Is Kendrick Lamar Hip-Hop’s New Hope?

By Jihad Hassan Muhammad | Last updated: Jun 14, 2013 - 5:52:24 PM

You have heard him with hip-hop’s elite like Dr. Dre, The Game, Drake, Rick Ross, Young Jeezy, Talib Kweli, Busta Rhymes, E-40, Bun B, Tech N9ne and Lil Wayne ... he is Dr. Dre’s newest protégé, and I say hip-hop’s future, TDE/Aftermath’s newest artist Kendrick Lamar.

Dr. Dre’s track record has been tremendous when it comes to individuals he has blessed the hip hop world with, in essence gifting hip hop with the likes of Ice Cube, Snoop Lion (Dogg), Eminem, 50 Cent, and The Game. So why would consumers of the culture expect anything different with his latest protégé in Lamar?

The name Kendrick Lamar has been an underground fixture in hip-hop for years now, bringing an innate lyricism to West Coast hip-hop; he is surely one of the best that hip-hop has to offer at this present time. Lamar has had a loyal following that has been galvanized by his diligent presence on the internet.

“I just wanted to keep doing everything that got me here, the dedicated fans that bought the album, I just wanted to keep that and take it up a notch and tell my story,” he said.

Lamar’s story, which is told vigorously on his album “Good Kid M.A.A.D. City,” details some of his adventures on the streets of Compton, Calif., where no matter how he tried, bloodshed and gang violence followed him and was ever present.

Lamar felt driven to give a real assessment of what a young, Black male goes through in urban environments like Compton. He did so in an over 12-minute song, called “Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst,” something unprecedented in today’s hip-hop, or rap music.

“I had to make it a true story and being able to challenge myself to make it still interesting for the listener, without boring them, so the details had to be real intricate,” said Lamar.

This new hope for hip-hop is gaddddining ground in a major way, debuting with the No. 2 album in the country on the first week of its release, and now months later the album has gone past gold-selling status. Lamar still seems surprised and humbled by it all.

“I must stay with my feet firmly planted to the ground,” he said.

Lamar cited a West Coast hip-hop legend as one of his greatest influences. Ice Cube’s classic and platinum selling album, 1991’s “Death Certificate,” deemed controversial by the mainstream for its Nation of Islam influences, was often played by his father throughout Lamar’s childhood.

“My pops played the Death Certificate album all day; Cube in general always had that influence on part of my style. And the way I write and rap comes from Cube’s style, he spoke from that zone of speaking truth, from a street perspective, but at the same time having a message behind it,” declared Lamar.

Lamar has utilized his influence in hip-hop to say what needs to be said. He recently spoke out about the drug craze in rap culture, called Molly, a new name for ecstasy pills. According to MTV he recently said, “Sometimes you have the trends that’s not that cool. … You may have certain artists portraying these trends and don’t really have that lifestyle and then it gives off the wrong thing. And it becomes kinda corny after awhile. It’s really about keeping hip-hop original and pushing away the corniness in it.” He also addresses the use of Molly in his newest music video for “Don’t Kill My Vibe.”

Lamar continued his talk with The Final Call by giving his thoughts on violence troubling inner cities throughout America. “I can tell them to stop the violence all day. They going to do what they want to. What I represent to them is know the consequences, only a few make it out that game, to do something else. At the end of the day, you reap what you sow,” he said.

It’s reflected in riveting lyrics in “Sing About Me,” “Tired running/tried hunting my own kind/but retiring nothing” Lamar is the truth right now.

(Jihad Hassan Muhammad is the managing editor for The Dallas Weekly and co-founder of Dynasty Hip-Hop Inc. Mentoring Program.)

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