If you don’t know who Kendrick Lamar is, he is a 34 year old African American artist, producer, and rapper. While most rappers now have become more mainstream and more easy to make and produce, Kendrick only lets his artistic genius mold his music. His first critically acclaimed album “good kid, m.A.A.d city” released in 2012, details the struggles as a young African American kid living in Compton, referred to as “m.A.A.d city”. While most rappers would rap about their violence and drugs in the city, Kendrick raps more about the struggles and the fond memories of him and his friends trying to make the most of their situation. Some amazing tracks include “m.A.A.d city”, “Money Trees”, “Poetic Justice”, “Good Kid”, “The Art of Peer Pressure” and many more.
This album was crucial in propelling Kendrick’s (then known by his pseudonym K.Dot) career, selling 242,000 copies in the first week of its release. Three years later in 2015, Kendrick released what most consider his best album to date, “To Pimp a Butterfly”. To Pimp a Butterfly is an album incorporating many thoughts, ideas, feelings and emotions that Kendrick manages to relate to you on a spiritual level one way or another, incorporating rap into genres like jazz, funk and soul. All of the songs talk about topics rarely discussed or rapped about. His songs tackle gang violence, depression, inequality, discrimination as well as other topics like love, peace, openess and forgiveness. Songs like “Alright”, “I” and “Wesley’s Theory” are songs that highlight how life is generally good and that you should be grateful for yourself, while songs like “Hood Politics”, “Momma”, “Institutionalized” and “How Much A Dollar Cost” talk about the gritty and dark life many poor and unfortunately mostly African American people suffer through inequality, racism, prejudice and violence. Other songs like “U”, “Complexion”, “You Ain’t Gotta Lie”, “For Free?” and “King Kunta” talks about more peaceful topics like love, passion and creativity. The shaking 324,000 copies sold in the first week and 150,000 copies sold in Europe the first week made it Kendrick’s first platinum album in the UK and most critics put it in at least the top 20 of top albums of all time.
Though it felt Kendrick was at the pinnacle of his career, he still had more in store, and would produce his most popular album, DAMN. Released in 2017, it sold a whopping 603,000 copies in the first week in the U.S alone, and hit top 3 in countries like Canada, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and many others. Kendrick makes the album a whole listening experience, and it details Kendrick’s transformation from “good city, m.A.A.d city” to his new self. Kendrick still incorporates themes of inequality, passion, childhood, love and betrayal, but Kendrick puts it all together in a more aggressive and straightforward way, and his song titles tell all about the song, and the song itself immerses you in its lyrics. Almost all of the songs are recognizable like “HUMBLE”, “DAMN”, “ELEMENT”, “YAH”, “BLOOD”, “FEEL”, “LOYALTY”, “DNA” and “DUCKWORTH”. This album definitely makes you immersed in the song and makes you feel as if you and Kendrick’s lyrics are one.
After this, it felt like Kendrick disappeared from the planet. He stopped on social media, stopped dropping hints or even singles, and no one was certain if anyone saw him. That was until late 2020 when under the pseudonym “Oklama”, standing for Omega Kendrick LAMAr, he kept saying what he was doing the past 3 years took time and that his “disciples had to be patient”. After Kendrick's real life cousin, Baby Keem, started going mainstream, Kendrick started to be featured on his songs such as “family ties” and “Untitled Masterkeem”. Baby Keem released his album, “The Melodic Blue” and had multiple Kendrick features on songs like “Vent QDC”, “range brothers”, “family ties” and “scapegoats”. People also discovered a website called oklama.com where there would be a folder with text from Kendrick detailing his recent activities. On April 18th, 2022 Kendrick released a folder called “.” on oklahoma.com in response to a viral tweet saying that he had retired in which stated that he would be releasing his 5th and final Top Dawg Entertainment album “Mr. Morales & the Big Steppers” on May 13th, 2022. 3 days later he would delete the folder and replace it with 2022 empty folders. Many people rejoiced after a sign from Kendrick himself, finally confirming a 5th album would be released.
*This article does not support lyrics and themes used across all songs by this artist.