For as long as he's been making music, kendrick lamar has been trying to open minds but the truth might just be that just like the rest of us kendrick is a deeply flawed individual who's been trying to tell us that the entire time.
Of course he's a pulitzer prize winner, sold more than 17 million albums worldwide been nominated for 399 awards and won 161 of them. Particularly, his music is even archived at the library at harvard university and he's been described as one of the most thought-provoking poets of hip-hop an innovative storyteller whose work has been compared to that of classic novelists like james joyce and james baldwin.
Here's the thing, since becoming one of the biggest names in all of rap music with the release of Damn in 2017, kendrick lamar has been going through something maybe a lot of things and for anybody who knows anything about his past, it's entirely understandable considering that one doesn't just get over being shot at or watching your friends die as a child.
Born in compton on june 17,1987 to Paula oliver and Kenny duckworth. His mother decided to name him kendrick due to her love for singer-songwriter Eddie kendricks of "The Temptations". Lamar's parents had moved from chicago to compton in the hopes of escaping shy town's notorious gang culture at the time.
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At the time, Kenny was running with a south side street gang called the Gangster disciples so Paula gave him an ultimatum that kendrick would one day relay to rolling stone she said "I can't deal with you if you ain't trying to better yourself we can't be in these streets forever" The result of such conversation led to a major decision they took that later resulted in our kendrick today.
These two shoved some clothes into a black garbage bag and hopped on the train to california with only 500 dollars in their pocket their original plan was to head for san bernardino but kendricks aunt Tina lived in compton so they wound up there instead.
Upon their arrival, Tina hooked them up with a hotel room and Paula got a job working at mcdonald's. For those first few years kendrick's parents would move around a lot from motel rooms to sleeping in their car and occasionally even a park bench if it was nice enough but eventually they managed to save up enough money and rent their first apartment that's when they finally had kendrick.
Lamar grew up in a little blue 3 bedroom house located at the 1612 137th street otherwise known as 8 section housing not far from louisiana fried chicken where he'd often go and buy himself a three-piece meal with fries and a lemonade.
During the first seven years of his life kendrick was an only child and his parents found him to be so precious that they nicknamed him main man but eventually kendrick would finally welcome some siblings including two little brothers and one younger sister.
For the most part his family survived on welfare and food stamps as Paula cut her hair at twenty dollars a pop and kenny worked at kkfc.Things may have appeared simple on the surface but they were never easy for instance one of kendrick's favorite spots to hang out as a youth was at Tam's restaurant but at the age of only eight years old it would become the very place that he watched a man get murdered.
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That wasn't the first time kendrick had to see a man go down, this must have been a difficult sight to behold. At the time kendrick was standing across the street watching a dude over at the drive-thru when suddenly a guy ran up with a gun popped the customer twice killing him instantly.
Reflecting on such moments, kendrick told Rolling stone "After that you just get numb to it", throughout the rest of his childhood kendrick would have to work his way through a whole bunch of atrocities like his uncle Tony getting shot in the head at a burger stand or a couple of other uncles winding up in prison for 15-year stretches on robbery charges. He'd also be shot at as a kid and according to his own lyrics shoot someone himself at the age of 16.
When asked by Vanity fair to expand upon this story, kendrick would only tell them "I'll put it this way i've seen my own bloodshed and I've been the cause of other people shedding their blood as well" It could surprise some to know that kendrick didn't sound so proud of such actions as would other rappers, glorifying their heinous activities in their songs.
Kendrick have also in multiple occasions repressed memories that may involve him having been sexually assaulted as a child and while he doesn't come right out and say it, on the song "Mother I sober" he subtly hints towards what happened with lyrics like "heal myself secrets that i hid buried in these words".
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Although the initial plan was to move from chicago to compton in a bid to get a job and move out of the street, it didn't last one year as the growing kendrick was wise enough to observe his dad's schedule and notice his return to making money from the streets.
It might also interest you to know that some of kendrick's closest childhood friends were associates of "West side Pirus" a local blood affiliate while his uncles were largely card-carrying members of the Compton crips" if it's worth mentioning, these two are not just best of friends.
As a student, kendrick attended Mcnair Elementary and later The Vanguard Learning Center where he had a host of difficulties. Not only was he a little bit of a loner he had a wicked stutter and he was also afraid of failure. Lamar once told la weekly "there was a math question that i knew the answer to but i was so scared to say it then this little chick said the answer and it was the right answer my answer that bothers me still to this day".
One wouldn't guess the Kendrick we know was ever scared of failure. In his school days, Kendrick was the type of student who enjoyed writing first stories then poems and then he started writing the rest before becoming a lyrical maestro.
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He also enjoyed doing normal kids stuff like riding bikes backflips off a friend's roofs and sneaking into the living room whenever his parents would throw a house party but the most important moment of his life would transpire at the age of eight when he got to watch first hand as Tupac and Dr Dre shot the music video to California love.
From that point forward, kendrick lamar knew exactly what he wanted to do in his life kendrick started freestyling for the very first time at the age of eight. Back then, he was mostly rapping about drugs. At the time his parents had no idea what he was doing Kenny would later tell Rolling stone "we used to wonder what he was doing with all that paper I thought he was doing homework I didn't know that he was writing lyrics".
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By the time he was 16 kendrick was rapping under the name of kdot because his closest friends always called him. That's where he began to get serious about music and he issued his very first mixtape The Hub City Threat Minor Of The Year. He was recording in his friends Dave Freeze garage who managed to get some of kendrick's songs to Anthony Top Dawg Tiffith who was in the midst of breaking into the music business.
An excellent performance in the booth got Kendricks signature as the rapper continued releasing singles and mixtapes with the name Kdot. Kendrick later became a part of black hippie in 2009, a group whose members would include fellow td artists like Ab soul, Jay-rock and ScHOOlboy Q, all of whom would frequently appear on one another's projects.
Eventually Anthony gave kendrick some solid advice "drop the moniker and just go by your given name". The first project to ever bear the name kendrick lamar proper was his Self-titled mixtape which he dropped in december of 2009 and he'd quickly follow that up with Overly Dedicated in 2010.
Kendrick's first commercial release Overly Dedicated would become his first ever to enter the billboard RandB and hip-hop charts, then in 2011 double Xl would honor him with a selection in their freshman class. Having approached the threshold of the mainstream, kendrick finally dropped his first official studio album section 80. The project would cross over into the billboard 200 and peak at the 113th spot.
At this point a whole bunch of different people were beginning to take notice of kendrick lamar's rise as Paul rosenberg Eminem's manager and the chairman of Def Jam recordings brought kendrick's music to Dr dre who quickly signed Lamar to his Aftermath label in a joint deal with Too Dawg Entertainment (Tde).
During a concert in late 2011, Dr dre, Snoop dogg and The game would go so as far to dub him the new king of the west coast. This truly classic moment set the stage for kendrick's rise to the top with the first of his universally acclaimed projects 2012's Good Kid Mad City. For many, this album which dropped in october was more than an album, it entered the billboard 200 at number two with a bullet.
Three of his project singles Swimming Pools, Poetic Justice and Don't Kill My Vibe would reach the top of the billboard's hot R n b and hip-hop charts. most importantly this album showcased lamar's talent as a storyteller he'd be rewarded for his effort by being nominated for six grammy awards that year including best new artist album of the year and best rap album but he wouldn't win any of them, at least not yet.
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With more persistence, collaborations, tours and years of putting out a perfect work, Kendrick would later get a handful of grammy nominations and awards and even a special honour with the pulitzer prize. This of course was the very first time that judges of this immensely prestigious award ever handed it out to a composition outside of the classical or jazz genres.
After such wonderful years in the limelight, Kendrick literarily disappeared, not for two months or a year, but for four whooping years occasionally showing up and off at different intervals. While explaining to Vanity fair, Kendrick said "I had these three or four years of success in celebrity but I can't get rid of the years of being with my homies and knowing what they went through I can't throw that away I had to sit back and analyze it and figure out other ways I could impact these people without physically trying to bring the whole hood inside a hotel".
During this period Kendrick worked more on building his family and his hood. He and his longtime sweetheart Whitney Alford had their first daughter two years later kendrick would once again re-emerge with a note to his fans telling them that he was going off grid on purpose and going on long stretches without his phone.
On a statement to his website kendrick would write "love loss and grief have disturbed my comfort zone but the glimmers of god speak through my music and family while the world around me evolves I reflect on what matters the most".
Kendrick would re-establish himself in the year of 2022 . first in february of that year he'd perform alongside Dr dre, Eminem and Snoop Dogg at the Super Bowl Half Time Show.. Then later drop his album Mr Morales with lots of unique features in it.
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