Coming out of the shadows

Kendrick Lamar is a well-known and respected rapper. Born on June 17, 1987 in Compton, California, he is a rapper, artistic director and actor. He began his career as a rapper in 2003 with his first mixtape at the age of 16. He then signed a contract with Top Dawg Entertainment to create and release his second mixtape, Training Day. But it wasn't until 2010 that Lamar began to make a serious name for himself with his track Ignorance Is Bliss, which caught the attention of famous rappers Dr. Dre and Snoop Dog.

Anecdote :

After working with Kendrick Lamar and participating in his development, Snoop Dog considers him a rap king. In an interview, he says:

I get to stand back and watch young people do what they do. I mean, I did my thing for about 20 years as the king of the West Coast, I gave the crown to Kendrick Lamar, well I didn't give it to him; to tell you the truth he took it, but I had to take it off my head and give it to him."

His resurrection in music

In 2022, he returned to solo work after four years without an album, his last being Black Panther, a multi-artist collaborative album that formed the soundtrack to the Marvel Studios film Black Panther. He thus releases his fifth album Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, a very important part of his discography and surely the most intimate.

In this album, he raps about themes such as superficiality, media manipulation, politics, racism, the system and hypocrisy. The rapper tackles everything while varying his style, he is in a way featuring by himself. Indeed, music critic Alexis Petridis reported that

"The tone of his performance changes so dramatically and so often that it feels less like a one-man show and more like a series of guest appearances."