The New King
Unlike R&B, Pop and other genres of music, Rap is a very difficult one to breakthrough with. It takes ingenuity, prowess, writing skill, deliver and demeanor. Over a decade or two now, the most significant rap breakthrough came from rappers like 50 Cent, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Big Sean and so on but one of the most recent is Kendrick Lamar. Describing one of the most significant moments in his life which highly impacted his music as a small boy in his home town watch 2pac and Dr. Dre make the video to their then major hit "California Love". Ever since then, he had made up his mind about doing rap and he never drifted away from this decision. Although he was out there doing his music and trying to find his way to the top for years but his breakthrough didn't happen up until 2010 when he released the Mixtape Overly Dedicated, especially with the track "Ignorance Is Bliss", where he rapped about gangsters and the crimes that goes down on the street. This track brought him the attention of many people, rappers and even the likes of heavyweight producers like Dr. Dre. This was the beginning of a successful career for Kendrick Lamar and he never for once let the bar drop. With every song, every mixtape, every album, he kept getting better and better. He got so good Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and The Game announced him as the "New King of West coast" at a concert in West Los Angeles in the year 2011. For someone who knows about the history of rap in the US, you would know how much of a big deal it is to be regarded as the King of West Coast especially when it's not self acclaimed and Kendrick Lamar never stopped getting better, he kept on grinding hard with his music. In 2013, he was declared the "Hottest MC in the Game" by MTV and in 2016 he was listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time (Magazine). In 2018, his album DAMN was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music and that was the first time the award was given to an album that is not a classical or a jazz album. DAMN is the fourth studio album from Kendrick Lamar and it was released on April 14, 2017. Debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200, it had a first week sales of 603,000 album-equivalent units. After selling a total of 1,002,000 copies and earned 3,137,000 album-equivalent units in the US as of April 2018, the album was certified Triple Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). DAMN ended up being the number one album of the year on the Billboard 200 in its year of release. It also received nominations for Album of the Year and Best Rap Album at the 60th Edition of the Grammy Awards, it ended up winning in the latter category.