Kendrick Lamar

Did you know?!

1. A first

   Kendrick Lamar became the first musician outside the classical and jazz genres to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, awarded in 2018 for his album Damn.

2. About the name

   Lamar retired his stage name because he felt it pulled focus from who he really was. He now goes by his first and middle names and views the switch as part of his career growth.

3. Big break

   Tiffith, who had started Top Dawg Entertainment, asked Lamar to try out for the label. Lamar's two hour freestyle during that audition won over Henderson but left Tiffith confused.

4. A role that slipped away

   Lamar was let go from Def Jam Recordings after an encounter with its president Jay-Z, a moment he later called one of those situations where he was not ready.

5. Early training

   Lamar's seventh grade English teacher Regis Inge introduced him to poetry, and through its connection to hip hop he studied rhymes, metaphors and double entendres.

6. Behind the camera

   On March 5, 2020, Lamar and Dave Free started the creative entity PGLang. At the time it was called a multilingual service company that was friendly to artists.