Rapper Kendrick Lamar became a household name with 2015's To Pimp a Butterfly, which earned
an impressive 11 Grammy noms and five wins, including best rap album.
Despite the fame and fortune and his high-profile ties to Dr. Dre's record label, there's still
plenty to discover about this Compton, California kid.
"Does the crew come out every time you come to Compton?"
"Yeah.”
All in a name
Lamar began his career using his childhood nickname K.Dot, but in 2009, he decided it
was time for a big change.
Wanting to better match his name to his music, Lamar was reportedly inspired to revert back
to his given name by Dave Free, a local DJ and music producer who became Lamar's manager.
Free told Bullet, "I called him up one morning and I was like, 'Man, you should change your
name.
You should name yourself Kendrick.
And he just said, 'Lamar.
Kendrick Lamar.'"
Lamar explained why he agreed, in a 2009 interview:
"I wanna let people know that I'm an actual artist who does music, and why not start,
if you wanna know who I am as a person first, then get into the music, why not start with
my real name?”
But Lamar says he'll always be K.Dot to his original crew:
"K.Dot, the nickname, that been acquired since I was a kid, just bein’ in the neighborhood…
You know, I go back to the city now and they don't call me Kendrick."
Biggest vice
Rather than boasting about money and women, Lamar is known for rapping about the realities
of life and its hardships.
He told VICE in 2016,
"From Compton, I could’ve easily came out and said ‘I did this, I did that, I killed
a whole bunch of n-----’...
But that ain't me.
I’d rather talk about my reality.
I'd rather talk about something a little bit more deeper than that."
But his chill existence doesn't mean he doesn't have demons.
In 2017, Lamar confessed to Rolling Stone, "My biggest vice is being addicted to the
chase of what I'm doing...Being on that stage, knowing that you're changing people's lives,
that's a high.
Sometimes, when you're pressing so much to get something across to a stranger, you forget
people that are closer to you.
That's a vice."
He explained to producer Rick Rubin in 2016:
"It's really about me challenging myself…
It just keeps the hunger for more going.
I don't feel I can ever stop."
Secret tracks
Lamar has become synonymous with "empowering lyrics of black expression and identity" and
has been dubbed a "poet" and "revolutionary" by outlets such as HuffPost.
But his musical talents stretch beyond rap and hip hop.
As HuffPost reported in 2016, "It would seem to undermine the genius of Compton's son to
simply call him a 'rapper'."
In fact, Lamar has secretly written plenty of "melody-driven" music, with no plans to
release it.
"I always want to just keep myself locked in, and not really be too exposed when I'm
creating."
He told Rolling Stone about his process, saying, "Ultimately, that's practice for me on my
rap albums.
I write a lot of the melodies.
S---, usually 95 percent...That's just me flirting with the idea of being able to take
it there."
Tribute to Tupac
To Pimp a Butterfly was a runaway success, but the record's original title was quite
different from the one fans have come to know: Tu Pimp a Caterpillar.
A tribute to Tupac.
Dead End Hip Hop reportedly made the discovery during a roundtable discussion about the album.
Lamar confirmed the speculation to MTV News in 2015, saying:
"That was the original name and they caught it because the abbreviation was Tupac."
And for the rapper, the name change also revealed a personal manifesto:
"Me changing it to Butterfly, I just really wanted to show the brightness of life…
Another reason is not being pimped by the industry through my celebrity."
'Corny' hype
Referencing drugs in hip hop is nothing new, but it doesn't impress Lamar.
Speaking out against the popularity of "molly" in the video for "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe"
where he famously flashed the words "Death to Molly", the rapper told MTV News that he's
not feeling the trend.
"You may have certain artists portraying these trends and don't really have that lifestyle
and then it gives off the wrong thing.
And it becomes kinda corny after a while...When everybody consciously now uses this term or
this phrase and putting it in lyrics, it waters the culture down.
So it's really just time to move on."
Eminem's test
Eminem and Lamar may have a good friendship and working relationship — Lamar was the
only rapper to score a guest spot on Eminem's 2013 The Marshall Mathers LP 2.
But Kendrick first had to earn the legendary Detroit rapper's respect.
During a 2017 interview with the Zach Sang Show, Ed Sheeran talked of Lamar and Eminem's
first encounter, which he reportedly learned about from producer Rick Rubin.
Here's how the story goes, according to Sheeran, once Lamar was invited to record a track at
Eminem's studio:
"Kendrick came with all his mates and Eminem said, 'I just want you in the studio, just
you on your own.’”
When the track was done, Sheeran revealed:
"Everyone came in to listen to it and Eminem said that he did it to test Kendrick because
he thought he had a ghostwriter."
Africa experience
Lamar opened up about his life-changing trip to Africa during a 2017 discussion with comedian
Dave Chappelle, saying, "I went to South Africa — Durban, Cape Town, Johannesburg…This
is a place that we, in urban communities, never dream of.
We never dream of Africa.
Like, 'Damn, this is the motherland.'
You feel it as soon as you touch down.
That moment changed my whole perspective on how to convey my art."
Inspiration
At first glance, it may seem like a strange collaboration, but Lamar recruited U2 frontman
Bono to appear on his 2017 record, DAMN, with Bono making it onto "XXX" through a twist
of fate.
Lamar told Rolling Stone, "We had a [different] record we were supposed to be doing together.
He sent it over, I laid some ideas to it, and we didn't know where it was going.
I just happened to have an album coming out, so I just asked him, like, 'Yo, would you
do me this honor of letting me...use this idea that I want to put together'...And he
was open to it."
Lamar said the Irish musician "Has so much wisdom and so much knowledge, in music and
in life...The things he's doing around the world...just helping people, is inspiring."
Work ethic
Lamar's hardcore work ethic has become the stuff of legend.
Grammy-winning producer Mark "Sounwave" Spears confirmed the rapper's dedication to his craft,
telling GQ, "Once he got his whole brainstorming thing down and we knew the direction we were
going [with DAMN], we locked down the studio for months.
Never left.
Literally sleeping bags in the studio."
"Proud of you Kendrick.”
“Good lookin’ bro.”
"You famous, man."
"Nah, he just recognize hard work.”
The realest feedback
Lamar may have millions of fans, but one of his most honest — and passionate — critics
is his mother.
Lamar shared mom Paula Oliver's text about the release of DAMN.
She wrote:
"OMG.
This CD is the bomb!...This your best one to me, no bulls---.
Your daddy said you look stressed out on the cover LOL…Your fans are some die hards.
I love them."
With all those emojis, Lamar replied: "Who taught you '100'?"
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