious DJ Mustard sproing, “certified boogeyman” Lamar selects the nuclear option, calling Drake a sex offender in half a dozen ways, dismantling his crewmates member-by-member and laying out a treatise on why the Canadian rapper is a “colonizer” of the American South. The fallout was so brutal that Drake pursued legal action against Universal Music Group. Amidst all this, the song won five Grammys, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year.–C.W.

Shortly after its release, “Alright” became an anthem for the emerging Black Lives Matter movement, chanted at marches and protests. But to call this the “new civil rights anthem” only gets at part of its greatness. The brilliance of Kendrick is in his obliqueness. So why did this one resonate? “Alright” is what the movement looks and sounds like. Pharrell’s hook is not lofty — it doesn’t conjure up the divine, per se. It’s just a hands-on-your-shoulders-to-straighten-you-out affirmation. Fatigued from murder after senseless murder, Kendrick gave us all a triumphant moment to breathe easier. —W.D.