DrunkerThanAMotherfucker
All Star
The last triumph of the prodigious talent T-Minus.. The introduction via the masses to the Kendrick Lamar. Aftermath/Interscope was playing with house money with Kendrick's debut single. The lyrical message was going to fall on deaf ears, but who cared at the time? GKMC was going to be a smash regardless off the strength of its lead single, but the clever brilliance of Swimming Pools cannot be understated enough. An expansive, hard-hitting beat coupled with one of the most quotable hooks in modern rap history. It was innovative enough to keep the backpackers energized, deep enough to keep the nerds and intellectuals stimulated, and bass-heavy to the point where it still transforms a casual party into an all-out blackout session.
It didn't dominate the charts, but five years later and it's still a song kept in rotation. Where would Kendrick Lamar be without the crossover appeal Swimming Pools attained? To stay true to his roots and provide the short entertainment this generation desires was incredible. It certainly wasn't his best work (certainly not against Alright or How Much a Dollar Cost) but it did in a way provide a prologue of what Kendrick's commercial career was going to look like.
