“When I went back to my old high school, all these kids looking at me like I'm the real big homie, the same way I look at Jay Z, Nas, or Dr. Dre. You would've thought Michael Jackson walked through that joint off the excitement that they had.”

American rapper and songwriter

Kendrick Lamar Duckworth is an American rapper and songwriter. Emerging from the West Coast hip-hop scene, he has built a career around sharp, reflective writing and music that often carries political criticism and social commentary about African-American culture. His work is known for combining personal introspection with broader social concerns, which has made him a major figure in contemporary rap. Music journalists have listed him among the greatest rappers of all time. In 2018, he became the first musician outside classical and jazz to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Music.