When Kendrick Lamar first broke into the airwaves during his 2010 Overly Dedicated and Section.80 days, he was already spitting bars on street crime and black activism before it became a hashtag. With every release, he continued to use his platform to shed more light on issues faced by the black community—most notably on his heavily political studio album, To Pimp A Butterfly.
With a collective oeuvre as inspired and powerful as his, clearly, K-Dot doesn’t lie when he says he “done been through a whole lot.” Now, fans can read about the rapper’s life that made him the icon he is today. In a tweet posted by Bandcamp senior editor and Pitchfork writer Marcus J. Moore, the music journalist revealed that he would be the one immortalizing the artist’s life on paper.
Referencing Kendrick’s third studio album, the cultural biography is entitled The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America. Focusing on his astounding influence on the #BlackLivesMatter movement and journey as an African-American artist, Marcus shared to Pigeons & Planes that the book also “details the artist’s coming of age as an MC, how he helped resurrect two languishing genres (bebop and jazz), his profound impact on a racially fraught America, and his emergence and the bonafide King of Rap.”
Kendrick’s most recent work is his SZA-collaborated track, “All The Stars” for the Black Panther soundtrack.
Images from Huffington Post and Wallsdesk