by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)
Today we drop in on lauded rapper and artist Kendrick Lamar, who five years ago #onthisday dropped his last full studio album project on us — the highly-acclaimed, award-winning DAMN.
To read about Lamar, read on. To hear about her, press PLAY:
[You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website. Full transcript below]:
Hey, this is Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Thursday, April 14th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.
Five years ago, on April 14, 2017, hip hop artist and Compton, California native Kendrick Lamarreleased his fourth studio album DAMN. The following year, it became the first work outside of the jazz or classical genre to win the Pulitzer Prize for music. DAMN. also won the Grammy for Best Rap Album in 2018 and was a nominee for Album of the Year.
The two albums Kendrick Lamar released before DAMN., 2012’s good kid, m.A.A.d city and 2015’s To Pimp a Butterfly were already revered within and beyond hip hop circles as sonic and lyrical works of art. DAMN. was the culmination of a magnum opus in three parts, a tapestry of arresting themes explored in songs with one-word titles such as “DNA.”:
[Excerpt of “DNA.”]
“LOYALTY. FEAT. RIHANNA.”:
[Excerpt of “LOYALTY. FEAT. RIHANNA.”]
“LOVE. FEAT. ZACARI.”:
[Excerpt of “LOVE. FEAT. ZACARI.”]
And the song that has over a billion streams on Spotify, “HUMBLE.”:
[Excerpt of “HUMBLE.”]
Side projects and collaborations aside, like “Family Ties,” Lamar’s recent Grammy-winning collaboration with Baby Keem, we can’t wait to hear what Kendrick Lamar drops next. Until then, this June Kendrick Lamar will be headlining one evening of the Glastonbury Festival in the United Kingdom and is currently scheduled to do the same at Miami’s Rolling Loud Festival in July.
You can also read Lamar’s in-depth Rolling Stone interview from 2017, watch his interview with Zane Lowe about DAMN. on AppleMusic’s YouTube channel, catch his videos and incredible live performances on Lamar’s YouTube channel, listen to the entire 5th season of the Dissect Podcast, which is a track-by-track analysis of DAMN., and, of course, buy or stream his entire catalog of music.
This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, written, produced and hosted by yours truly, Lori Lakin Hutcherson. Intro and outro beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.
All excerpts of Kendrick Lamar’s music are included under Fair Use.
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Sources:
- https://www.biography.com/musician/kendrick-lamar
- https://www.stereogum.com/2105567/kendrick-lamar-best-songs/lists/10-best-songs/
- https://www.complex.com/music/2021/01/what-is-pglang-kendrick-lamar/baby-keem
- https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kendrick-lamar-mn0002709646/biography
- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3lBXcrKFnFAFkfVk5WuKcQ (Lamar YouTube channel)
- https://youtu.be/zwNhoyDjAPg (DAMN. Apple Music interview)
- https://open.spotify.com/show/2b025hq3gJ17tQdxS3aV43?si=dDfRed6uQu2nyt5R-CaIcA (Dissect Podcast link)
(amazon links are paid)
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