Photo: Top Dawg Entertainment
Kendrick Lamar reached an important milestone in his music career on this day 13 years ago.
On July 2, 2011, Kendrick Lamar released his first studio album Section.80 via Top Dawg Entertainment. It was the first time he dropped a project under his birth name after he used his former stage name "K.Dot" on four previous mixtapes. The Compton native worked on the album for nearly a year following the release of his popular mixtape Overly Dedicated. In the months leading up to the album's release, Lamar lured in fans with his lead single "HiiiPoWeR" produced by J. Cole.
"It feels good to know that I went in with a concept in mind to talk about my generation and that everybody caught on to it so fast and understood where I was coming from," Lamar told Billboard after the album dropped. "The fact some have crowned it as one of the best albums so far is great. It’s not the fact that they gave me the recognition, but that they understand Section.80. There’s a message in there for my generation. They got it and fast!"
Section.80 holds other fan favorites like "A.D.H.D", "Rigamortis" and "Hol' Up." Kendrick collaborated with Missy Elliott and Timbaland, who co-wrote "Blow My High (Members Only)," along with GLC, Ashtrobot, and BJ the Chicago Kid. He also had his Black Hippy brothers ScHoolboy Q and Ab-Soul hop on the project. Q throws down on "The Spiteful Chant" produced by Sounwave and Dot's business partner Dave Free while Soulo contributed his own outro.
Revisit Kendrick Lamar's debut album below.
WARNING: EXPLICIT LANGUAGE