About

Kendrick Lamar (real name Kendrick Lamar Duckworth) is an American hip-hop artist known for his two albums, Good Kid M.A.A.D City and To Pimp A Butterfly, both of which are critically acclaimed . Online, the musician has amassed a large following and his music is frequently used in mashups.

History

Music Career

The Compton-based musician released his first mixtape titled Youngest Head Nigga in Charge (Hub City Threat: Minor of the Year) in 2003 under the alias "K-Dot"^[1]. After releasing the mixtape, he was signed to Top Dawg Entertainment, where he released several mixtapes and collaborated with many music artists, such as A$AP Rocky, Jay Rock and Taylor Swift.

In 2012, Kendrick Lamar released Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, leading to his first widespread exposure to the public, with five singles supporting the album's release^[2]. The album sold 1.4 million copies^[3] and was certified platinum. It received 4 Grammy Award nominations and being universally acclaimed by critics who gave it a 91 aggregate score on Metacritic^[4].

In 2015, he released another album titled To Pimp A Butterfly. Even more critically acclaimed than his previous release, the album earned a Metacritic aggregate of 96^[5], as well as earning Kendrick 11 nominations at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards^[6]. The album was supported by 5 singles.

Association with President Obama

President Barack Obama has stated repeatedly that Lamar is his favorite rapper. In a follow-up interview to his 2016 State of the Union address, Obama was asked whether Drake or Lamar would win in a rap battle; he replied that he thought Drake was an outstanding entertainer, but that "Kendrick, his lyrics, his last album was outstanding – best album last year." On January 11th, 2016, Obama invited Lamar for a private visit to the White House, which was captured on publicly released photos featuring the two men hugging.

Online Presence

The rapper is highly-followed on social media sites; his Facebook page has over 7.6 million likes^[7] and he has over 6 million followers on Twitter^[8] as of January 19th, 2016. He has his own sub-reddit^[9], which has over 4,000 readers. There are several single-topic Tumblr blogs dedicated to the rapper, such "fkyeahkendricklamar"^[10] and "kendricklamargod"^[11] and has several posts on Tumblr^[12] and 4chan's /mu/ board^[13] related to him.

Reputation

Kendrick Lamar is known for his thematically rich songs about life in as an African American in the inner city. His work has awarded him 14 Grammy awards through out his career. At the 58th Grammy Awards in 2016, he surpassed Eminem as the rapper with most nominations in a single night. Only Michael Jackson has been more nominated in a single night. In 2018, Lamar's album DAMN won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for music.

White Fan Sings N-Word on Stage

On May 20th, 2018, at the Hangout Fest in Gulf Shores, Alabama, Lamar invited a white woman named Delaney on stage to sing the 2012 "M.A.A.D. City." When singing the chorus to the song, the woman sang the word "nigga" as written in the lyrics. Lamar stopped the song as the crowd started to express their displeasure with the performance.^[15]

As the song stopped, Delaney said, "Aren’t I cool enough for you? What’s up, bro?"

Lamar explained, "You got to bleep one single word, though."

Delaney apologized for usage of the word. She said, "Oh, I’m sorry. Did I do it? I’m so sorry… I’m used to singing it like you wrote it."

Many online shared videos of the performance. Twitter^[16] user @_HalieShea23 tweeted the video with the caption, "YALL Emily just sent me this video from Hangout and Kendrick Lamar cut the music when this white girl that he brought on stage kept saying the N word 😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩 I am CRINGING AT THE CAUCASITY." The post (shown below) received more than 130 retweets and 280 likes in 24 hours.

YALL Emily just sent me this video from Hangout and Kendrick Lamar cut the music when this white girl that he brought on stage kept saying the N word 😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩 I am CRINGING AT THE CAUCASITY pic.twitter.com/O3u502AGHX

— HG (@_HalieShea23) May 21, 2018

People online reacted negatively to the incident, accusing the woman of ignorance and exemplifying white privilege. Twitter user @OOOhTwit tweeted (shown below, left),^[17] "She said 'I sing it like you wrote it.' That speaks volumes. Its not only not ok to be said in front of us, its also not ok for them to say it in the privacy of their homes and cars. So it needs to stop being written and spoken in music." Twitter^[18] user @TALLCHIHUAHUA tweeted a picture of a boy looking wide-eyed and unamused with the caption (shown below, center), "'Am I not cool enough for you?'" Twitter^[19] user @paulmassonbrand tweeted an image of the woman's face with the caption "This is your brain on privilege" (shown below, right).

Related Memes

King Kunta Mashups

"King Kunta" Mashups are mashups that use the single "King Kunta" from the album To Pimp A Butterfly as part of the mashup. There are many mashups using the song, most notably a mashup between the Super Mario Bros theme and Seinfeld theme (shown below).

This Dick Ain't Free.

"This Dick Ain't Free" is a lyric from the song "For Free? (Interlude)" from the album To Pimp A Butterfly, repeated throughout the song. Due to the oddity of the lyric, it is often used on /mu/ for shitposting^[14].

Ya Bish

Ya Bish is a bastardization of the phrase "you bitch" repeated throughout the song "Money Trees" from the album Good Kid M.A.A.D City, it became a signature phrase for Kendrick after the release of the song, often used in clothing pieces, posters or images depicting Kendrick.

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External References