Kendrick Lamar
Kendrick Lamar Duckworth was born in Compton, California to parents who had moved from Chicago. Growing up amid gang violence and poverty, he witnessed both the beauty and brutality of his neighborhood — themes that would fuel his art.
His major label debut, good kid, m.A.A.d city (2012), was a cinematic autobiography of growing up in Compton that was hailed as a masterpiece. To Pimp a Butterfly (2015) wove jazz, funk, spoken word, and rap into a meditation on race, identity, and Black life in America that critics compared to the work of James Baldwin and Toni Morrison.
In 2018, Lamar became the first rapper to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his album DAMN. He curated and produced the soundtrack to Black Panther, and his 2022 album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers explored therapy, generational trauma, and accountability. He is widely regarded as the most important rapper of his generation and one of the greatest lyricists in the history of music.
"I got a greater purpose. God put something in my heart to get across, and that's what I'm going to focus on."— Kendrick Lamar
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