Marcus J. Moore - The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America

How You Got Robbed

There are musicians, and then theres Kendrick Lamar Duckworth. A welterweight, and just five feet, five inches tall, he looks more like a Baptist youth minister than the greatest rapper of his generation. But he is the greatest rapper, and he worked damn hard to make it so. Kendrick wasnt some sort of prodigy; he didnt descend from his bassinet with a microphone and a composition book. Instead, he simply found something he loved and stuck with it. Through creative writing, he could say things on paper that he couldnt say out loud. He was shy, an only child until the age of seven. He grew up in Compton, California, in the early to mid-1990s, not even a decade after the citys police brutality and gang culture were immortalized by the rap group N.W.A in 1988. Young black and brown children had to navigate that land before they could fully comprehend street politics. They had to learn the differences between the Piru and Crips gangs on the fly, in a city where wrong decisions could mean the difference between life and death. Kendrick spent time alone, cultivating his art in hopes of becoming great. For a naturally quiet being like Kendrick, writing poetry gave him the space to reveal his innermost thoughts without judgment from others. Prowess came in silence.

Kendrick ascended to the top of the music industry by being himself and staying true to what drove him artistically. Hes been called esoteric and downright weird, but really hes just an old soul with a profound reverence for hip-hop, R&B, and funk black musicand he moves throughout life with Compton in his mind and heart. Maybe thats why hes so beloved, because he stresses the importance of home no matter where he goes.

Yet at the beginning of the 2010s, Kendrick was just another upstart lyricist trying to find his place in music. In July 2011, Kendrick released his first official album, the kaleidoscopic Section.80 , to an unknowing public just a month before hip-hop megastars Jay-Z and Kanye West dropped their long-awaited joint record, Watch the Throne , to widespread acclaim. Where that album unpacked the pleasures of hedonism and the glory of black decadence, Kendricks record was something different. It had everything: brassy jazz, mid-tempo soul, and headbanging street anthems. In it, one could hear Kendricks love of J Dillathe experimental hip-hop producer from Detroit, whose mix of hard drums and unique sampling techniques made him an icon in alternative rapas well as Pusha T, the resilient Virginia Beach rapper whose explicit lyrics cut straight to the heart. Kendrick was the cerebral introvert with theatrical flair, the quiet kid who patiently absorbed the fullness of his environment and spun what he saw into heartfelt streams of pain, struggle, and perseverance. Section.80 was deemed an achievement in an era of hip-hop in which lyricists could build sizable followings online without having to come up through local open mic circuits. And while it wasnt Kendricks first project (he had released five mixtapes before then2004s Hub City Threat: Minor of the Year , 2005s Training Day , 2007s No Sleep Til NYC with rapper Jay Rock, 2009s C4 , and 2010s Overly Dedicated ), Section.80 put the music industry on notice: theyd never seen a creative flair like Kendricks, and there was no doubt now he was here to stay.

Section.80 s acclaim set the stage for Kendricks next achievement, 2012s good kid, m.A.A.d city , an instant classic that catapulted him to heights for which he wasnt fully prepared. Powered by the singles Backseat Freestyle, Swimming Pools (Drank), and Bitch, Dont Kill My Vibe, Kendricks second studio album proved a massive hit, and almost overnight he went from enigmatic upstart to full-fledged superstar. Just two years later, in 2014, Kendrick was supposed to enjoy a grand coronation, at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, but destiny had a different timeline.

The twenty-six-year-old had pushed his way to the Staples Center, having dropped a steady stream of music that garnered universal acclaim and brightened his star to its most brilliant point. With guest appearances from hip-hop superstar Drake, and gangsta-rap-pioneer-turned-headphone-mogul Dr. Dre, good kid, m.A.A.d city debuted at number two on Billboard s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and sold more than 240,000 copies in its first week out. Kendrick had been dubbed L.A.s next great lyricist, another in a decades-long list of local rappers gone big. But Kendrick wasnt Dre. He wasnt Ice-T, Ice Cube, or Snoop Dogg. Those men had been synonymous with gangsta rap, a reality-based strain of hip-hop that documented L.A.s turbulent gang culture and systemic racism in searing detail. On good kid, m.A.A.d city , Kendrick presented himself as the conflicted soul with one foot on solid ground and the other in the streets. Hed survived the stress of L.A. gang culture to finally arrive at musics biggest night in downtown L.A.some fourteen miles from his childhood home at West 137th Street.

Thered been a palpable buzz leading up to this point, yet Kendrick didnt seem fazed by the moment. Despite all the pageantry that usually comes with the Grammys, there was a remarkable sense of calm on his face. It was like hed been there before, like he belonged in this environment. It was the gaze of a man whod already won, whether or not he collected hardware on that stage. Hed soon have the publics full attention, and the awards, well, thatd be icing on the cake. (He was never one to get hopped up on accolades, anyway.) There was also a hint of resignation in his eyes; the Recording Academy hadnt rewarded artists like Kendrick, at least not right away. They usually had to come around to people like him, eschewing his blend of intellectual street rap for palatable, pop-oriented work. Year after year, the industry rewarded safety, not the groundbreaking art of wise young poets.

But there he was anyway, dressed to the nines in a bespoke electric-blue tuxedo with his longtime girlfriend, Whitney Alford, at his side. Earlier that night, Kendrick had ignited the crowd with a brilliant performance of his track m.A.A.d city, with the high-profile rock group Imagine Dragons as the backing band. On a night of scintillating performances, Kendricks set was perhaps the strongest, foreshadowing what would become a regular run of iconic sets from the Compton rapper on the music industrys grandest stage. In the crowd, Taylor Swift, the industry-minted country artist turned pop star with a penchant for lovelorn breakup songs, swayed joyously on camera. Minutes later, with the music in full swing, Queen Latifah, the Afrocentric rap pioneer turned star actress, gazed delightfully at the stageher face teeming with pride, bewilderment, and pure excitement. This was arguably Kendricks crossover moment, the culmination of three years of steadily increased momentum.

Compton kids arent supposed to make it past the city limitsWillowbrook to the northwest or Paramount to the east. If you let the media tell it, those kids are not even supposed to make it out alive. Though the town wasnt the epicenter of violent crime it had once been in the 1980s and 90s, it was still fertile ground for gang activity, and by 2015, it would receive federal aid to help prevent gang violence and human trafficking while addressing the prevalence of narcotics and gun possession. Kendrick had Compton and a large swath of hip-hop culture on his sidethe gangbangers, the college kids, and the aging B-boys. He was the perfect combination of old- and new-school rap who could spit incisive rhymes in underground ciphers and beside the biggest pop stars. Hes the king, says Otis Madlib Jackson Jr., an acclaimed hip-hop producer from Oxnard with a sizable cult following. I knew he was the king when I first heard Section.80 . Hes the new king of the West Coast. And hes spiritual. Thats rare for West Coast artists. In the modern era of glossy pop hybrids driven by multimillion-dollar budgets, he was a throwback to raps golden era of the early to mid-1990s, when the complexity of ones lyrics was more important than the instrumentals underscoring them. Kendrick embodied that nostalgia, and for those who grew up listening to Dre, Cube, and Snoop, his music struck the right balance of past and present, navigating both worlds with incredible ease and fluidity. This wasnt just rap; Kendrick spoke to black and brown people on the grind, those who fought to make a way for themselves and their families against overwhelming odds. He was the voice of his community, even if the audience was much smaller.