For anyone looking to understand why he's likely one of the best lyricists/storytellers of our time, here's some recommended songs from him:
* Sing About Me, I'm Dying Of Thirst
* Momma
* Wesley's Theory
I'd recommend checking out his projects as a whole (Section.80, Good Kid m.a.a.d City, To Pimp a Butterfly), but those songs distill a lot of what's best in him.
Collect Calls
The Art of Peer Pressure
How Much Dollar Cost (Obamas fabourite song)
Blacker The Berry
FEAR
When I was 15 I read Tupac's The Rose That Grew From Concrete, which helped me understand my neighborhood (I was the only white guy). Kendrick Lamar brought similar feelings in me. The toughest album to listen to is Section 80; It’s not polished but it’s powerful.
To find focus in this comment, I suggest that we all look for ways to improve our own understanding and compassion. If you've “made it”, please consider doing something for others. Monetary help is great but if just 1 in 100 people donates their time it might render higher impact. Teach code in a local school, sort clothing in good will, work in your particular house of worship, or lend a hand in a soup kitchen.
I apologize if I sound preachy, that is not my intent.
Disclaimer: I know this dude's cousin. Regardless, this is exactly what taking initiative looks like (with a large sprinkle of education). https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IH9AruhN4X4
I believe this was debunked numerous times.
I think, more importantly, it was also made specifically for white folks who needed to hear the message.
Sure, everyone I know in the AA community knows Kendrick...but they’re also already vehemently aware of the issues.
I’m glad TPAB had the reach it did. Not only is it, message-wise, one of the most important pieces of media in the last 10 years at least, but from a compositional, production standpoint, it still has yet to be surpassed. Many will try. I’ll be shocked if any succeed for the next decade.
What TPAB does, for white folk like me, who can’t directly relate to the message, is prove that we should be acknowledging these issues from the white community...as some of the most talented African-Americans in the world got together (Dr. See, Pharrel Williams, Flying Lotus, just to name a few?) to just project this hyper-clear message to everyone - the African-American community is intelligent, brilliant, socio-politically aware AF and are fully capable of putting forward a message in a far clearer way than I’ve seen most white folks do in the last decade.
I mean, let’s face it. Can we name one album from all the top 40 white producers or musicians that has meant half as much in the last ten years?
This is the most important message that TPAB brings.
For all the damage hip hop did to the AA image in the early 00’s, it’s worst era by far, TPAB is undoing.
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For me, it read like a typical album review that has no point besides getting clicks from people who mistakenly look for insight from entertainment.
He thought he was finsihed writing his book and coincidentally listened to a ballad by Tom waits which left such an impression on him that he changed the ending of the book that won him the nobel prize.
In his own words "The song is sung in the voice of a rough American hobo type utterly unaccustomed to wearing his emotions on his sleeve. And there comes a moment, when the singer declares his heart is breaking, that’s almost unbearably moving because of the tension between the sentiment itself and the huge resistance that’s obviously been overcome to utter it. Waits sings the line with cathartic magnificence, and you feel a lifetime of tough-guy stoicism crumbling in the face of overwhelming sadness."
This goes to show that insight can come from entertainment.
Also Kendrick has numerous songs with similar emotion evoking moments as the one described by Ishiguro.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/dec/06/kazuo-ishiguro...
It's a great anecdote. I knew exactly what point in the book Kazuo was referring to.
Every now and again, you get a movie like The Matrix, that's both entertaining and thought provoking. Those are entertainment unicorns, as evidenced by the sequels that had nothing thought provoking left, but were still somewhat entertaining.
When it comes to art - if you knew how much shit art gets made and never sees the light of day, you could argue entertainment and art are both equally devoid of almost any value, including insight, to anyone.
Most entertainment, even the ones which pretend to have some "meaning" is just consumed for dopamine rush.
I’m a white, late 20’s woman and I still have found an inability to ignore K.Dot’s wisdom through the medium. His lyricism and presentation is unparalleled in modern mainstream music.
I imagine you’re not a fan of Kubrick, either, because he makes his points with brutal violence?
Seeing past the medium into the message is the quintessential hallmark of being a true, educated critic.
Otherwise you’re just commenting on your taste, which is fine, but contributes nothing to the conversation.
