In today’s risk-averse, manufactured, mostly social message-free music world, it’s rare than an artist would have an impact like Kendrick Lamar.
Most mainstream music stars try to stay out of the social-political game, choosing to instead churn out party music with DJ Mustard-produced beats full of booming 808s, hi-hats and a number of other sounds created in a lab.
Lamar isn’t like most mainstream music stars.
Instead of hopping on bandwagons, he creates them, priding himself on his ability to be different. Though some hesitate to call him legendary or iconic this early in his career, he’s cemented his status. The Compton rapper checks all the boxes of a true music legend.
Creating iconic music has been no problem for Lamar. His first two full-length albums, “Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City” and “To Pimp a Butterfly,” have been considered two of the greatest rap albums of the decade, maybe of all time. With “Good Kid,” Lamar lured listeners with songs like “Swimming Pools” and “Backseat Freestyle.” This year’s “To Pimp a Butterfly” was a true masterpiece that netted him 11 Grammy nominations and five wins.
While Lamar’s music has always had a message, “To Pimp a Butterfly” exemplified it. The album is full of passion, fury and pain, as Lamar wrestles with the demons of his past in Compton, California and the present and future of black people in America. Songs like “The Blacker the Berry,” “King Kunta” and “Alright” stand out as works of powerful hip-hop art. It’s the kind of album that makes you uncomfortable to listen to the truth. But you just know what you’re listening to is important.
“Alright” shows Lamar’s ability to make iconic music, as the song has been inducted into the pantheon of black protest music. From Compton to Chicago to Washington, D.C., protesters are chanting “Alright” as a civil rights anthem, a hopeful rallying cry for the oppressed. That’s a powerful and extremely rare thing to witness in 2016.
As for live performances, Lamar has become a force in recent years, and nowhere was that better showcased than at this year’s Grammys. Lamar and his backup dancers walked out in chains to the stage, setup like a jail, wearing prison garb, as Lamar shouted “I’m the biggest hypocrite of 2015,” getting ready to go into “The Blacker The Berry.”

He then moved to “Alright” on a stage now set up with a live bonfire and dancers wearing African dress. The performance was a tour de force medley of “To Pimp a Butterfly” and “untitled unmastered.” tracks that concluded with a large projection of the continent of Africa marked by a star with the word “Compton.” No words can do this amazing performance justice, it must be seen to be understood.
His latest surprise release, “untitled unmastered.,” went number one on Billboard, selling 178,000 units its first week. While surprise albums and mixtapes aren’t new, the risk was in the music itself.
Much like “To Pimp a Butterfly” was a creative risk to sell to an audience so used to trap beats and little depth, “untitled unmastered.” tackled much of the same thought-provoking subject matter as the album.
This is an artist who doesn’t seem to care about hopping on trends. He doesn’t care if you don’t like his experimentation with jazz or soul. He doesn’t care if you want more “Good Kid” and less “Butterfly.” As he says in his “Black Friday” track, “I merged jazz fusion with the trap music. I mixed black soul with some rock and roll. They never box me in. I’m David Blaine-ing all you h—.”
Perhaps the most important aspect of being a music legend is talent, and Lamar has it by the metric ton. His ability to create works of lyrical perfection with important messages that maintain the ear of the listener throughout is unmatched. Plus, he’s got bars for days.
People no longer compare Lamar to his contemporaries, they compare him to rap moguls like Jay Z, lyrical geniuses like Nas, otherworldly figures like Tupac Shakur and Biggie, men whose names are always on the tip of your tongue when thinking of the hip-hop elite.
No, Lamar is nothing like his peers in the music game. He’s already surpassed them.
Kayla Randall 22-year-old mass communication senior from New Orleans, Louisiana.