10 Songs That Were Painful To Make
9. U - Kendrick Lamar
Most artists don't have the courage to really reach any farther within themselves after coming out with an album like Good Kid Maad City.
Much like the short film narrative that it accompanied, Kendrick Lamar really poured his soul into Good Kid, with everyone in Compton being given their just due along with this wise-cracking punk with a pen. Though To Pimp a Butterfly managed to go for the chest even more, many people probably weren't ready to hear something like U play out.
Towards the meat of the album, this song really feels like one of the more emotional songs that Kendrick would ever write, as he talks about the struggle and the sense of survivor's guilt that he has for staying famous after all these years. Halfway through the track, we even get Lamar going on a tangent, on the verge of a mental breakdown as he's drinking in between his verses.
As much as he's really laying into this person, it's hard when you realize he's pointing the finger at himself half the time, detailing all of the faults that he's had and how he should have been killed a long time before this.
Even if an album like Damn was supposed to be the warts-and-all Kendrick that he wanted to show, there's still nothing as close to the bone as this song is.