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He’s also no slouch when it comes to the Billboard charts, hitting No.
Oh, and he has a Pulitzer.
To find out more, keep on reading to experience Kendrick Lamar’s complete transformation.
he said in an interview with NPR’s"Morning Edition."
“After that, you just get numb to it,” he once toldRolling Stone.
The oldest of four siblings, Lamar experienced poverty throughout his life.
“My pops did whatever he could to get money.
He was in the streets.
You know the story,” he explained toSpin.
“2Pac had just passed,” Lamar toldBillboard.
“My uncle was in jail, and we was in a hotel.
My moms never owned a house until I was able to afford it for her.”
Inge introduced poetry to his students to help them process the trauma they encountered on a daily basis.
“They’d be ready to fight at 7:30 in the morning.”
When Lamar submitted an assignment, Inge refused to let him coast.
Those poems evolved into rap songs, and Lamar’s subject matter grew more expansive.
However, he explained in an interview with Spin, he was never affiliated with any particular gang.
At first, he didn’t quite understand, since he’d admired his dad.
However, as his father continued, it clicked for the future star.
you might wind up out on the corner,'" Lamar continued.
“He knew by the company I keep what I was gettin' into.
Out of respect, I really just gathered myself together.”
Lamar immediately reevaluated his lifestyle, leaving drug and alcohol use in the rearview.
His father’s intervention changed his life by changing his perspective.
“I saw the same things over and over.
“It was a gift from God to be able to recognize that.”
He was still a student in high school when he began releasing his raps, calling himself K.Dot.
On the strength of that mixtape, in 2005 he was signed by Top Dawg.
Even in those early days, his ambitions were evident.
That’s everyday life.
Interviewed forHard Knock TV, Lamar explained that he wanted to put more of his identity into his work.
“[K.Dot’s] just another cat in the streets that can rap good, right?
It was watching an interview with the young rapper, however, that really intrigued the industry veteran.
Then, Snoop Dogg took to the stage.
“You’re great at what you do,” SnooptoldLamar.
“You got the torch, you better run with it.”
We give it to who’s accordingly running the show.”
“We felt like, he the one,” he said of Lamar.
He landed his first No.
“I’m the closest thing to a preacher that they have” he said.
“I know that from being on tour kids are living by my music.”
However, his recognition of that role was tinged with a heavy dose of humility.
“My word will never be as strong as God’s word,” he added.
“All I am is just a vessel, doing his work.”
1 album as it rocketed to the top spot on Billboard’s album chart immediately upon its debut.
As Lamar told the Times, he didn’t feel the record was making a political statement.
“I want you to get angry I want you to get happy,” he added.
“I want you to feel disgusted.
I want you to feel uncomfortable.”
“She’s been here since Day 1,” he toldThe New York Times Magazinein 2014.
That was evident when they welcomed their first child together in July 2019, daughter Uzi.
In May 2022, they had a second child, son Enoch.
Interviewed byW Magazinein 2022, Lamar reflected on how fatherhood had changed his perspective.
“I want something that’s just for me,” he toldVanity Fairin 2017.
Interviewed byZane Loweof Apple Music’s Beats 1 Radio, he contrasted his new album with his previous release.
1 spot for three consecutive weeks only to regain the top chart position 13 weeks later.
On top of all of that, the album was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Lamar welcomed some special guests for the album, including jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington andsinger-songwriter SZA.
“I thought about ‘Damn, what I used to like as a kid?’
Hard raps, good beats, that’s smackin', right?”
he said, viaHot New Hip Hop.
“It was necessary to come out of that cocoon like, ‘I arrived now.
“And I’ll be there to remind the world why.
They got the right one.”
As Roc Nation CEO Desiree Perez toldNola.com, Lamar was the obvious choice to headline Super Bowl LIX.
“That’s something I wanted to carry over to New Orleans and for the world to see.
