Songfacts®:

• Despite being mentored by Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar stays away from weed and alcohol. In "Swimming Pools (Drank)," he explains why.
  
  The song plays out with the voice of temptation trying to lead him down to the bottom of the metaphorical swimming pool filled with liquor, which he resists because he's seen what alcoholism does to people. Kendrick is determined stay focused and avoid becoming a cliché - just another West Coast rapper obsessed with getting drunk and high. He's determined to succeed as his true self, and that means sobriety.
• Lamar spits his rhymes over a minimalist T-Minus beat. The Canadian producer is best known for the soundscapes he's provided for a number of Drake's musings, including his hit single "Make Me Proud."
• Lamar performed this song along with "Poetic Justice" on the January 26, 2013 episode of Saturday Night Live.
• Kendrick Lamar quit drinking and smoking weed when he was 16 or 17. He recounts his reasons for his abstinence in this song:
  
  You're like me, making excuse that your relief
  Is in the bottom of the bottle and the greenest indo leaf
  
  Lamar explained to Billboard magazine: "Teenagers don't get it - we selfish. Go drink, go smoke, go get f---ed up. Why did I do these things? Because I was brought up around it? It damn sure was in the household. I said, 'I know what happens to my family and certain friends when they get drunk and they smoke. They get out of their minds, they get violent. And that's in my blood.'"
  
  "I have little sips on special occasions," Lamar added, "but getting all the way out of my mind may not be a good idea."
• "Swimming Pools (Drank)" was the second single from Lamar's major-label debut album, Good Kid, Mad City, following "The Recipe," a song where he and Dr. Dre rap about "women, weed and weather." That's one of the few songs where Lamar makes marijuana the subject matter of a lyric, but it's more about presenting him as a West Coast guy associated with Dre.
  
  The album got lots of attention and put Kendrick Lamar into the conversation of best up-and-coming rappers. He lived up to the hype, establishing himself as an A-lister over the next decade.