Type of Submission
Podium Presentation
Keywords
Kendrick Lamar, contemporary, new music
Abstract
Sometimes it would seem that the quietest moments turn out to have the loudest repercussions. This would certainly seem to be a consistent case for twenty eight-year old Kendrick Lamar, whose career has been defined by surprise and unannounced publications of music that shortly afterward are spun wildly into massively respected works of art. With an album that no one anticipated going to the 2013 Grammy awards, an album that leaked a week ahead of schedule (and brought Kendrick 5 Grammys), and an album that was released with almost no warning whatsoever, Kendrick Lamar Duckworth makes headlines with his art; of this there is no doubt. The question, however, as posed by Kendrick himself, is this: “And I hope that at least one of you sing about me when I’m gone; Am I worth it? Did I put enough work in?” I would like to argue that Kendrick Lamar belongs in music history textbooks of the future because of his performance abilities, intellectual and lyrical content (particularly relative to his peers), musical push within the rap genre, and his position with critics and fans alike.
Campus Venue
Stevens Student Center, Room 246
Location
Cedarville, OH
Start Date
4-20-2016 3:20 PM
End Date
4-20-2016 3:40 PM
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
PowerPoint
Sing About Me: Kendrick Lamar in Posterity
Cedarville, OH
Sometimes it would seem that the quietest moments turn out to have the loudest repercussions. This would certainly seem to be a consistent case for twenty eight-year old Kendrick Lamar, whose career has been defined by surprise and unannounced publications of music that shortly afterward are spun wildly into massively respected works of art. With an album that no one anticipated going to the 2013 Grammy awards, an album that leaked a week ahead of schedule (and brought Kendrick 5 Grammys), and an album that was released with almost no warning whatsoever, Kendrick Lamar Duckworth makes headlines with his art; of this there is no doubt. The question, however, as posed by Kendrick himself, is this: “And I hope that at least one of you sing about me when I’m gone; Am I worth it? Did I put enough work in?” I would like to argue that Kendrick Lamar belongs in music history textbooks of the future because of his performance abilities, intellectual and lyrical content (particularly relative to his peers), musical push within the rap genre, and his position with critics and fans alike.
