 Before the album's title was officially revealed, fans had already been calling Lamar's major label debut "Good Kid, Mad City" or "Good Kid in a Mad City", as it was a nickname Lamar had given himself.He had used the phrase in his lyrics as early as the 2009 "Kendrick Lamar" EP.When he announced the album's title and release date, Lamar indicated that the "correct" rendering of the title is lowercase except for the two vowels in ""m.A.A.d"".