Track listing:
- Sherane a.k.a Master Splinter’s Daughter
- woman Don’t Kill My Vibe
- Backseat Freestyle
- Art of Peer Pressure
- Money Trees
- Poetic Justice
- Good Kid
- M.A.A.D. City
- Swimming Pools
- Sing About Me, Dying of Thirst
- Real
- Compton
PLOT:
- Kendrick meets a girl, Sherane, at a house party over the summer. He continues to stay in touch with her and they start a fling even though her family and close friends are known to be dangerous. At the end of track #1, he drives over to Sherane's house after borrowing his mom's van but gets jumped by two guys. Kendrick's mom calls him to bring the van back but she only gets his voicemail ("Sherane").
- In the early afternoon, Kendrick drives his mom's van to go and hang out with his friends - he dumps the van and they cruise around LA during the day, hassling people and rapping to beat CDs ("woman Don't Kill My Vibe", "Backseat Freestyle").
- As evening comes around, the boys stage a home invasion robbery and almost get caught. After getting away from the cops, Kendrick's friends drop him back off at his mom’s van so he can go meet up with Sherane again. His friends make plans to meet up again later that night. ("Art of Peer Pressure")
- We get an explanation for the financial motives behind the robbery ("Money Trees") and then we go back to the start of the day, just after Kendrick has been jumped. ("Sherane", "Poetic Justice")
- After getting jumped and taking part in a robbery in the same day, he realises he's probably not equipped to deal with the dangerous situation he's found himself in. He ends up getting roughed up by the police who think he's affiliated with a gang ("good kid"). He's paranoid that people know about him and are out to get him ("m.A.A.d. city")
- Later that night, Kendrick links up with his friends again and they decide to show Kendrick the benefits of drinking his problems away ("Swimming Pools"), but then they see the guys that jumped Kendrick and shoot at them (end of "Swimming Pools").
- During the exchange of fire, Kendrick’s friend Dave is shot and killed ("Swimming Pools"). Afterwards, Dave's brother and Kendrick talk about Dave, as well as Dave's sister - Kendrick then raps about Dave and his sister ("Sing about me, dying of thirst")
- Angry and desperate after what's happened, Dave's brother wants to get revenge on the people who killed Dave, but Kendrick and his friends get guidance from an older woman in their community who sees blood on their shirts and shows them the need for religion ("Sing about me, dying of thirst")
- Kendrick’s dad calls him and leaves another voicemail, giving condolences for his friend being killed, but saying that they shouldn’t retaliate and that they should instead focus on family and god.
- Kendrick’s mom calls again about the van, which still hasn’t been returned, and says she thinks it was a good idea that Kendrick and his friends prayed. She also says that Top Dog Entertainment wants Kendrick to stop by the studio and reminds Kendrick to take music seriously. ("Real")
- Then we hear from Kendrick years later, who tells us that he made it out ("Compton"). Then we hear one more voicemail from Kendrick’s mom, which is from the beginning of the story, asking him to just bring the van back.
