Kendrick Lamar

Kendrick Lamar Duckworth (born June 17, 1987) is an American rapper, songwriter and record producer. Since his mainstream debut in 2012 with Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, Lamar has been regarded as one of the most influential rappers of his generation and is regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time. Aside from his solo career, he is also known as a member of the hip hop supergroup Black Hippy alongside his Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) label-mates Ab-Soul, Jay Rock, and Schoolboy Q.

Youth and early career

In 1996, at the age of eight, he witnessed the filming of a music video for 2Pac and Dr. Dre "California Love", which later served as one of the main reasons to get into hip-hop music. As a teenager, he attended Centennial High School, where he was an honors student.

The boy got his name in honor of the vocalist of the band "The Tempation" Eddie Kendricks. When Kendrick grew up, he went to study at Centennial High School. By the way, popular rapper Dr. Dre. it was his creation of the future for the boy's future.

Kendrick Lamar Duckworth was brought up in a large family in a rather disadvantaged area. He first witnessed a murder when he was 5 years old. A young drug dealer shot a guy near the Lamar family home.

During 2006 and 2007, Kendrick performed side by side with fellow rising West Coast stars Jay Rock and Ya Boy as the opening act for The Game. Under the name K-Dot, Lamar collaborates with The Game on "The Cypha" and "Cali Niggaz".

Raised in Compton, California, Lamar embarked on his musical career as a teenager under the stage name K.Dot, releasing a mixtape that garnered local attention and led to his signing with indie record label Top Dawg Entertainment.

He began to gain recognition in 2010 after his first retail release, Overly Dedicated. The following year, he independently released his first studio album, Section.80, which included his first single "HiiiPoWeR". By that time, he had amassed a large online following and collaborated with several prominent hip hop artists.

Good Kid, M.A.A.D City

In the winter of 2012, the track "Cartoon & Cereal" penetrates the network, which, according to Kendrick, was intended for his second album. A music video was later filmed for the song. Complex magazine ranked "Cartoon & Cereal" number two on its "Top 50 Songs of 2012" list. Lamar, along with ASAP Rocky and 2 Chainz, took part in the Club Paradise Tour, rapper Drake's tour.

Good Kid, M.A.A.D City was released on October 22, 2012. The album received excellent critical acclaim, peaking at number two on the Billboard 200. In addition, the album sold 240,000 copies in its first week of release. In the same year, Fuse TV listed the single "Backseat Freestyle" as one of the "Top 40 Songs of 2012". A few months later, the album was certified gold. Online magazine HipHopDX dubbed Lamar "MC of the Year". 9 months after release, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City reaches platinum certification. In August 2013, Lamar's guest verse on Big Sean's "Control" caused a huge buzz in the hip-hop industry. In the track "Control", Kendrick proclaims himself "King of New York", referring to Tupac Shakur and referring to himself as his spiritual son.

To Pimp a Butterfly

On March 15, 2015, the rapper released his long-awaited third album, To Pimp a Batterfly. This work by Kendrick was unanimously named the best album of the year by the Rolling Stones and The New York Times. In the same year, the 57th Grammy Awards ceremony took place, at which Lamar received 11 nominations. Only Michael Jackson received more than him at a time.

Also in 2015, the rapper starred in the video for Taylor Swift, with whom they recorded a joint composition "Bad Blood", and in the feature film "Straight from Compton" (in the Russian-speaking environment it was called "Voice of the Streets"), dedicated to the legendary group "N.W.A".

It's just that Kendrick Lamar isn't like everyone else. His 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly is arguably the most outlandish bestseller of recent years: take the track “For Free (Interlude),” in which Lamar reads at machine-gun speed to the accompaniment of a whimsical, avant-jazz sound collage. ; Of course, it was decided against all logic to release this composition as one of the singles - and of course, it hit the charts separately. So Kendrick showed that he does not care about format considerations and producer calculation. A little further on the album - in the final epic 12-minute track "Mortal Man" - a kind of sound hologram of Tupac Shakur, who was killed in 1996, appeared, with whom Lamar entered into a detailed dialogue. Legitimization of his own creativity through a staged conversation with the late classic is a dubious adventure, but Kendrick succeeded in this too: perhaps simply because he no longer needed any legitimization at that time.

And also because the final question of the composition "Mortal Man" (after a long monologue about the contents of the album, Lamar asks: "Well, what do you think about this, Pac?") Tupac's ghost leaves unanswered. Here's another impressive deception of listener expectations: hip-hop is no stranger to bragging, and Kendrick also fully wins back most of the boastful rap clichés in his songs. It seemed logical to take advantage of the appearance of Shakur, so that Lamar “went down to the grave to bless”, but this does not happen: Kendrick’s request hangs in the air, the album “To Pimp a Butterfly” ends with an indefinite ellipsis.

Further - more: for every yang, that is, a song with the expected self-confident boasting, there is a yin - a composition in which Lamar describes fear, confusion, confusion. The first single from "To Pimp a Butterfly" was the peppy, positive track "i" ("I love myself!" - the backing vocalists pulled, accompanied by a life-affirming sample from the Isley Brothers); inside the record, his evil double "u" was revealed - a five-minute desperate self-flagellation, in which the artist calls himself a "fucking loser." He does not hide his paranoid fears: he used to be afraid of death, lying in wait for anyone who lives in Compton and is probably in trouble with the law - Lamar twice felt the cold of a gun pressed to his temple; now worries that his rise will be accidental and short-lived, and with great difficulty agrees to buy a modest house in the eastern suburbs of Los Angeles - and even that one is more for his parents than for himself. What if the money runs out tomorrow? What if it was just a decade long dream - and tomorrow he will again find himself in Compton penniless?

DAMN

On April 14, 2017, the guy released his fourth album, DAMN. A new sound at the intersection of genres, a strong emphasis on evangelical themes, as well as the former frankness and raising acute social topics had an effect - the album shot. The participation of third-party artists, among which flashed Rihanna, Zacari and the band "U2", also contributed to the popularity of the compositions.

The track “Humble” became the leader of the hit parades and charts, for which a video was released on March 30, 2017, which is the quintessence of the album.

In early 2018, DAMN was voted Best Rap Album at the Grammy Awards.

Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers

Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers is the fifth studio album by American rapper Kendrick Lamar. It was released on May 13, 2022. This is his first album since the release of DAMN. in 2017. The record was released on PGLang, Lamar's newly formed label, and Top Dawg Entertainment, becoming the rapper's last release on it.

Personal life

The musician does not like to advertise his personal life, but still occasionally he appeared in public with a girl. Later, the media found out that her name was Whitney Alford.

In 2015, the rapper announced their engagement. Then he said that he studied at the same school with Whitney. Kendrick claims that Alford has been with him "from the start". And she gives him all kinds of support, without a girl, he would have given up long ago.

There is a stereotype that musicians who perform music in this genre are rather frivolous individuals. Hundreds of fans are constantly circling around them, some rappers change their life partners almost every month. But Lamar is not one of them. He is strikingly indifferent to other women. There is only room in his life for one, Whitney Alford. True, it is still unknown whether the wedding took place and whether the girl became his official wife. But anyway, they are happy together.

Despite the popularization of social networks, Kendrick prefers the good old live communication. But he did not manage to escape progress. So, after all, he has pages on Instagram and Twitter. True, according to Lamar, his agents are leading them for him. Plus, he admits that he is not at all friendly with gadgets, he constantly loses his mobile phone on tour.