Like his hero Tupac Shakur, Kendrick Lamar grew up heavy in the game. Living in the midst of, but apart from, Compton’s roiling gang life, Lamar is now facing down hip-hop’s brightest spotlight as the next protégé of Dr. Dre. But unlike most new rap stars, he is humble, composed, mature, and palpably aware of what he’s already lost. Which means he might be the most special of them all.
The story of Kendrick Lamar is not the story of a rapper from Compton. It might be the story of the most important rapper since Jay-Z. It might be the story of how hip hop got real in 2012. But the only story that Kendrick Lamar wants to tell is how he got out. Lamar’s major-label debut, good kid, m.A.A.d city (Top Dawg/Aftermath/Interscope), is a totemic memoir to mark the distance from where he came. It is, says Lamar, about how “everything in the dark comes to light.”
On the cover of the album is a Polaroid dating from 1991. Lamar identifies himself as “baby Kendrick,” even though he was pushing five when it was taken.
He sits nestled in the lap of an uncle who is throwing a gang sign with the same arm that’s wrapped around his nephew. On the table sits a 40-ounce and a baby bottle; baby Kendrick is wide-eyed, staring directly into the camera. “We got photo books full of pictures like that,” he says. “I was in that atmosphere every day until my teenage years.”
He picked the photo “for the innocence in that kid’s eyes, not knowing that a baby bottle and a 40-ouncer….” He trails off. “It’s still so vivid to me. This picture shows how far I really come.”
Lamar may be from Compton, but his roots are here. He used his Aftermath signing bonus to move his parents out of the Compton neighbourhood where they raised him.
In 2012, he secure a recording contract with Interscope Records and Aftermath Entertainment, this led to Lamar working with Dr. Dre marking his career as an independent artist.
Lamar stated his favourite rappers are Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G., Jay Z, Nas, Eminem, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Mobb Deep, namely Prodigy. Tupac Shakur is his biggest influence, and has influenced not only his music, but his day-to-day lifestyle as well.
He’s got his grammy initiation done and dusted, and in style too. By now it’s pretty clear, Kendrick might just be the most important we have at present.
culled from simplemag.me
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