Kendrick Lamar's first-ever mixtape, released when the rapper was 16, has surfaced via The Masked Gorilla. In a 2011 interview with TDK, Lamar said of the tape: "My first mixtape, I was 16 and it was called Y.H.N.I.C., Youngest Head Nigga In Charge. Kind of ignorant, right? We put it out on a local scale in Compton and built a buzz in the city and eventually got to this guy named Top Dawg, he had his own independent label and I’ve been with them since." Download and stream Y.H.N.I.C below, with with verses over 2003 standards like Snoop's "Drop It Like It's Hot." For more about Lamar's relationship with Top Dawg, read FADER's 2012 Black Hippy cover story. Wonder if anyone still uses the holdeeez@yahoo.com address listed on the tape's art.
Download: Kendrick Lamar, Y.H.N.I.C