 David Amidon of "PopMatters" views that the album provides a "sort of semi-autobiographical character arc", while "MSN Music"s Robert Christgau writes that Lamar "softspokenly" enacts a "rap-versus-real dichotomy".The album features naturalistic, vérité-like skits that dramatize the characters' limitations.Jon Caramanica of "The New York Times" finds them to be a part of the album's "narrative strategy", with "prayers and conversations and different voices and recollections and interludes, all in service of one overarching story