Cultural barometer, lyrical innovator, genre elevator. Compton-born Kendrick is, without question, the greatest rapper of all time. Over the past fifteen years, each successive album release has broken new ground.

His music has influenced me deeply, soundtracking much of my life. I know his work inside out, yet each relistening gifts new interpretations and unnoticed lyrics. His albums are peerlessly rich, layered and textured. Naturally, I feel compelled to rank them.

Tyler the Creator once said: ‘Fuck your ‘these are objectively the best albums of all time’ takes. It is subjectivity that makes rankings and GOAT debates interesting, not some appeal to ill-defined objectivity. This list adheres to that very principle.

No doubt many Kendrick fans will deem this list sacrilegious. I don’t mind. After all, they’re wrong.

…

1. good kid, m.A.A.d city (2012)

An immovable object – Compton, rife with drugs, girls, gang violence, addiction, and guns – collides with an unstoppable force: teenage Kendrick, a good kid, riding around with his boys in a van. Themes of peer pressure and coming-of-age run deep, punctuated by powerful maternal voices that symbolise the push of family against the pull of the streets.

The sun-squashed buttery chill of Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe and Money Trees evoke an L.A of souped-up coups and palm trees. Sherane and Poetic Justice capture lusty, adolescent infatuation – the former, queasy and uneasy; the latter, seductive assuredness.

Threat hums through Good Kid and m.A.A.d city, epitomising the feeling of being far out of your depth. Backseat Freestyle and The Art of Peer Pressure send one rushing back to the euphorically terrifying throes of being fifteen, caught between camaraderie and consequence.

 More fundamentally, every single is intensely listenable. Making such emotionally explorative material commercially viable, whilst not compromising artistic integrity, is nothing short of genius. Turning a song about alcoholism into a hugely popular drinking song – Swimming Pools – exemplifies this. He does similar on every track throughout. The bonus track Now or Never, is one of my favourites ever.

From the bars up to the verses; the verses up to the songs; the songs up to the album – this is a work of art that succeeds on every single level.

…

2. Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers (2022)

Following a five-year hiatus after the commercially groundbreaking and Pulitzer Prize winning DAMN., Kendrick returned with an unprecedently introspective cut.

Guided by his fiancée Whitney and spiritual mentor Eckhart Tolle, he excavates generational trauma, cycles of abuse, rejections of woke narratives, self-condemnation, and judgment of those around him. The album swings between bravado and machismo, repeatedly crumbling into broken regret then rising phoenix-like from the ashes.

There is a circularity, a mirroring, that flows through the entire album. Baby Keem and Kodak Black feature heavily, folding forward into spoken-word explorations of their own formative experiences. There’s an intentional imperfection to this album, a rawness that enhances rather than detracts. Almost as if the vulnerability spills over into the final form.

Sonically, it’s not Kendrick’s strongest, and few songs stand alone, but as a collective experience, it’s magnificent. Courageous, unique, perspective-shifting and utterly essential.

…

3. GNX (2024)

Following his utter dismantling of Drake and the Grammy-winning, Billboard-shattering Not Like Us’, Kendrick dropped GNX, his sixth studio album, with no warning.

This is Kendrick at his most mature and vociferous – completely in control of his craft whilst still flowing with wild glee. hey now, tv off, peekaboo and gnx are just so much fun. man at the garden, reincarnated and wacced out murals are perceptive and challenging. No one tells stories with the ease and fluidity of Kendrick

There’s an old clip of Kendrick with Nardwuar where he seems insecure, mocking the childlike host for a cheap laugh. I always cringed at it—seeing someone I admire fall short of kindness. But it feels like the self-work he did on Mr. Morale has shed that old skin. Here, on GNX, he is arrogant and big stepping, but with an authentic self-assurance perhaps not seen on his earlier projects.

He’s funny, sharp, self-aware, and so clearly enjoying the place he has emerged at in the culture. I cannot wait to see what he has in store for tonight’s Super Bowl LIX performance. The GOAT, truly at the top of his game.

…

4. To Pimp A Butterfly (2015)

Disclaimer: Technically, philosophically and lyrically, I think this is Kendrick’s best album. Every song contributes to a singular vision—angry, historical, methodical. The production is sublime. Thundercat’s presence, delightful.

And yet, I cannot shake a simple truth: I don’t love it as much as I want to.

My favorite Kendrick is him out of control, tapping into an unconscious, uninhibited state—like his Mona Lisa feature with Lil Wayne. There’s a sense of control here that I don’t find in his other projects. To Pimp A Butterfly feels too manicured, too polished.

…

5. DAMN. (2017)

A hit-heavy, electric, wildly entertaining album. The storytelling on FEAR. and DUCKWORTH. is as good as it gets. They’re two of my favourite Kendrick songs.

The album also delivers some of his most instantly infectious bangers since good kid, m.A.A.d city—DNA and HUMBLE are endlessly energizing. His portrayal of a post-2016-election America is both thrilling and enthralling.

But there are some songs I feel underwhelm (notably LOVE. and PRIDE.), and as an album, a project to be taken as a complete feeling, it lacks the cohesive grit of his other work. The COLLECTORS EDITION (which reverses the track order) is undoubtedly the better way to listen, but even that doesn’t elevate it to the heights of his other work.

…

6. Section.80 (2011)

The first time Kendrick really showed the world his brain’s magic, and his tongue’s ability to spin it. Rigormortus sounds like gasoline. Chapter Six is a lullaby for those cruising around with a head full of weed. ADHD is intensely likeable, whilst Ronald Regan Era and Poe Mans Dreams hint at the commentarial mastery he would soon realise.

…

Kendrick Lamar’s discography is unparalleled. And his willingness to bare his soul, for both cultural and personal healing, is something I’ll always find inspiration in.

Regardless of ranking, one thing is clear: he’s the greatest to ever do it.