Kendrick Lamar‘s good kid, m.A.A.d city continues to endure as it has hit yet another major chart milestone.
The Compton rapper’s major label debut album has now spent 600 consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 since its release in October 2012, Billboard reported on Monday (April 29).
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It is the first Hip Hop studio album to achieve this feat.
good kid, m.A.A.d city has also extended its lead as the longest running non-greatest hits Hip Hop album on the chart, ahead of Drake‘s Take Care, J. Cole‘s 2014 Forest Hills Drive and Kanye West‘s Graduation, among others.
Eminem‘s 2004 compilation Curtain Call: The Hits remains the longest charting Hip Hop project, period, having spent over 681 weeks and counting on the Billboard 200.
Overall, the album to have spent the most weeks on the Billboard 200 is Pink Floyd’s 1973 LP Dark Side of the Moon, which passed 1,000 weeks in September 2023.
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good kid, m.A.A.d city previously surpassed Eminem’s The Eminem Show in 2019 to become the longest charting studio album by a rapper on the chart.
Em himself praised the project, saying: “When I first heard Kendrick’s debut on Aftermath, I couldn’t believe it. The fact that it was his first real album and he was able to make it a story which intertwines with the skits like that was genius.”
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He added: “That hasn’t really been done that many times, let alone on someone’s first time up. The level of wordplay, the deliveries, the beats — it’s just a masterpiece.”
Released on October 22, 2012 via Top Dawg Entertainment, Interscope and Aftermath, good kid, m.A.A.d city made a huge splash upon its arrival and received large critical acclaim.
Home to hits like “Swimming Pools (Drank),” “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe” and “Backseat Freestyle,” the coming-of-age album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 after selling 242,000 copies in its first week.
It also yielded multiple nominations at the 2014 Grammy Awards, where it controversially lost out to Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ The Heist in the Best Rap Album category.
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Macklemore later infamously apologized to Lamar for winning the award over him.
On the 10th anniversary of good kid, m.A.A.d city, TDE president Terrence “Punch” Henderson revealed that Kendrick was still tinkering with the album at the last minute.
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He revealed on social media that K. Dot added the menacing hook on standout song “m.A.A.d city” just hours before the project was due to be submitted for completion.
“Man it’s so much to say about that album. We all put everything into it. GKMC was the start. We made our mark in Hip Hop and music in general with that album. I’m forever grateful to have played a part in it,” the record executive wrote.
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When a fan asked him about his favorite memory of making the album, Punch replied: “Can’t think of a favorite. But one memory is Kdot adding the hook part on madd city literally hours before mastering. I think he actually had to send the hook cause [MixedByAli] had left to get it mastered already. So that song was just one verse at first.”
