How To Write An Essay About Kendrick Lamar

Dr.Dre, one of the biggest producers in the history of hip-hop, signed him to his independent record label named Aftermath Entertainment. In October 2010, his major labelled debut album, "good kid, M.A.A.D city" was released. In that album, he told a story of himself when he was a teenager. He was named lyricist of the year after the many success he had for the album. That year he had three hit singles “Swimming Pools (Drank),” "Good kid M.A.A.D city" and “Poetic Justice”. Those three songs got him to the spotlight and to popular TV shows such as Saturday Night Live, Late Night with David Letterman, and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Last year, 2015, he released his second hit album "To Pimp a Butterfly" with artists like Bilal, Snoop Dogg, and Pharrell Williams. He was nominated for eleven grammy awards and took five home with him. The last time anyone got nominated for that many grammy awards was Michael Jackson and he had twelve nominations. Kendrick Lamar is now considered one of the best rappers ever because he released another album in 2016, that has already reached the billboard's number one spot. Kendrick wants to spread the idea of positivity throughout the world because he grew up in a violent city but he is showing people that they can change

Unlike many other mainstream artists, Kendrick Lamar attaches great importance to the lyrics of his songs. Lamar’s song “DNA”, released last April, became a real breakthrough in the world of hip-hop music. In this song, Lamar reflects on various social issues faced by the modern African-American community of the USA. The song’s lyrics, as well as the music video, portrays the most common stereotypes and biases labeled to the African-American community. The central aim of the song is to sarcastically demonstrate the image of African-Americans as they are viewed by biased media. By the use of symbolical sarcasm and double meanings, Lamar underlines the acuteness of the race inequality that remains existing in the modern America.

All he does throughout the track is provide reasoning as to why he is feeling the emotions he has been forced to feel. Lamar is facing inner demons and confusion, he states, “I feel like I’m boxing demons, monsters, false prophets, scheming sponsors … church, religion.” At no point in this track is this shown more than towards the end of Lamar’s second verse. Though the beat remains the same, Lamar’s rapping style speeds up so he can say more in the same amount of time. He speaks of losing family and friends, people in his immediate circle being more focused on making money on the street than helping their community, and he is tired of this sentiment which so many people from his hometown seem to

Kendrick Lamar’s third studio album, “To Pimp a Butterfly,” sheds light on the struggle of achieving rich and fame and the trials that come with. Rolling Stone and Billboard praised the album awarding it the best album of 2015. The album depicts the difficulties of fame by putting the trials and tribulations on display; the inability for those to adjust to their new lifestyle and the potential temptations that creep in. “To Pimp a Butterfly” has been both a divisive and uniting factor in its emergence in popular culture.

Cultural phenomenon, rapper Kendrick Lamar has embraced a growing minority centered culture in America through his album “To Pimp A butterfly” this album conveys themes of hardship for minorities and cultural uprising. One of the singles on this album “Alright” simply tells black audiences that with faith everything will be alright. He uses the Lyrics “Alls my life I has to fight, nigga .Alls my life I...Hard times like God. Bad trips like: ‘God!’ Nazareth, I 'm fucked up..Homie you fucked up..But if God got us then we gon ' be alright” These lyrics simply tell suppressed minorities that despite hardship there is hope within our communities. . Months prior to the release of Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” several attacks from white police officers happened in the black community. A common case in this uproar was the “Mike Brown case”. In this case a black man was shot dead after allegedly robbing a local gas station. Kendrick simply responded to these seemingly racial attacks with his album to “Pimp a Butterfly”. To pimp a butterfly simply means to use your influence to the best of its ability to make a meaningful impact. With tracks like “Alright” Kendrick Lamar does just that. The Primary themes and issues conveyed in this song are white supremacy, racism and black uprising

Think of a poet. Who came to mind? Was it Shakespeare, Langston Hughes, Ralph Waldo Emerson? What about Eminem or Jay-Z? They are both poets too, but in a different way. They go by the title “rapper”, basically a synonym for poet, and Hip-Hop is their form of poetry is. Kevin Coval amusingly says that rap “dusted poetry off, took it out the closet, put Js on its feet, and told it to speak to the people, all the people,” and that hip-hop saved poetry from becoming “classical music,” meaning that rap prevented poetry from becoming an old, out-dated art form and renovated it for the next generation (20). Coval’s book, The BreakBeat Poets, says the creation of hip-hop music was by “latchkey kids in the crack era, left to their own devices to experiment wildly and make language and art new and meaningful,” and goes on to say its purpose is to, “move the crowd, relate to the crowd, and save the crowd,” and Kendrick Lamar does these things perfectly (18). Through the use of clever wordplay and rhyming skills mixed with great story telling, Kendrick is bringing rap music back to its “roots” while introducing a “style” of his own, which is why one can argue that Kendrick Lamar is the “savior” of the rap game and its listeners.

In the concept album, good kid m.A.A.d city, Kendrick Lamar creates an autobiographical narrative that describes the societal pressures of growing up as a black teenager in Compton, and how his self-awareness and musical passion allowed him to escape from the city’s cycle of violence. Through the album’s storyline Kendrick makes the case that, despite coming from a hedonistic, gang infested city, he is able to transform into a puritan. Kendrick narrates this story through several different perspectives, including actual people from his life as well as his own psyche. Kendrick Lamar mainly invokes the persona of K.Dot, who is based on Kendrick’s actual seventeen year old self. This story begins from the first person perspective of naive K.Dot, who is characterized by a raspy, inflicted voice. The lyrics of this character show the ignorance and lack of direction in his life, as well his self-doubts and impressionability. It is eventually revealed that K.Dot has a passion for music. While K.Dot is a good kid at heart who is not gang affiliated, his innocence is tainted by the desires of the Compton lifestyle. After a violent encounter, a transformation begins to occurs from within K.Dot. He realizes that the negative influences of gang culture have corrupted him,

Drake is a rapper, song writer, actor, and all around entertainer that is starting to get a lot of admiring glances. It appears the entertainer is looking more buff than usual. The fact is that Drake is really looking ripped. Check out those biceps, triceps, shoulders, and is that a six pack that he's wearing? There are a ton of pictures online featuring the Canadian born rapper working out. Wonder if he is working out to his own music? The former Degrassi store has definitely come a long way from wheel chair bond Jimmy Brooks. Let's take a closer look at Drake and the Drake Workout.

4. Kendrick Lamar is a hip-hop recording artist, and for the African American community he has been a huge social movement. I realized this during a pop culture class I took this semester. His new album, To Pimp A Butterfly specifically, shows his dedication to trying to bring positivity to his listeners. He recognizes that hip-hop has some responsibility for the systematic problems that the black community has faced. And according to, Music.Mic, Hip-hop could have played a huge role in the death of Michael Brown, with a New York Times obituary implying that Brown 's hip-hop aspirations somehow factored into Brown’s death.

Artists such as Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, and The Game have come together to create music as a protest. It is necessary to understand that these artist protest through music because it is a way to send a message to the world. A lot of their listeners have no idea of the troubles they face until they hear it from them. This has been going on for years starting with videos of Hip-Hop Godfathers expressing how white people treat the black community. Today’s generation of hardcore rappers want to display a message that the black community will not tolerate this kind of treatment, and they show that through their music and music videos. There should be a greater view on the lives of black peoples. The Movement for Black Lives states that they are going to team up with more than black communities to get policies passed (Platform). There main goal here is to create a bigger voice that will constitute the black community. The black community should come together to fight for their rights and equal treatments, it is not right for people with authority to demeanor the lives of black people by doing so, a message would be received, and the potential of abolishing racism is

Kendrick lamar’s award winning music video for his 2017 single Element shows the many experiences he faced growing up as a black man. The various symbols broadcasted throughout this music video show specific conflicts and struggle that he has dealt with throughout his life and also allowed black man that have been in his position something to relate to. He teamed up with director/photographer Jonas Lindstroem to help him convey his message but in a unique and creative way. The slow moving scenes show a softer depiction of his encounters. They give a sense of understanding which allows the viewer to be able to comprehend and absorb his message. As a whole, it was a collection of the pain, beauty, peace and violence that exists within his “element”.

Kendrick Lamar took the music industry by storm last year after his release of his sophomore album To Pimp A Butterfly. Immediately, the album quickly became critically acclaimed and resulted in multiple awards such as winning four grammys this past winter. The album goes deep into Kendrick’s personal struggles as new found celebrity, while also touching on subjects surrounding the black community. For this paper I took a look at the standout song off the album Institutionalized, that deals with the internal struggle people go through in life because of the barriers of thinking they are imprisoned to in their lives. Along with this, the song also has elements that tie

Intro: Kendrick Lamar Duckworth's work is the product of his life experiences. Through his personal life and the constant pain and pleasure discussing personal struggles and triumphs, Lamar was able to rise above the expectations of failure through his music, a product of the ghetto where his heroes are the musicians who escaped. Thoughtful details about Compton childhood baby born in poverty, gang war, and the crack epidemic where there can be a different path. Lamar's music reaching out, narratives on how he didn't give up. His work demonstrates the struggles black people faced in the past as well as today in regards to racism, discrimination, and police violence.

Additionally, critics took note of Lamar's verse on the song "Control," by rapper Big Sean. Even though the track was written by another artist, Lamar's verse drew attention because of his challenge to several other popular names in the hip-hop world, including Drake, J. Cole and Big Sean himself. One interesting fact about Kendrick is he became an American rapper and songwriter. The good thing is that Kendrick faced the violence like a real mature kid. Not like those kinds of those kids who are under pressure quickly. So that’s mostly about Kendrick Lamar’s

In my opinion, Kendrick Lamar, an award-winning rapper and songwriter, has one of the best abilities to describe his distressed and abused lifestyle in Compton, California. He is not your original cliché artist who does not speak about anything meaningful. Kendrick, also known as K. Dot, is one of the most well known and most respected rappers in this era. Not only does he speak about his gloomy past, but he also speaks about his fortunate future. His ability to give detailed representations of his struggles and his story telling allows me to, metaphorically, enter the mind of Kendrick Lamar.