1. Kendrick Lamar Duckworth was born on June 17,1987 and is an American rapper, songwriter and record producer.
51 Facts About Kendrick Lamar
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Kendrick Lamar signed with Top Dawg Entertainment in 2005 and co-founded the hip hop supergroup Black Hippy there.
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In 2015, Kendrick 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 six consecutive number-one albums on the Billboard 200.
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Kendrick Lamar 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".
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Kendrick Lamar Duckworth was born on June 17,1987, in Compton, California.
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Kendrick Lamar's cousins include basketball player Nick Young and rapper Baby Keem.
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Kendrick Lamar was introduced to police brutality after experiencing the first day of the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
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Kendrick Lamar's initial writing was entirely profane, but it helped him manage his psychological trauma and depression, which he struggled with during his adolescence.
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Kendrick Lamar graduated from high school in 2005 as a straight-A student.
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Kendrick Lamar's performances caught the attention of fellow student Dave Free, who traveled from Inglewood to watch him rap.
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Kendrick Lamar recorded five mixtapes throughout the 2000s; his first, Youngest Head Nigga in Charge, was released on April 15,2003, through Konkrete Jungle Musik.
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Kendrick Lamar was offered a recording contract by TDE in 2005, joining Jay Rock as the label's first signings.
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Kendrick Lamar released his second mixtape, Training Day, on December 30,2005.
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In 2006, Kendrick Lamar signed an artist development deal with Def Jam Recordings and was featured on two singles by the Game.
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Kendrick Lamar's third mixtape C4, released on January 30,2009, is a tribute project to Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III and was supported by his co-sign.
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Kendrick Lamar entered a brief relationship with Nitty Scott, and was featured on XXLs 2011 Freshman Class list.
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From September to October 2012, Kendrick Lamar headlined the BET Music Matters Tour with Black Hippy and Stalley.
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From October to December 2013, Kendrick Lamar opened for Kanye West on his Yeezus Tour, despite disapproval from his label and management team.
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Kendrick Lamar opened for Eminem on the Rapture Tour from February to July 2014.
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Whitney Alford, Kendrick Lamar's fiancee, contributed background vocals on select tracks.
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In support of To Pimp a Butterfly, Kendrick Lamar embarked on the Kunta's Groove Sessions Tour, which ran from October to November 2015 in select intimate venues across the US For his work on the album and other collaborations throughout the year, Kendrick Lamar earned 11 nominations at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards, the most by a rapper in a single night.
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On March 1,2017, during a cover story for T, Kendrick Lamar confirmed that he was working on his fourth album, Damn.
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At the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards, Kendrick Lamar opened the ceremony with a performance of "DNA" and "Humble".
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On January 4,2018, Kendrick Lamar announced that he would be curating and executive producing Black Panther: The Album, the soundtrack from the 2018 film.
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From May to June 2018, Kendrick Lamar co-headlined the Championship Tour with several TDE artists.
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Kendrick Lamar announced through an August 2021 blog post that he was in the process of producing his final album under TDE, confirming rumors that emerged the year before that he would be leaving to focus on PGLang.
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Kendrick Lamar co-headlined the Super Bowl LVI halftime show alongside Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 50 Cent, and Mary J Blige on February 13,2022, which won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special.
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Kendrick Lamar wrote, co-directed, and executive produced the short film adaptation of the song "We Cry Together", which was released worldwide in September 2022.
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In May 2023, Kendrick Lamar was featured on the standalone version of Beyonce's single "America Has a Problem" and appeared on Baby Keem's single "The Hillbillies".
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On February 9,2025, Kendrick Lamar performed at the Super Bowl LIX halftime show.
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Kendrick Lamar's show featured cameos and musical performances from SZA, Samuel L Jackson, Serena Williams, and Mustard.
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Kendrick Lamar's halftime show broke viewership records, becoming the most-watched Super Bowl performance of all time with 133.5 million viewers, surpassing for the first time Michael Jackson's 1993 Super Bowl XXVII halftime show.
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Kendrick Lamar signed on to produce a comedy feature with Free, Trey Parker and Matt Stone for Paramount Pictures, which is slated to be released on March 20,2026.
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Kendrick Lamar performed with Prince, who impacted his vocal register, at Paisley Park to celebrate the release of the latter's 2014 albums Plectrumelectrum and Art Official Age, which GQ described as "five minutes of brilliant insanity".
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Kendrick Lamar has been working with his longtime producer, Sounwave, since his 2009 self-titled EP.
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Kendrick Lamar's rhymes are typically manipulated within common time, allowing him to subtly control his metrical phonology and suggest formal ambiguities similar to pop and rock repertoires.
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MTV writes that by manipulating his voice, Kendrick Lamar calls back to a lineage that runs through James Brown's foundational work in the 1960s, 1970s psychedelia, Prince's "sweaty" phantasmagoria in the 1980s, and 1990s gangsta rap.
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Kendrick Lamar was ranked the tenth-best solo singer of the 21st century by The Times in 2023.
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Kendrick Lamar's critiques has been compared to the State of the Union Address by The Guardian, while Billboard described it as "Shakespearean".
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Insider Inc and CNN editors have opined that Kendrick Lamar is one of the most influential musicians of the 2010s decade, deeming him a paradigm shift in contemporary hip hop and popular culture.
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Kendrick Lamar's music has consistently garnered critical acclaim, commercial success, as well as support from artists who have paved the way for his advancement.
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In 2011, Kendrick Lamar crafted an original song with record producer Nosaj Thing to promote Microsoft's Windows Phone in 2011.
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Kendrick Lamar starred alongside DJ Calvin Harris and singer Ellie Goulding in a marketing campaign for Bacardi in 2014.
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Kendrick Lamar donated to the American Red Cross in November 2012 to support victims of Hurricane Sandy.
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In December 2013, Kendrick Lamar donated $50,000 to his alma mater, Centennial High School, in support of its music department.
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Kendrick Lamar embarked on a small concert tour in 2014, and donated all of the revenue to Habitat for Humanity and his hometown.
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In July 2017, Kendrick Lamar purchased a wheelchair-accessible van for a quadriplegic fan.
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Kendrick Lamar joined a peace walk in June 2020 to protest against the murder of George Floyd and the killing of Breonna Taylor.
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In June 2024, Kendrick Lamar spearheaded a $200,000 donation to 20 charities and community initiatives based in Los Angeles.
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In May 2015, Kendrick Lamar was declared a generational icon by the California State Senate for his contributions to music and philanthropy.
51.
Kendrick Lamar served as Compton College's surprise commencement speaker on June 7,2024.