 Good Kid , M.A.A.D City has a low @-@ key , downbeat production , with atmospheric beats and subtle , indistinct hooks . It eschews contemporary hip hop tastes and generally features tight bass measures , subtle background vocals , and light piano . Writers draw comparisons of the music to Outkast 's 1998 album Aquemini . Andrew Nosnitsky of Spin cites the music 's " closest point of reference " as " the cold spaciousness of ATLiens @-@ era Outkast , but as the record progresses , that sound sinks slowly into the fusionist mud of those sprawling and solemn mid @-@ 2000s Roots albums . " Sasha Frere @-@ Jones of The New Yorker finds its use of " smooth " music as a backdrop for " rough " scenarios to be analogous to Dr. Dre 's G @-@ funk during the early 1990s , but adds that " Lamar often sounds like Drake ... whose various dreamy styles have very little to do with the legacy of the West . " Okayplayer 's Marcus Moore writes that its " expansive and brooding " instrumentals eschew " California 's glossy West Coast funk " for a " Dungeon Family aesthetic . " 
