Double Elvis.

Disgraceland is a production about a good kid, a story about a mad city, about Compton, about chaos, about drive-bys, missed funerals, red hats, blue laces, blacked-out impalas,

and the devil on both shoulders. This is a story about hip-hop, and about the rapper who didn't

just survive it. He saw through it. He told the truth, and somehow he lived.

This is a story, though, about violence and about trauma and about the long, slow, brutal

climb toward mercy.

Mercy for yourself, for your city, for the people who nearly killed you and the ones who

still might.

This is a story about Kendrick Lamar, a man who makes great music.

Unlike that music, I played for you at the top of the show.

That wasn't great music.

That was a preset loop from my Melotron called Northern Exposure MK2.

I played you that loop because I can't afford the rights to One More Night by Maroon 5.

And why would I play you that specific slice of,

oh man, who gives a shit?

Cheese, could I afford it?

Because that was the number one song in America

on October 22nd, 2012.

And that was the day Kendrick Lamar released Good Kid, Mad City,

and changed the rap game forever.

On this episode, Setups, The Streets, Near Trauma, More Mercy, and Kendrick Lamar.

I'm Jake Brennan, and this is disgraceland. There were just kids, really, barely old enough to be able to live on their own, to make their own mistakes, but wise enough to know that change didn't happen overnight.

...