On September 4, 2010, Lamar unveiled thecover art forOverly Dedicated, which was designed by Hassana Lynne andDave Free.[3] On September 14, 2010, themusic video for "P&P 1.5", a song taken from theKendrick Lamar EP, featuring hisBlack Hippy cohort Ab-Soul, was released.[4] On September 14, Lamar also releasedOverly Dedicated to digital retailers under Top Dawg Entertainment, the label that signed Lamar after he released his first mixtape, when he was 17.[5] On September 23, it was released for free download online.[6]
Overly Dedicated includes a song titled "Ignorance Is Bliss", in which Lamar glorifiesgangsta rap andstreet crime, but ends each verse with "ignorance is bliss," giving the message "we know not what we do."[7] It was this song specifically that made fellow West Coast rapper and legendary hip hop producerDr. Dre want to work with Lamar, after watching the song's music video onYouTube.[8] This led to Lamar working with Dr. Dre andSnoop Dogg on Dre'sDetox album and him considering signing to Dre's label,Aftermath Entertainment.[9][10][11] On the topic of the project's genre, Lamar called it "human music."[12]
Writing forVice,Robert Christgau gaveOverly Dedicated an "A−" and found it to be as good as Lamar's first official albumSection.80 (2011): "Only three classics: the besotted "Alien Girl," the merely sexed-up "P&P 1.5," and "Average Joe," a position paper for the gangsta realism to follow. But the manycameos document a party-crashing crew utterly delighted by how good they are at this shit. There’s a sense of fun and antic possibility here Lamar abjured on his road to iconicity. Inpop music, that’s a spiritual resource there’s never enough of."[15] Mikey McCray ofCreative Loafing wrote: "Compton, Calif. emcee takes his place among the best of the new West," however also wrote: "A couple tracks felt out of place. 'Michael Jordan' had aWeezy flow andJeezybeat but the weakchorus was far from aMJfadeaway. Don't know who was imitatingBilal on the 'ROTC (Interlude)' but they killed an otherwise stellar track with a cover fail ofCommon's 'The Light.'"[16]
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