Compton, CA · hip-hop · conscious hip hop · jazz rap · west coast hip hop

Kendrick Lamar

No festival dates we track

Compton rapper whose dense, character-driven records turned West Coast storytelling into something closer to theatre. The only rapper with a Pulitzer.

Kendrick Lamar came up through Top Dawg Entertainment in Carson, releasing early tapes as K.Dot before Section.80. good kid, m.A.A.d city traced a single day in Compton across interlinked songs and voicemail skits, and To Pimp a Butterfly followed with live players from the Los Angeles jazz scene, including Thundercat and Kamasi Washington. DAMN. won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2018, the first for a work outside classical or jazz.

He curated and largely wrote the Black Panther soundtrack, then left TDE after Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers. Alright became a protest chant well beyond the record it came from.

hip-hopconscious hip hopjazz rapwest coast hip hophardcore hip hop