The Art of Peer Pressure

The song where the album’s narrative truly begins to set itself in motion, Kendrick takes you through a vivid story of how he learned ‘Peer Pressure’ the hard way.

This samples the song “Helt Alene” by the Danish group Suspekt.

The fact that their mission is to complete a robbery without getting caught is really bad. Kendrick thinks that he should never have to be in the position to have to complete this sort of mission, although he’s influenced by his peers to think that this sort of “mission” is necessary when you’re a teenage boy in Compton. Kendrick now sees how unnecessary this was, and how he fell into the traps of peer pressure, as opposed to staying strong and not follow through with these “missions”.

The title of the song is a play on the title of the popular treatise by Sun Tzu titled "The Art of War". A lot of this album is a study of human conflict and the nature of violence.

Lamar told Complex in October 2012:

"'That’s probably one of the first records I recorded for this album. Immediately when I heard the beat, I just want to take people on that ride, on that journey. It’s about being a teenager from L.A. and being influenced by your peers and who you’re hanging out with. I had a father in my life. That’s a big part of my life. I had respect for him. He wasn’t right there, he couldn’t be there all the time, and he wasn’t no perfect person. But at the same time, he had much love for me. He made sure I had a better life. He made sure I found that life through music.'"