Case Study: Kendrick Lamar by Kyla Ogilvie

Kendrick Lamar Bio

ogilviek2 — 2023-11-08 18:50:36 UTC

Kendrick Lamar was born and raised in Compton, California on June 17, 1987, and is now 36. His parents named him after Eddie Kendrick who was part of the Temptations and had one sister and three brothers being the eldest sibling. During his childhood, he grew up during dangerous street activities becoming influenced by it by often writing lyrics or poems as a straight-A good student. Later on around the age of 16, he started performing his lyrics as a rapper called K-Dot creating a series of mix tapes like one called "Youngest Head Nigga in Charge" drawing a lot of interest in other people in Southern California. This led to the start of Kendrick's music career earning him a record deal with Top Dawg Entertainment. After Kendrick continued creating a series of mixed tapes and later on his first album. Then he signed off with another record deal with Dr. Dre dropping the K-Dot to Kendrick Lamar creating more albums to become the hip-hop artist we know today with a West Coast rap hip-hop and jazz rap style of music.

How Kendrick Lamar Inspired Me

ogilviek2 — 2023-11-17 18:39:09 UTC

As someone with a Black Hispanic ethnicity, I grew up with both Spanish, old hip-hop, and R&B music liking the sound of that type of music more. In addition, my Dad is the one who mostly introduced me to hip-hop and new music since he grew up in New York and is now a part-time DJ. So when he introduced me to Kendrick Lamar and as I listened to his music it made me feel closer to my Dad as I related to Kendrick's lyrics in the songs. To add on, I liked his vibe with the beats and the way he rapped allowing me to hear the message in his songs. When it comes to poetry I tend to not like or hate it since usually I don't understand the meaning, but with Kendrick Lamar's use of poetry in his lyrics I understood them making me see that not all types of poetry are the same. Some of my favorite songs from him are DNA and United in Grief with the lyrics standing out to me like the lyric "I got loyalty inside my DNA". In the end, Kendrick Lamar inspires me with the use of his poetry in music and the way he incorporates his life experiences as a black male.

Lyric Analysis of Alright

ogilviek2 — 2023-12-01 19:14:45 UTC

In the song Alright by the rapper Kendrick Lamar he tells a story with his lyrics about his struggles as a black person in poverty and police brutality, showing that he still holds on to hope. For example, the lines, "And we hate po-po, wanna kill us dead in the street for sure, n*", show police brutality and racism. Other lines in the song like, "I can see the evil, I can tell it I know when it's illegal, I don't think about it, I deposit every other zero" ... and "diggin' in my pocket ain't a profit, big enough to feed you, everyday my logic, get another dollar just to keep you, in the presence of your chico ah!". These lines represent being in poverty and having to do illegal activities to have enough money. To sum up, the repeating lines in the song Alright, "we been hurt, been down before, n*, when our pride was low lookin' at the world like, "Where do we go, n*?" leading to the line "but we gon' be alright". With these lines it shows that every person has a low time in life but if you hold on to hope you'll be "alright".

B**** Don't Kill My Vibe Inspirational Lyrics

ogilviek2 — 2023-12-04 18:58:30 UTC

The song B**** Don't Kill My Vibe by Kendrick Lamar inspired me with the simple meaning of needing to be alone or independent to grow and focus on oneself. For example the lyrics, "I am a sinner, who's probably gonna sin again" lead to the lyrics, "Things I don't understand, sometimes I need to be alone". These lyrics made me realize I will make mistakes, learning that it's okay if I need to step back and be alone. Another lyric that stood out to me was, "Look inside of my soul and you can find gold and maybe get rich". When Kendrick rapped that part in the song it inspired me to start focusing on myself to help me succeed in my own goals. In the end, my favorite lyric in the whole song was, "B**** don't kill my vibe" because I thought it was catching and it had a simple meaning of wanting to be independent with my vibe. In the end, the song B**** Don't Kill My Vibe has a catchy beat with a meaning some people can relate to, overall is another good song to listen to by Kendrick Lamar.

Geographical - Compton California

ogilviek2 — 2023-12-11 18:30:49 UTC

Compton, California is located in Southern California and had a high amount of gangs in the 80s and 90s. Furthermore, there was a high rise of murders due the the gangs and gun violence. All this Kendrick Lamar had to go through when growing up in Compton. This led to him doing things like drinking and other bad things due to his violent environment and friends. Most fans of Kendrick Lamar know that he's from Compton California by some of his songs through his lyrics as he tells the story of how he grew up in Compton with the album "the good kid m.A.A.d city". During this album, he tells a story of his childhood to how is changing into his present-day self. For example in the song "The Art of Peer Pressure", he raps these lyrics "smokin' on the finest dope...drank until I can't no more...really I'm a sober soul, but I'm with the homies right now. This describes that due to living in a violent culture with drinking and drugs seemed normalized he often got peer pressured by his friends who lived in the street life of Compton. In the end, Kendrick's violent upbringing living in Compton left an impact on him in his music as he told the stories of his childhood through his lyrics.

Fashion Post

ogilviek2 — 2023-12-15 18:29:08 UTC

Early in Kendrick Lamar's career his fashion style had been the same type of laid back style look compared to other rappers. Often wearing hoodies with nike sneakers or with a layering of jackets with a streetwear look. However over the past several years he announced he was going to be "best dressed moving forward". This was when we started to see Kendrick wearing more designer clothing like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and other designer brands mixing it with his streetwear look. For example at the 2022 Superbowl Halftime Show you could see him wearing a Louis Vuitton all black suit, with gold jeweled accessories, pairing it with black leather gloves and boots. Another example is his outfit at the 2023 Met Gala where he was dressed by Chanel with a white-tee underneath a black leather jacket, black pants with a Chanel scarf tied around his waist, wearing a LA Dogers black cap backwards. To sum up as Kendrick Lamar grew to fame we can now see him dive down more to his own fashion style.

Artists that Influence Kendrick Lamar

ogilviek2 — 2023-12-18 19:24:36 UTC

As raised during the 1990s to early 2000s many second-generation artists influenced Kendrick Lamar's music and inspired him. Some artists that have influenced and inspired Kendrick are Dr. Dre, Tupac, and Snoop Dogg. Kendrick Lamar has always been a fan of Tupac because he grew up in the same environment and thought that Tupac could have made a significant impact by showing life on the streets through his music. Another West Coast rapper that inspired Kendrick was Snoop Dogg who related to him on the fact that they both grew up in California. But probably arguably the artist that had the most influence on Kendrick and his music would be Dr. Dre both of them grew up in the streets of Compton, California, and the use of storytelling Dr. Dre could use some of his music as you can see Kendrick uses also in his music. So as you can see a lot of West Coast second-generation rappers inspired and influenced Kendrick Lamar's music career.

Protest Post

ogilviek2 — 2024-01-05 19:26:09 UTC

Many music artists create music to spread important messages about problems in society. Hip-hop artist rapper Kendrick Lamar has many songs that try to spread the message of racism and police brutality. A popular song by Kendricks spreads those messages in the song "Alright", using lyrics like," and we hate po-po... wanna kill us dead in the street for sure, n****". This song became a chant for a protest movement for Black Lives Matter in the summer in Cleveland in 2015. The group of protestors was holding a conference on the Clevland University campus about police brutality cases against black people. When then the protestors started to witness a young black boy being questioned by the police about drinking. Wanting to protect the boy the people started to record and help the boy not get arrested, where finally the boy's mother arrived and the cops let the matter go. After just witnessing the police letting the matter go they started to chant the familiar lyrics of, "We gon' be alright". So although Kendrick had not intended to use his song "Alright" in the protest the message of his music was spread and impacted the lives of black culture, showing a sign of hope against police brutality at that time.