Skip to content
News

Kendrick Lamar: ‘m.A.A.d.’ Stands For ‘Me, an Angel on Angel Dust’

Kendrick Lamar m.A.A.d. Stands For

Kendrick Lamar has at last revealed the meaning of the acronym in the title of his just-leaked new album, good kid, m.A.A.d. city. In an interview with Los Angeles Leakers, the Compton’s rising rap savior broke it down: “It’s two meanings. The first one is, ‘my angry adolescence divided,’ and the basic standout meaning is ‘my angel’s on angel dust.'”

While the first seems self-explanatory, the second required a little more exposition: “That’s the reason I don’t smoke,” Lamar said. One of the hosts responded, “So you knew somebody [who accidentally smoked] angel dust?” The MC replied, “No, that was me … it’s on that album. It’s in the story. It was me getting my hands on the wrong thing at the wrong time, being oblivious to it.”

And sure enough, on the song “m.A.A.d. city,” Kendrick rhymes about mistakenly smoking weed mixed with an additional substance: “Cocaine laced in marijuana, and they wonder why I rarely smoke now / Imagine if your first blunt had you foaming at the mouth / … / I live inside the belly of the rough, Compton, U.S.A. made me an angel on angel dust.”

It’s worth noting that “angel dust” is usually PCP, and that he kinda sorta misquoted his own album, but as MC Eiht handily explains on the same song: “Cocaine, weed — niggas’ been mixing shit since the ’80s, loc / Shine sticks, buck nakeds — make a nigga flip.” Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his nightmare drug trip.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=DCAV6tonYh0%3Frel%3D0