The album's first single, "The Recipe", was released on April 3, 2012. The song features his mentor, record producer and fellow rapper Dr. Dre and was produced by Scoop DeVille. It peaked at number 38 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and at number 3 on Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles. Kendrick shot a video for it featuring Dr. Dre at a mansion in Los Angeles in May 2012. He also claimed the video will have a feel of 2Pac's California Love clip.[36] The album's second single "Swimming Pools (Drank)" was released on July 31, 2012, as a digital download, while the music video premiered on August 3, 2012 on 106 & Park. The album version of the single is present on track 9, while the single version is available as track 17 when purchasing the Deluxe Edition on iTunes.[37]
In the week of the album's release, "Backseat Freestyle" debuted on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart at number 106.[38] It was later announced to be released as the third single in the United Kingdom on January 7, 2013.[39] The music video was released on January 2, 2013.[40] Lamar's father appears in the video.[41] "Poetic Justice" was released third single in North America, featuring Drake and production from Scoop DeVille. Before released as single, the song debuted at number 76 on Billboard Hot 100 the week of the albums release.[42] The song began to impact American rhythmic contemporary radio on January 15, 2013.[43] The song has since peaked at #26 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The week of the albums release the song "Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe" debuted at #93 on the Billboard Hot 100. On March 9, 2013 Kendrick told Rap-Up that his next single off the album would probably be "Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe".[44] On March 13, 2013 Jay-Z's engineer Young Guru premiered a snippet of the official remix of "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe" which features Jay-Z.[45] He called it an accomplishment to have a song with Jay-Z featured on it.[46] Shortly after the remix premiered he would confirm that, "Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe" would be the next single.[47] The full version of the remix was premiered by Funkmaster Flex on March 17, 2013.[48] The remix was added onto the iTunes Bonus tracklist on March 19, 2013. The remix was released as the albums fourth single to Rhythmic contemporary radio on April 9, 2013.[49] The song has since peaked at #32 on the Billboard Hot 100.