Kendrick Lamar is the “greatest ” rapper: The New York Times
Kendrick Lamar, the Grammy-winning American rapper & songwriter, is named the “greatest” rapper of this generation by The New York Times.
The New York Times name Kendrick Lamar as the "greatest" rapper of this generation 👀 pic.twitter.com/RXn01s9soO
— Daily Loud (@DailyLoud) December 27, 2022
Lamar is frequently cited as one of the essential hip-hop musicians of his time due to his refined musical tastes and socially aware songwriting. Lamar started his career as a teenager by performing under the stage name K. Dot. He was born and reared in Compton, California. He attracted local recognition immediately, and in 2005, Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) offered him a recording deal.
After joining Black Hippy as a founding member, Lamar stopped using his stage name and began using his first and middle names in the workplace. His first studio album, Section.80, a conscious hip-hop song, was released in 2011.
The debut track from his album, “HiiiiPower,” received favorable reviews. Kendrick Lamar signed a record deal with Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment in 2012 and issued his second studio album, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, through Interscope Records. The West Coast and gangsta rap album, which featured the singles “Backseat Freestyle,” “Swimming Pools (Drank),” and “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe,” received worldwide critical acclaim as well as financial success.
To Pimp a Butterfly, Lamar’s jazz-infused third studio album, was inspired by a trip to South Africa (2015). It was universally praised and rose to the top of the Billboard 200 chart, becoming his first. With Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” remix, he reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time that year. Lamar’s fourth studio album, Damn, featured R&B, pop, and psychedelic soul experiments (2017). The first non-classical and non-jazz piece to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, it gave rise to his first solo number-one record, “Humble.”
Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers (2022), Lamar’s minimalist fifth studio album that acted as his farewell to TDE, was released after a four-year sabbatical. With his creative partner Dave Free, with whom he co-founded the creative collective PGLang, he has directed and produced several music videos and movies.
Kendrick Lamar’s studio albums have received platinum or higher certification from the Recording Industry Association of America due to domestic sales of over 70 million copies alone (RIAA). Throughout his career, he has achieved several accolades, including 14 Grammys, a Primetime Emmy, two American Music Awards, six Billboard Music Awards, eleven MTV Video Music Awards, a Brit Award, and an Academy Award nomination. He received the MTV Hottest MC title in The Game (2012).
The New Chapter from Kendrick Lamar Is Raw, Intimate, and Unrestrained
This generation’s best rapper is pushing himself commercially and creatively into uncharted territory with the help of his longtime companion Dave Free.
Kendrick’s final album, “Mr. Morale &The Big Steppers,” was released by Top Dawg Entertainment (T.D.E. ). This company helped him become a household name by spotting and developing his potential. Before the announcement of his departure from T.D.E., which left fans perplexed, he had previously reported on his website that he and his longstanding partner, Dave Free, would be founding their own business, pgLang. That information was communicated via a mysterious press release and a bizarre short film that even Dave conceded to me “had nothing to do with the company.”
Dave, a pivotal contributor to Kendrick’s visual style and a member of the show’s creative team, watches it with me from the risers. Dave, a former D.J. and in-house music producer for T.D.E., collaborated with his Day 1 homeboy to produce some of the most well-known music videos of the last ten years, and he has the credentials to back it up. He is, however, making more solo-credited work of late, including clever, fashionable films and ad campaigns, demonstrating that he is a force unto himself.
Years ago, when Dave was a teenager enamored with all the new technology, and Kendrick was the first person he’d encountered “who didn’t care about the [crap] that all the kids cared about,” they formed a creative relationship. Kendrick is rooted in narrative, while Dave thinks in images and tools.
