Kendrick Lamar
kendrick lamar is viewed by many members of the server as an artist of a generation, and they're not too far off. kendrick is the voice of the 2010s in a time of political and social unrest in the united states. he has two albums widely regarded as masterpieces:
- good kid m.a.a.d. city: he raps about growing up in compton and the crazy things him and his homeboys got up to. the songs piece together a narrative of a young man trapped in a cycle of violence due to systematic racism and his journey on making it out of compton and becoming something more than a victim of his environment
edit almost 3 years later: this album is about the inherent good of humanity and shows the indomitable will of the human spirit will always have the potential to rise above its surroundings.
- to pimp a butterfly: viewed as one of if not the best album of the 2010s, kendrick transcends his hometown of compton to all of the united states, describing the struggle of being a black man in america. this theme is described using a butterfly and caterpillar metaphor and a spoken word poem that develops over the course of the album. in reality, to pimp a butterfly is too grand of an album to be summarised effectively in a brief description, so you should go and listen to it yourself.
edit almost 3 years later: what i wrote just above is what to pimp a butterfly is on the surface. it uses kendrick's position as a figurehead of the black plight in america as a vessel to illustrate his evolution of his relationship with God, symbolised by the caterpillar and butterfly metaphor. this all culminates in kendrick taking his experience of life (shown by the poem throughout), and presenting it to God himself (represented by tupac), and asking him what he thinks. the thing is, kendrick is human after all, so there's no way he would get a response.
kendrick and both of these albums are widely considered goated in their respective criteria.