Kendrick Lamar

Kendrick Lamar Duckworth (born June 17, 1987) is an American rapper. Regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time, he was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music, becoming the first musician outside of the classical and jazz genres to receive the honor.

Born in Compton, California, Lamar began releasing music under the stage name K.Dot while attending high school. He signed with Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) in 2005, and co-founded the hip hop supergroup Black Hippy there. Following the 2011 release of his alternative rap debut album ''Section.80'', Lamar secured a joint contract with Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records. He rose to prominence with his gangsta rap-influenced second album ''Good Kid, M.A.A.D City'' (2012), which became the longest-charting hip hop studio album in ''Billboard'' 200 history; ''Rolling Stone'' named it the greatest concept album of all time. In 2015, Lamar scored his first ''Billboard'' Hot 100 number-one single, after featuring on the remix of Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood", and released his third album, ''To Pimp a Butterfly'', which infused hip-hop with historical African-American music genres such as jazz, funk, and soul, and became his first of five consecutive number-one albums on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart.

Lamar's critical and commercial success continued with his R&B and pop-leaning fourth album ''Damn'' (2017), yielding his second US number-one single, "Humble". He curated original songs for the soundtrack of the 2018 film ''Black Panther'', earning a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Song for the US top-ten single "All the Stars". His ''Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers'' (2022) double album concluded his tenure with TDE and Aftermath. His 2024 feud with Drake spawned the US number-ones "Like That" and "Not Like Us", with the latter winning a joint-record five Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year and Record of the Year. His sixth album, ''GNX'' (2024), produced the US number-one singles "Squabble Up" and "Luther".

Lamar has received various accolades, including 22 Grammy Awards (the third-most won by a rapper), a Primetime Emmy Award, a Brit Award, 4 American Music Awards, 7 ''Billboard'' Music Awards, 11 MTV Video Music Awards (including 2 Video of the Year wins), and a record 37 BET Hip Hop Awards. ''Time'' listed him as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2016. Three of his works were included in ''Rolling Stone''s 2020 revision of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. His Super Bowl LIX halftime show in 2025, the first headlined by a solo rapper, broke viewership records, with 133.5 million viewers domestically. Outside of music, Lamar co-founded the creative company PGLang and ventured into film with his longtime creative partner, Dave Free. Provided by Wikipedia