Kendrick Lamar - The Hub-City Threat: Minor of the Year (Y.N.I.C.) (2004)

Now THAT'S an album cover!.. Or lack of!

K. Dot, or as he'd become better known as, Kendrick Lamar's debut mixtape, released at the age of 16 just ain't that well known, and there's a good reason for it: This doesn't really sound too much like Kendrick's typical style that he'd become famous for, and more like Lil' Wayne worship at its finest, or rather.. Bite-est? I don't know, you try writing a better way to describe that he sounds like a Lil' Wayne stan.

Some of the lines are clever, I gotta give him that, because I'm pretty sure every hip-hop fan at the age of 16 wanted to do a mixtape, probably in some shitty horrorcore style inspired by Eminem, but thankfully, Kendrick avoided that shit, despite being an Eminem fan. At one point in "Hovi Song", he makes reference to Jay-Z retiring, which humorously dates this album a fair bit, but in an entertaining way.

The production consists of beats of popular songs at the time, like "Go DJ" by Lil' Wayne (go figure that he'd rap over a Wayne beat), and "Drop It Like It's Hot" by Snoop Dogg and Pharrell Williams, but at no point did I feel that Kendrick out-did any of the originals by making any of the songs his own.

His DJ on this album, DJ Dave, could he be the same Dave he raps about on some of the tracks on "Good Kid, M.A.A.D City"? Interesting note to ponder while looking for a better album to spend 40 minutes listening to.

5/10 ________________________________________________________
Feel free to check out this mixtape for FREE on DatPiff!