| Cartoon & Cereal | |
| Cover: | Cartoon and Cereal.jpg |
| Type: | song |
| Artist: | Kendrick Lamar featuring Gunplay |
| Recorded: | 2012 |
| Studio: | TDE Red Room (Carson) |
| Genre: | Progressive rap[1] |
| Length: | 6:49 |
| Label: | Top Dawg Entertainment |
| Producer: | THC |
"Cartoon & Cereal" is a song by American rapper and songwriter Kendrick Lamar, released for digital download on February 14, 2012. Collaborating with Florida-based rapper Gunplay, Lamar originally intended to include the song on his major-label debut album, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, but was discarded due to sampling issues and the track being leaked online beforehand.[2]
Jack Law, writing for Fact magazine, described experimentation that Lamar demonstrated on his album Section.80, released a year prior: "Kendrick's verse is predictably tricky to penetrate, full of multi-layered imagery and word-play, and will doubtless reward further study".[3] Law further emphasized the unexpected collaboration between Lamar and Gunplay - a collaboration with an avant-garde musician and a "street" rapper.[3] On Pitchfork, Jordan Sargent referred to "Cartoons & Cereal" as the work of two artists who "have an anti-social streak that runs through their music".[4]
"Cartoon & Cereal" is one of Lamar's most popular songs; Complex magazine, which listed it as the second best song of 2012, wrote "the best song ['Cartoon & Cereal'] that Kendrick Lamar released this year didn't even make the album [''Good Kid, M.A.A.D City'']".[5] Music critic Niyah Nel reflected: "the 'inner voice' like approach on 'Cartoons & Cereal' made just the right impact to lead fans into wondering what to expect from his debut album, and it definitely boosted his ranking as an unmatched lyricist".[6]