Kendrick Lamar is a critically acclaimed rapper artist and songwriter best known for his fresh new style of Hip-Hop and his views on life in Southern California. He is still fairly new to rap considering he's only been in the limelight for about six years. As of recent he has made headlines by winning his first Grammy for his album To Pimp a Butterfly. Kendrick Lamar DuckWorth was born on June 17, 1987, in Compton, California. His parents moved away from Chicago to escape the city’s gang life, when they were only teenagers. Although Kendrick's father was associated with the local Gangster Disciples gang in chicago. It was later reported that kendrick's father joined the Pirus Bloods in Compton. During the majority of his childhood, Kendrick …show more content…
In 1995, when Kendrick was eight, he witnessed his Idols, Dr. Dre and Tupac Shakur film the music video for their new hit single California Love. Lamar would go onto say that was one of the most important influential experiences in his rap career. Lamar's family was very poor. Both his mom and dad worked in fast food. When asked about his early childhood hs said “My pops did whatever he could to get money. He was in the streets. You know the story.” They were on welfare at the time. “I remember always walking to the government building with mom. We got our food stamps fast because we lived across the street,” says Lamar, laughing. “I didn’t know it was hard times because they always had my Christmas present under the tree and for my birthday.” Kendrick spent his high school years at Centennial High School in Compton. He was a straight-A student all throughout his time in high school. He was a quiet soft-spoken kid who enjoyed writing first stories, poems, and then that eventually evolved into …show more content…
When Kendrick was young he had many tragic experiences, even going as far as to saying he witnessed someone be shot in the head. If this is the case that means those traumatic experiences caused some degree of anxiety and to deal with that anxiety the ego portion of his brain enacts some defense mechanisms. This is my reasoning for the Psychoanalytic Perspective. Kendrick is using a certain degree of displacement when rapping his songs. In some songs when he talks about sensitive issues such as “m.A.A.d city” and “u” he channels his anger of people through his raps by emotionally shouting his lyrics as if he wanted to tell them that to their faces. Also during his childhood he liked to write a lot about what was happening to him, this was another way for him to displace his stress. I also believe there to be a certain level of repression being used. As a child it was clear that Kendrick was a soft spoken kid, I believe in order to remain that way, Kendrick would have had to repressed some of those traumatic experiences he witnessed in his early life. Another one of those traumatic experiences would be when he was around 5 years old his house got shot up while him and his mother were eating pb&js
When listening to rap music we get to experience the environments that the MC lived through. Most MC’s use music as a way of coping with reality, their violent and hard life. In this way they find a kind of shelter in their songs even though these songs describe their life and how hard it is.
On a lighter note, he explains his inspirations for his dream of making music in the song ‘Juicy.’ Biggie’s writing went in depth to show his audience where he came from and to also inspire other artists working their way up in the music industry. Lastly, Kendrick Lamar’s piece Good Kid m.A.A.d City is a coming of age story from the perspective of teenage Kendrick living in Compton, California. This album shows the dark side of Kendrick’s life, as well as his lighter moments of aspiration. There are vivid depictions of violence that he endured as a teen, as well as the influence of money and power.
“Kanye Ran onto the stage saying, ‘I'm sorry, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time!’” (Top 10 Outrageous Kanye West Moments), says Kanye West at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards after Taylor Swift had just won “Best Female Video.” People that are like this have typically not always been this way. They were probably raised as a polite and respectful person before they were exposed to fame and fortune, and other “celebrities,” making them feel like they are the only people on the planet. Causing them to do things like that. Although, Kanye West is an amazing musician based on his 14 Grammy Awards and multiple albums going “Double-Platinum” (Manheim, James M., and Carol Brennan). He fell victim to fame and fortune, and turned into an arrogant and overconfident person making him more popular and praised among media. But looked down upon by everyday people. Kanye Omari West, born on June 8th, 1977, is a world famous rapper who, like all other celebrities, started out like a nice person who made nice music for nice families to listen to. West was a confident and competitive person even as a child, “He was determined even then to get out of his crib and be free, even if he split his head in the process—and he did. He has fought ever since to do exactly what he wanted to do—no matter what,” says Donda West, his mother in her book, Raising Kanye: Life Lessons from the Mother of a Hip-Hop Superstar. By the time West was ten, he was already creating his own raps, and according to the people around him, he was pretty good at it even at that young of an age. (Manheim, James M., and Carol Brennan) West was not too interested in school as he grew up, but he was able to get by because of his talent. If he dropped out of one ...
Raised as an only child, Dwayne Micheal Carter Jr or more commonly referred to as Lil Wayne, was born September 27th, 1982, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Carter’s mother was only 19 years old when he was first born. He was being raised by both his mother and father until his father abandoned them while Dwayne Jr. was only two years old. After being abandoned by his biological father, his mother was forced to take care of him on her own and survive in the crime infested community of Holly grove, New Orleans. Even though he divorced his mother and remarried, his father forced the two live with his own mother and came by to abuse Lil Wayne’s mother on a consistent basis.This situation went on for three years until Lil Wayne’s mother eventually remarried and relocated to a different part of town. Growing up he did very well in school. He was actually enrolled in his school’s gifted program at a point and received top grades. He got into music at a very young age and wrote his first rap song at the age of eight. Lil Wayne had the drive to be the best and successful at his craft since he first began. At the age of nine he was challenging others twice his age and older at rapping. He would consistently go to neighborhood parties or events to rap and most of the time he was better then whatever adult he was going against. As a testament to this, at the age of nine he start receiving attention from one of the two co-founders of his future label, Slim Williams. From Slim, he then received other co-founder, Bryan Williams, phone number and what he did with it after that was truly caught the Bryan’s attention. He continuously called the number over and over leaving rap songs on the voicemail of Williams until he agreed to meet him in person...
His upbringing is one of an average american citizen. Being raised by his mother Donda West was a English professor lead to him living an average life. His parents divorced when he was very young. Showing interests in the ars at a very young age is something that kept promise. He took under the wing of DJ No I,D at the young age of 15, here is where he learned how to sample and mix beats.Kanye Graduated High School with decent grades and was off to Chicago State University.. He began dropped out of College at the age of 20 to focus on his music as opposed to what he was majoring which was English. He made it big by producing a majority of the songs on rapper Jay Z’s “The Blueprint”. He was still looked down upon as only a producer and not a artist. This was because he came from an a middle class upbringing. The Industry did not see him to fit in with Gangster Rap during that time period. While making his first debut album he Kanye West fell asleep behind the wheel and got into a serious car crash on which he almost died.Kanye West still worked on the album in the hospital, requesting a drum machine to be brought to the hospital. Here he recorded his his single on his First album “Through the Wire” rapping with his mouth wired shut from surgery, From his Debut album “The College Dropout” Kanye West changed the innovated the style of Hip-Hop. As stated before Gangster rap wasn't the only thing
Songs are one way of expressing feelings and emotion, many artist do this constantly in their music. To some it is why they make music. There are endless signs and verses that hint at many things such as problems, politics, living in racist era’s also places. I chose to focus on one main rapper and his music only. I chose to examine, review, and study a few of his songs. Kid cudi grew up in cleveland, Ohio. His father passed away when he was a young age which affected the kid ever since. He writes about living his life and having to go through many obstacles
Tupac Amaru Shakur born in East Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City. His birth name was Lesane Parish Crooks, June 16 1971. His both parents were members of the Black Panther Party. Tupac Shakur was a vocal participant during the East Coast and West Coast hip hop rivalry. He went to High School in California and Maryland. His career brought him back to New York City. Forget about his education and family background, thinking about how he put himself into his career so successfully. To succeed and accomplishment that made him in legacy…..
Most rap songs about relationships are used as a way to preach about power, money and status. What makes Lamar’s video LOYALTY unique is that he took a different approach on the overused narrative. Kendrick Lamar’s video LOYALTY is a creative platform which uses movement through visual effects and camera angles to demonstrate hypermasculinity and active female roles through the scenes which together, tell a story of power and loyalty within a
I was so interested in the truth that I suspended my assumptions about West as I pursued more information through research, giving me an objective lens. It truly rattled me to have been so wrong in my assumptions, it felt weird to know that because of something I didn’t know, I had believed something. It genuinely shook my self-confidence. I really prided myself on my knowledge of Hip-Hop, I thought I knew all the classic albums, how could I have overlooked this one for so long? So, jolted by this sting of self embarrassment, I searched further, I wanted to know what else I had been oblivious to. It became increasingly clearer to me that there were two completely opposite views about Kanye, the more popular view: he’s a worthless egotistical pop star, who’s created nothing of value, and, as I was shocked to learn over time, the informed view, and the truth, that he was and is one the most influential artists of the 21’st
Kanye Omari West was born in Atlanta, Georgia on June, 8 1977. His mom and him soon relocated to Chicago, Illinois after his parents divorced. Kanye spent all of his youth life in Chicago. He spent his time during the school year with his mother, who was an English professor, and spent summers with his dad, who was an award-winning photographer then turned church counselor. “I was taught to think on my own growing up, that’s what a lot of black kids don’t get” (Newsmakers 2). During his time in high school he became friends with producer No I.D., who was working with the rapper Common prior to him becoming famous. This is where Kanye got his beginnings in the producing industry. Kanye wen...
Whether it’s activities you enjoy doing or your hopes and aspirations in life to your deepest darkest secrets or phobias no one else is allowed to know; a lot of things contribute to building one’s identity. Your identity can be discovered through understanding yourself. Kendrick Lamar, a conscious rapper, is a big advocate for expressing himself through his music. From reminiscing about the life of gang violence and gun life he narrowly escaped on songs like “M.A.A.D City” on his second studio album Good Kid, M.A.A.D City to exploring his deepest insecurities that come with the fame and success he’s reached on songs like “u” on his third studio album To Pimp a Butterfly. Kendrick does not have a hard time exploring his emotions and expressing them in the form of music. His latest record DAMN was released earlier this year on April 14th, 2017. DAMN was Kendricks most discoherent album to date as it featured a lineup that contradicted each other in terms of chronological order. Due to it’s contradicting characteristics, the album can be divided into two: “The Saved Man” and “The Damned Man”. In the concept album DAMN by artist Kendrick Lamar, he
Trayvon Martin also has grown up in the poor family. His parents got divorced since he was very
Tupac Shakur was an actor and a rapper. He was born in Harlem, New York on June 16, 1971, as Lesane Parish Crooks. Both his mother and father were members of the Black Panthers, which later in his career influenced his political views in his songs .At the age of 13, he began his acting career in the production, “Raisin in the Sun” at the Apollo Theater. Tupac’s mother was single mother of two and struggled with money, forcing them to move around a lot and often stay in shelters.Tupac went to Baltimore School of Arts before dropping out and moving to Marin County in California at the age of 17.
Tupac Amaru Shakur was an African-American rapper, poet, and record producer during the 1990’s. In his adolescent years, he attended the Baltimore School for the Arts where he took acting and dance classes, like ballet. He was taught radical politics by his mother, which helped him develop ideas about topics he would later use in his many works. At an early age, Tupac had seen the injustices of the real world. His mother was a former Black Panther activist who turned to substance abuse during Tupac’s childhood. Aside from that, he and his mother also moved many times while they lived together in New York City. While Tupac was in Baltimore, he discovered rap; not long after, he and his mother moved to the West Coast where he joined the rap group
Two line Kendrick that is significantly repeated through the course of the song is “Me and the homies” and “I’m with the homies”. The use of repetition with these specific line is in place to emphasize the changed character Kendrick displays when he around his friends. In repeating this line he shows that he is with his friends thus being the reason why he does some of the thin he is doing. This repetition is in effect for example, when Kendrick says “Rush a n**ga quick and then we laugh about it. That’s ironic ‘cause I’ve never been violent, until I’m with the homies”. The Compton rapper explains in that line that he and his friend just robbed another man and he isn’t normally violent or would do such a thing unless he is with his friends. “got the blunt in my mouth Usually I’m drug-free, but shit I’m with the homies” is another example of his character changing due to the pressures he receives from his friends. “The character's drug use is not so much a choice of pleasure as it is a puerile bid for attention” (Coates). Usually he is drug free, but when he is with his friends he smokes and does drugs. Another use of repetition includes the line “One day, it’s gon’ burn you out”. Kendrick’s mother repeats this phrase to him over and over, foreshadowing that if he continues being with his friend and being pressured to participate in the