Kendrick Lamar, on the eve of releasing his eagerly-anticipated debut studio LP, good kid, m.A.A.d city dropping, is well aware of the pressure that surrounds him. “The Heart Pt. 3 (Will You Let It Die)” starts off with a recognition that he has already been dubbed the next Tupac, a title that comes with very high expectations. But as he takes us through his own personal hip-hop scrapbook, citing the days of listening to DMX’s It’s Dark and Hell is Hot or pretending to be “Jay and Dame” in his garage, you realize how powerful an admission it is when he states his “biggest fear is not feeling accomplished.”

Word around the rumor mill is that he recorded this track with fellow Black Hippies Jay-Rock and Ab-Soul over the weekend in Vegas, and it does a great job capturing the honest mix of anxiety and excitement that is sure to be swilling around inside of him. This sort of intellectual self-awareness is a staple of South Central’s favorite son, and this latest entry in a series of songs that dates back to 2010 has my appetite whetted for an album that is already being labeled “a classic in the making.”

MP3: Kendrick Lamar – “The Heart Pt. 3 (Will You Let It Die)”