Line #52 Awesome/KendrickLamar


1	* All of 'Compton', the last song on ''good kid, m.A.A.d city''. Kendrick trades bars with Music/DrDre, which represents a passing of the torch from Dre to Kendrick.
2	* The last verse of m.A.A.d city.
3	-->''If I told you I killed a nigga at 16, would you believe me?\
4	Or see me to be innocent Kendrick you seen in the street\
5	With a basketball and some Now & Laters to eat\
6	If I mentioned all of my skeletons, would you jump in the seat?\
7	Would you say my intelligence now is great relief?\
8	And it's safe to say that our next generation maybe can sleep\
9	With dreams of being a lawyer or doctor\
10	Instead of boy with a chopper that hold the cul-de-sac hostage\
11	Kill them all if they gossip, the Children of the Corn\
12	They vandalizing, the option of living a lie, drown their body with toxins\
13	Constantly drinking and drive, hit the powder then watch this flame\
14	That arrive in his eye; this a coward, the concept is aim and\
15	They bang it and slide out that bitch with deposits\
16	And the price on his head, the tithes probably go to the projects\
17	I live inside the belly of the rough\
18	Compton, U.S.A. made Me an Angel on Angel Dust, what''
19	** The Intro/bridge on m.A.A.d city counts too.
20	-->''If Pirus and Crips all got along\
21	They'd probably gun me down by the end of this song\
22	Seem like the whole city go against me\
23	Every time I'm in the street I hear\
24	YAWK YAWK YAWK YAWK!''
25	** For classic gangsta rap fans, the beat changing to a more old school-ish sound with bangin' drums, accompanied by MC Eiht's "Wake your ''punk-ass up!''" is this, big time.
26	* His performance, in superb MotorMouth style, on "Rigamortus".
27	** And the remix featured the original MotorMouth rapper himself, Music/BustaRhymes.
28	* His freestyle to "Monster" by Music/KanyeWest is a VillainSong at it's finest.
29	* His scene-stealing, name-taking, bar-raising verse on Music/BigSean's "Control".
30	* The fact that, throughout his career, he's worked with just about every rapper that's ever inspired him. If he hasn't, they've given him praise and accolades. Certainly one of the most amazing cases of AscendedFanboy in hip-hop.
31	* It's short, but "Look Out for Detox" certainly counts.
32	* The remix to "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe", with Music/JayZ, who K.Dot arguably one-ups.
33	* His world-beating verse on Big Sean's "Control" shouts out Creator/SeanConnery and 90s West Coast rapper Kurupt. It also disses Creator/LindsayLohan and Music/MileyCyrus.
34	* His performance with Music/ImagineDragons at the Grammys. Better than it sounds incarnate.
35	** YMMV but the proof that TAYLOR SWIFT is apparently a huge Kendrick fan as she was going nuts during his performance. NarmCharm for sure but definite proof of the man's crossover appeal.
36	* "Alright" is a song that is largely about hope, and stands as the HopeSpot on Kendrick's otherwise very dark and introspective album ''To Pimp a Butterfly''. The song's lyrical refrain ("We gon' be alright!") was used as a [[CrowdChant protest chant]] at Black Lives Matter protests when protesters were harassed by police officers.
37	* "The Blacker the Berry," full stop. From the incredible, intense beat, to the message, to the most sheer ''fury'' he's ever brought to the mic this side of "Control".
38	** And then there's TheReveal:
39	--> ''So don't matter how much I say I like to preach with the Panthers''
40	--> ''Or tell Georgia State "Marcus Garvey got all the answers"''
41	--> ''Or try to celebrate February like it's my B-Day''
42	--> ''Or eat watermelon, chicken, and Kool-Aid on weekdays''
43	--> ''Or jump high enough to get Michael Jordan endorsements''
44	--> ''Or watch BET 'cause urban support is important''
45	--> ''[[WhamLine So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street]]''
46	--> '''''When gang banging make me kill a nigga blacker than me?!'''''
47	--> '''''{{Hypocrite}}!'''''
48	* The ending of "Mortal Man", just the fact that with impressive editing, we hear Kendrick talk to no other than '''Music/TupacShakur''' in regards to political awareness, their influence one's career (in regards to this case, Kendrick and his influence in music) and the perspective of African Americans in the present time makes it more perfect.
49	** It also also be considered Kendrick talking to someone he looks up to, despite Pac being dead for years.
50	* Receiving 11 nominations in 9 categories at the 58th Grammy Awards (2016), the most nominations given to a rapper in one night and the second-most overall in one night behind Music/MichaelJackson's 12 nominations in 1984.
51	** His politically-charged performance at said awards, which mixed basically every song on TPAB and ''blew the sound for almost 20 seconds'', is nothing but raw, unadulterated, passion.
52	* How many musicians under 30 can say that ''they'' influenced Music/DavidBowie instead of the other way around? [[https://consequenceofsound.net/2015/11/david-bowies-new-album-was-inspired-by-kendrick-lamar-features-james-murphy/ Kendrick can]]. Moreover, Lamar was genuinely touched to hear that Bowie had loved ''To Pimp a Butterfly'' and that it had inspired him to make ''Music/BlackstarAlbum'', and wrote a [[https://twitter.com/kendricklamar/status/686593741168050176 two-tweet]] [[https://twitter.com/kendricklamar/status/686594223005515777 tribute]] to him after he died in January 2016.
53	* The entirety of "Black Friday", a remix of Music/JCole's "A Tale of 2 Citiez"
54	* The fact that "Untitled Unmastered", a utterly deep and great EP, was just Kendrick's ''outtakes'' from To Pimp A Butterfly.
55	* Kendrick returning to the spotlight and allegedly taking shots at Drake with "The Heart Part IV", the fourth installment of the Heart series.
56	--> ''I put my foot on the gas, head on the floor\
57	Hoppin' out before the vehicle crash, I'm on a roll\
58	Yellin', "1, 2, 3, 4, 5\
59	I am the greatest rapper alive"\
60	So damn great motherfucker I've died\
61	What you hearin' now is a paranormal vibe''
62	* "HUMBLE." debuting at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, later rising to #1 after the album dropped, becoming both his highest-charting single and his first top 10 (and later #1) hit as a lead artist. It really shows how high his star has risen since GKMC came out 5 years before.
63	* "DNA" an epic song with an equally epic music video
64	** How epic you ask? Who else would you expect to be in it other than Don frickin' Cheadle (a.k.a. War Machine)(a.k.a. the ORIGINAL Kung Fu Kenny)
65	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdTteUVIGjw This video]] where the audience sings Humble. As in an entire stadium full of people. Even Kendrick is [[StunnedSilence stunned]] and needs to take a moment [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments to recompose himself]] and continue his performance.
66	** I guess you could say he was... [[{{Pun}} humbled.]]
67	* In April 2018, Lamar [[https://twitter.com/PulitzerPrizes/status/985958652656930816 won the Pulitzer Prize for music, ]] ''DAMN'' becoming the first non-classical/jazz album to do so.
68	* After accepting the Pulitzer, Lamar has added a new segment to his live show: [[https://twitter.com/TopDawgEnt/status/992830151225327616 A screen reading, simply, "PULITZER KENNY"]].
69	* If you haven't seen his performance at the Grammys, a medley of some ''DAMN.'' tracks and the latter half of Kings Dead, [[https://www.grammy.com/grammys/videos/watch-kendrick-lamar-u2-dave-chappelle-open-2018-grammys-grammy-rewind please do.]]
70	* "Auntie Diaries" off of ''Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers'' features Kendrick discusses someone seeing their cousin and aunt becoming a trans and how they slowly began to accept it despite being so confused by it at first. A very strong message, especially in hip-hop where being LGBT is at times frowned upon.
71	** Kendrick also approaches a third view on the song, pointing out some saying homophobic slurs sometime genuinely do not know, but states it's an unfortunate side effect of ignorance.
72	** The final verse, which just can leave the idea of homophobia in hip-hop as dead within the scene:
73	--> ''To truly understand love, switch position''
74	--> '''Faggot, faggot, faggot,' we can say it together''
75	--> ''[[WhamLine But only if you let a white girl say 'Nigga']]''
76	* During this performance of Savior, Kendrick locked eyes with a fan in the front row that was rapping along with him and decided to give him his full attention for the rest of the verse before giving him his props for not missing a single word. [[https://youtube.com/shorts/wgEPHjg3Zic?si=3N3hL5BfTW3zsXBW Here's a clip.]]
77	* On the Metro Boomin/Music/{{Future}} collab album "WE DON'T TRUST YOU", the song "Like That", Kendrick disses both Music/JCole and Music/{{Drake}}'s song "First Person Shooter". Cole responded with a diss track that [[CreatorBacklash he immediately]] [[VerbalBackspace went back on,]] while Drake responded by making his own diss track with a feature from an AI-generated Music/{{Tupac}} that caused Tupac's family [[https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2024/04/24/drake-ai-tupac-shakur-estate-cease-and-desist/73446213007/ to file a Cease and Desist against the artist.]] Kendrick's response? A ''scathing'' musical TheReasonYouSuckSpeech called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAqa1ozCuj8 "Euphoria"]].
78	** If taking on both Music/JCole and Music/{{Drake}} wasn’t heavy enough, the fact that Kendrick released two diss tracks: “6:16 in L.A” and “meet the grahams” against Drake within a 24 hour period, with the second coming just under an hour after Drake responded with his own diss “Family Matters”, definitely certified his place in hip-hop history, especially as many view Drake’s response to the latter diss track: “The Heart Part 6” as a weak response.

Context Awesome / KendrickLamar