So the story behind this post begins with me listening to Kendrick Lamar’s Tim Westwood freestyle. I like listening to that particular freestyle because the beat is so chill. His lyrics also entrap the listeners’ ear straight out the gate. It’s like he silently says “come here and let me tell you a story”. I’ve listened to this joint so many times that in my mind it’s a separate entity and I didn’t want to associate any of the lyrics to any particular songs. Well I knew that the second verse that he spit came from M.a.a.d. City. After a while the lyrics to the first verse started playing over and over in my head and I knew that I had to find out what song he used them in. It’s funny because a lot of rapper nowadays don’t spit off the top, which I’m glad they don’t because they genuinely suck at it, but I have a feeling that rappers back in the day spat some written rhymes too its just the song that the rhyme came from wasn’t as readily available as it would be now.

Anyways before I went on a wild goose chase, I always scroll down the comments section to see if anyone had what I was looking for and what do you know some already answered my lingering question. It seems that the first verse that he sung in the freestyle came from this song…
County Building Blues (off of Good Kid M.a.a.d. City Target Bonus)

I almost missed out on this wonderful song. The beat is just right for this joint. I like the harmonizing that he did on the chorus. In the first verse he reminisces about seeing Dr. Dre & Pac and falls into what him and family were going through at the time. I love his flow in this song. The second verse is the verse that he used in the freestyle but what you instantly notice is that the flow is very different. I enjoy hearing how he describes his experience during the riots and sharing what his father told him at the time. It takes a truly talented artist to spit the same verse in two different flows and make that same verse sound extremely strong in both instances. I’m glad that someone commented with the song title on youtube and that I took the time to look up the song. Hope you enjoyed it if you’ve never heard it as well. It might be worth it next time to check out the bonuses on those Target/Best Buy edition albums, I always associate them with Japanese/UK Versions lol.