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Kendrick Lamar may be hip-hop’s self-proclaimed good kid, but he is a bad man on the mic. While fans still await K-Dot’s short film, which is based on his gold-selling debut album, the Dr. Dre protégé blessed us with the music video for his “Backseat Freestyle” track on Wednesday night.

The four-minute, 45-second black-and-white clip starts off in Paris, where Kendrick sets up shop with an American flag-laced podium in front of the Eiffel Tower where he will later deliver his fiery rhymes, but before the MC drops his verse he is back in his native Compton, California. “All my life I want money and power/ Respect my mind or die from lead showers,” he spits from inside his home, while waving his hands in the air wearing a black L.A. cap and matching Los Angeles Kings hockey jersey.

The video, which Kendrick directed himself alongside Dave Free and Jerome D., gives fans a glimpse of the characters that they’ve grown familiar with listening to the tightly weaved narrative on good kid, m.A.A.d city. First there is K-Dot’s dad, who sits smoking a joint while badgering his son for his misplaced domino set. Then there is the rapper’s mom, who teases her Chicago-born husband for wearing a Compton hat.

Lastly there is Sherane, Lamar’s good kid seductress who serves as a catalyst for the drama on the album. She doesn’t say a word in the video, instead she dances seductively, shaking her barely covered rear while Kendrick’s old school car sits as a prop.

“Backseat” doesn’t do much to unravel the coming-of-age tale that Kendrick presented on his debut, but instead stands as a visual preview of what’s to come from the cinematic LP. Not only does K-Dot promise a vid for his “Poetic Justice” single (a video he hopes to get Janet Jackson to appear in), he also is prepping a film version of the album. “We actually started the visuals for this whole project,” he told MTV News in December. “I called it a short film before I even started the actual foundation of the music.”

What do you think of Kendrick Lamar’s “Backseat Freestyle” video? Let us know in the comments!

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