Kendrick Lamar
In today’s world the rap industry has made some very noticeable changes in material, motives,and overall quality. The material is often based on how much money, girls, and their extravagant lifestyle. This is the basic theme found in today’s rap industry. Although these artist are making profit from this and getting popular over night, real music lovers are not amused or entertained. The real music lovers want the true music that is relevant in today's culture and real world problems. Kendrick is one of the few mainstream rappers that does this in his music. Before his stage name was Kendrick Lamar, he went by the name of K. Dot. Kendrick’s full name is Kendrick Lamar Duckworth, although he was born in Compton, California in 1987, his
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parents were originally living in Chicago but moved because of the violence. Before the idea of being a rapper or a poet, Kendrick's love of basketball gave him this dream to be in the NBA. As a kid he was inspired by Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, they motivated him to write poetry. He often speaks about how English was his favorite subject in school because of the way he could put words together. In an interview he states “ You could put all your feelings down on a sheet of paper, and they’d make sense to you, I liked that.” (Rolling Stone). As time passed he became basically obsessed with writing, but he did not actually start to rap until he was in high school. In his life being surrounded by all of the violence and gangs, he chose to be the one just looking in on the situations never really getting himself involved with the norm. This is where his style and theme of writing came from. His parents were big influence on him and expanding his palette for music, not just rap music but jazz and soul music. His main influence on hip- hop was the legend Tupac Shakur. After he died the rapper DMX, he showed young Kendrick the energy that he needed to make his music powerful. His theme of music is about the injustices in the urban youth and in the world. Being around all of this violence and not taking and also being talented in writing gave him an advantage. He often wrote about how it is like in the life of a gang member or someone that has chosen the gangster lifestyle of violence and drugs. He writes about the stories of what happened to him and his friends in family in compton, like run in’s with the law or death that it surrounding them. This caught on to get the attention of big name rappers like Dr. Dre. Dre became Kendrick’s mentor and showed him about the music career and also the business side of the career. With the help of Dr. Dre and other mentors and friends, Kendrick has become a young man with a huge voice in today’s world. Kendrick Lamar uses his large voice in the world today to make his listeners see the real wrongs in this world, and spreading positivity through his lyrics.
Growing up from compton, Kendrick was giving two choices in his life, either to let the world of gangs, drugs, and everything that is considered normal, or spend all of his time in the studio to make something out of life so he can get out. He chose not to involve himself if that part of the culture that would only lead him to the graveyard or the prison yard. By doing this and devoting his time to spreading “ the word” he has been very successful and has brought attention to the problems in the world. This is why he has Hip-Hop in the palm of his hand, he does not portray the lavish life, he speaks about hardship, and struggles in life and the pain of life. A prime example of this are the songs from his album To Pimp a Butterfly, the songs U and Alright. In the song U he is in a hotel room having a conversation with himself and thinking about this situation on life that truly affected him. He then speaks about his personal pain and the hate that he has for himself because of not being there for his people in compton that were going through. In this song you can hear his pain and the suffering he has gone through. Then next after this the song Alright comes on, this song takes place after the night in the hotel room and how beautiful life is. He expresses how tomorrow is another day and that everything will be alright with the help of others and God. Through these two songs he lets his listeners get the real Kendrick Lamar and shows that just because he is famous and wealthy he does not have problems in his life. He then encourages his listeners to overcome their problems in life as he did. Next on the same album he has a song called The Blacker the Berry. In this song he raps about the case of Trayvon Martin and calling himself a hypocrite for being upset about this injustice but not upset of the people
being killed on a everyday basis in the street. Here again he puts us, the listeners, in his mindset and makes us think about our actions without being scared of it not being liked. Today’s music listeners just want to hear about the extravagant life styles, all the parties, all the money and how materialistic things the artist have. Kendrick's music does make the people think about the real world, but people do not want to hear it because it makes them think about their lives and makes them feel in the wrong. Hearing about all good all the time is what the people want and all of the fiction in the rap industry that many artist portray. Constantly hearing the fake side about this world makes a false image that is burned into the youth's mind and gives them this dream or aspirises them to reach this goal that is fictional. The rappers today do not care about giving people a message that is going to better the listeners, they are being selfish in the sense that all they care about is making music that will either raise their popularity or their net worth.
No matter the review, the dislikes, or the likes Kendrick is still going to rap about the injustices in the world and the positivity of the things of this world. Not the materialistic side of life but the spiritual and the true culture rap should be. Kendrick Lamar is a leader in this world that we desperately need . The industry of Hip- Hop wants to portray the temptations and evil in the world and is only there to make a profit. Spreading positivity and spreading awareness is the best thing any artist can do to help all of his listeners. Since he's constantly putting that positivity and awareness out there, Kendrick Lamar is the King of Hip- Hop.
parents were originally living in Chicago but moved because of the violence. Before the idea of being a rapper or a poet, Kendrick's love of basketball gave him this dream to be in the NBA. As a kid he was inspired by Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, they motivated him to write poetry. He often speaks about how English was his favorite subject in school because of the way he could put words together. In an interview he states “ You could put all your feelings down on a sheet of paper, and they’d make sense to you, I liked that.” (Rolling Stone). As time passed he became basically obsessed with writing, but he did not actually start to rap until he was in high school. In his life being surrounded by all of the violence and gangs, he chose to be the one just looking in on the situations never really getting himself involved with the norm. This is where his style and theme of writing came from. His parents were big influence on him and expanding his palette for music, not just rap music but jazz and soul music. His main influence on hip- hop was the legend Tupac Shakur. After he died the rapper DMX, he showed young Kendrick the energy that he needed to make his music powerful. His theme of music is about the injustices in the urban youth and in the world. Being around all of this violence and not taking and also being talented in writing gave him an advantage. He often wrote about how it is like in the life of a gang member or someone that has chosen the gangster lifestyle of violence and drugs. He writes about the stories of what happened to him and his friends in family in compton, like run in’s with the law or death that it surrounding them. This caught on to get the attention of big name rappers like Dr. Dre. Dre became Kendrick’s mentor and showed him about the music career and also the business side of the career. With the help of Dr. Dre and other mentors and friends, Kendrick has become a young man with a huge voice in today’s world. Kendrick Lamar uses his large voice in the world today to make his listeners see the real wrongs in this world, and spreading positivity through his lyrics.
Growing up from compton, Kendrick was giving two choices in his life, either to let the world of gangs, drugs, and everything that is considered normal, or spend all of his time in the studio to make something out of life so he can get out. He chose not to involve himself if that part of the culture that would only lead him to the graveyard or the prison yard. By doing this and devoting his time to spreading “ the word” he has been very successful and has brought attention to the problems in the world. This is why he has Hip-Hop in the palm of his hand, he does not portray the lavish life, he speaks about hardship, and struggles in life and the pain of life. A prime example of this are the songs from his album To Pimp a Butterfly, the songs U and Alright. In the song U he is in a hotel room having a conversation with himself and thinking about this situation on life that truly affected him. He then speaks about his personal pain and the hate that he has for himself because of not being there for his people in compton that were going through. In this song you can hear his pain and the suffering he has gone through. Then next after this the song Alright comes on, this song takes place after the night in the hotel room and how beautiful life is. He expresses how tomorrow is another day and that everything will be alright with the help of others and God. Through these two songs he lets his listeners get the real Kendrick Lamar and shows that just because he is famous and wealthy he does not have problems in his life. He then encourages his listeners to overcome their problems in life as he did. Next on the same album he has a song called The Blacker the Berry. In this song he raps about the case of Trayvon Martin and calling himself a hypocrite for being upset about this injustice but not upset of the people
being killed on a everyday basis in the street. Here again he puts us, the listeners, in his mindset and makes us think about our actions without being scared of it not being liked. Today’s music listeners just want to hear about the extravagant life styles, all the parties, all the money and how materialistic things the artist have. Kendrick's music does make the people think about the real world, but people do not want to hear it because it makes them think about their lives and makes them feel in the wrong. Hearing about all good all the time is what the people want and all of the fiction in the rap industry that many artist portray. Constantly hearing the fake side about this world makes a false image that is burned into the youth's mind and gives them this dream or aspirises them to reach this goal that is fictional. The rappers today do not care about giving people a message that is going to better the listeners, they are being selfish in the sense that all they care about is making music that will either raise their popularity or their net worth.
No matter the review, the dislikes, or the likes Kendrick is still going to rap about the injustices in the world and the positivity of the things of this world. Not the materialistic side of life but the spiritual and the true culture rap should be. Kendrick Lamar is a leader in this world that we desperately need . The industry of Hip- Hop wants to portray the temptations and evil in the world and is only there to make a profit. Spreading positivity and spreading awareness is the best thing any artist can do to help all of his listeners. Since he's constantly putting that positivity and awareness out there, Kendrick Lamar is the King of Hip- Hop.