Kendrick Lamar: Not like anyone else
Kendrick Lamar swept this year’s Grammy Awards with his stinging No. 1 hit “Not Like Us.”
It’s a layered title that the Compton rapper said embodies “the man I represent … he has morals, he has values, he believes in something.”
It’s also definitive of his outlier status in music, an artist able to capture the respect of industry elites – he won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2018 – while retaining his authenticity with hip-hop fans, many of whom have followed his 15-year-career since its infancy.
Lamar was the first rapper to place three albums concurrently in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200.
He's the leading nominee at 2025's American Music Awards, earning more nods than Taylor Swift and Beyoncé at the fan-voted show.
He’s also in the midst of one of the most lucrative tours of the year, a career-defining spectacle unveiled in stadiums – rare venues for hip-hop artists – with friend and collaborator SZA.
As Lamar returns to his home state for the first of three concerts at SoFi Stadium near LA, we look at how he has become unlike anyone else in music right now.
Kendrick Lamar is at the 'commercial apex of his career'
To call Lamar’s recent eruption in the mainstream a breakout almost sounds silly. He has been a barrier-busting pop culture takeover.
“I don’t think we’ve ever seen a calendar year for a rapper like the one Kendrick Lamar has had,” said Justin Tinsley, a Lamar fan since the rapper dropped his “Overly Dedicated” mixtape in 2010.
Tinsley, a senior sports and culture reporter with ESPN’s Andscape, has delved into the cultural significance of other marquee hip-hop stars, with recent biographies on Notorious B.I.G. (2022’s “It Was All a Dream: Biggie and the World That Made Him”) and an ESPN podcast about Nipsey Hussle (2021’s “The King of Crenshaw”).
Lamar’s undiminished musical output – exemplified on his current “GNX” album – bundled with the five 2025 Grammys, the most-watched Super Bowl halftime show ever and his coolly confident Grand National Tour, has led informed fans such as Tinsley to determine Lamar “is at the commercial apex of his career.”
But the embrace of Lamar isn't limited to his expanding mainstream appeal. The kudos hail from not only music industry cognoscenti, but from an array of familiar names including former President Barack Obama, Eminem, Misty Copeland, Taylor Swift and U2, the latter two who have collaborated with the acclaimed rapper.
Need further proof of Lamar’s stratospheric standing? Take a look at ticket receipts and music charts.
The $11.8 million gross from the April 26 tour stop at AT&T Stadium outside of Dallas is the biggest haul by a rapper in a single concert as a headlining or coheadlining artist in history, according to the Touring Data site. The show ‒ a genuine timeshare with SZA ‒ showcases both Lamar's artistic leanings with dim lighting and socially provocative videos and his deliberate flow, highlighted on hits such as "DNA" and "Humble."
On the charts, Lamar’s current collaboration with SZA, the ballad “Luther,” which is named for soul great Luther Vandross and samples his duet with Cheryl Lynn, “If This World Were Mine,” has topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 11 weeks. The standing surpasses a nine-week record from 1981 for a song featuring only a solo man and woman: Lionel Richie and Diana Ross’ iconic duet “Endless Love.”
Lamar’s ‘commitment to storytelling’ sets him apart
A few hours before Lamar and SZA launched their tour at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis in April, a dedicated disciple who identified himself as Mo B., sat at a nearby hotel bar before meeting the same five college friends with whom he’s seen Lamar perform on every tour.
Mo, a Minneapolis native now living in Chicago, flew in specifically to witness Lamar play his inaugural stadium show.
“A lot of artists, when they hit fame, they stray from who they are, but he doubled down on it and attracted new and younger fans,” Mo said. “I always tell my friends, who would have thought the bigger he gets, the better he is? And that he’s stayed true to who he is, is wonderful.”
Despite the critical acclaim that included the Pulitzer for his “Damn” album – the first time the award was bestowed upon a non-jazz or classical artist – and that trove of 22 Grammys (three behind leader Jay-Z) from 57 nominations, Lamar has skillfully teetered between mainstream adoration and undiminished credibility with fans.
The reason, on its surface, is simple: his storytelling.
It was after hearing the “R.O.T.C.” interlude, Lamar’s rumination on the music industry and his personal struggles from his “Overly Dedicated” album, that Mo became enraptured by the rap luminary’s music.
“His storytelling stuck with me and (Lamar’s 2011 debut album) ‘Section.80’ solidified my fandom,” Mo said. “It’s like he makes a documentary of his life with his music.”
Tinsley, who considers Lamar’s 2012 major-label breakthrough “Good Kid, M.A.A.D City,” one of the Top 10 rap albums in history, echoes the storyteller refrain to affirm his admiration of Lamar’s music.
“He’s been one of the most successful rap artists, but he’s not sacrificing the soul of his music. When you listen to him speak, you can hear he’s pulling from things that he’s lived,” he said. “There’s a commitment to storytelling in his music, but he’s also very theatrical and visceral.”
Lamar’s musical boldness is key
Storytelling is only a portion of Lamar’s genius.
Marcus J. Moore, an author and music journalism teacher at University of Maryland, College Park, starting working on his book, “The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America,” the same year the cerebral rapper won his Pulitzer.
In the five years since the book’s October 2020 release, Moore has watched Lamar blossom from “a scrappy upstart who wasn’t confident in his ability” to a breakthrough where he feels Lamar has “realized the music he makes and the message he has is vital … His recent music speaks to the notion of, ‘I can stand in the back of the room and still be Kendrick Lamar.’”
Along with that perspective comes a deeper dive into musical boldness.
Lamar will turn 38 on June 17, but he’s already proven his skill with multiple genres, mixing elements of pop (“All the Stars”) with rock (“Humble”) with stringent rap (“Blacker the Berry”) with jazz (“Rigamortis”).
This pledge to artistic integrity is another reason Lamar continues to accrue a diverse, multi-generational fan base, as demonstrated by the 50,000-plus fans at the Minneapolis tour kickoff.
“Kendrick has always marched to the beat of his own drum and made the record he wants to make,” Moore said. “ ’Good Kid, M.A.A.D City,’ was incredible and he could have easily come out with part two. But instead he said, I’m gonna come out with this weird jazz record – ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’ – and jazz heads like me were like, ‘Are you really gonna do that?’ and then he said, ‘I’m gonna make this loud record and call it ‘Damn.’ That’s what he’s done. He’s never chased trends.”
Did the Drake feud fuel Kendrick Lamar’s popularity?
Part of Lamar’s marathon year backpedals to March 2024, when he dropped a strident verse on the Metro Boomin’/Future track “Like That.”
Forget “the big three … it’s just big ME,” Lamar rhymed, an obvious reference to the lyric crowning Drake, J. Cole and Lamar as the top three rappers in the game on Drake’s 2023 song, “First Person Shooter.”
What followed was months of snarky, controversial lyrical slaps between Lamar and Drake. In January, Drake filed a lawsuit against Universal Music Group alleging it defamed him by releasing Lamar’s "Not Like Us," which insinuated the Canadian rapper as a “certified pedophile.” UMG, which represents both Drake and Lamar, has moved to dismiss the case, calling diss track lyrics “rhetorical hyperbole.”
“That Drake beef had been brewing for well over a decade,” Tinsley said. “I doubt Kendrick did it with the intention of ‘maybe I’ll get some Grammys for this.’ It just so happened that he and Drake are the two biggest names in the genre. It’s like what you would have gotten with LeBron (James) and Kobe (Bryant) in the NBA Finals.”
Moore agrees the publicity from the feud elevated Lamar in mainstream outlets since Drake was more of a household name because of his TV background (he acted on teen drama "Degrassi" from 2001 to 2008) and pop crossover appeal.
But, he said, “Real rap heads knew Drake didn’t stand a chance. He’s not a rapper, whereas Kendrick is a lyricist through and through and a student of old-school hip-hop. But for Kendrick to annihilate a name that big and then write a song that became a huge hit and then perform at halftime? That’s the trifecta.”