Lamar, a proud Compton native, enlisted Los Angeles-born DJ Mustard to produce the track. The chopped-up sample is inspired by Oakland’s “hyphy” rap subgenre, while Lamar exaggerates his already-animated cadence, paying homage to late Los Angeles rapper Drakeo the Ruler. While “Not Like Us” is a targeted diss, it’s also a reminder of California’s historical impact on rap — and Lamar’s place within that legacy. Chalk it up to her Disney Channel roots, but the singer’s innate ability to craft an earworm is why she’s skyrocketed as one of the biggest pop stars of the new generation. “Espresso,” the lead single from 2024’s Short n’ Sweet album and unofficial song of the summer, encapsulates Carpenter’s irresistible charm.
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And arguably the most anticipated album coincides with its equally anticipated movie, as the film adaptation of Wicked and its soundtrack finally unveil Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande’s takes on “Defying Gravity,” “Popular” and more. TDE president Punch expressed a similar sentiment in an interview with Mic. “We watched him grow from a teenager up into an established grown man, a businessman, and one of the greatest artists of all time,” he said. The University of Cambridge will use your email address to send you our weekly research news email. We are committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about what information we hold.
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- Eminem credits fatherhood with helping him to get sober once and for all.
- Like Ta-Nehisi Coates laying out America’s legacy of racial plunder with an atheist’s realism, Lamar’s faith walk is no cake walk.
- It ruffles feathers with short, aggressively regional and commercial songs building on the ethos and contradictions of “The Pop Out,” a peace event for everyone except a few guys.
- Like John Milton’s Paradise Lost, GNX is a work that understands the value of a villain as a catalyst for heroes’ victories.
- It’s a trick bag, no doubt, one that black America has wrestled with since pre-emancipation.
- Upon its release, “Not Like Us” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and might be Lamar’s first gramophone in the Song Of The Year category.
Eminem credits fatherhood with helping him to get sober once and for all. Other sober rappers include Macklemore, Kendrick Lamar, Ice-T, and Andre 3000. Taylor Swift has become increasingly transparent in her artistry through whimsical lyrical metaphors and cinematic music videos. “Fortnight,” the opening track of The Tortured Poets Department, is no exception as Swift likens a crumbling relationship to the failure of the American dream. In its sepia-toned visual, she’s an asylum escapee taking the “Forget Him” pill, washing away their million-paged saga. The song’s message is clear, but it’s balanced by playful melodies, Beyoncé’s signature stacked harmonies and a plucking banjo (played by Rhiannon Giddens, an advocate for the reclamation of country music instruments by Black musicians).
Taylor Swift Feat. Post Malone — “Fortnight”
The Canadian goaded his Compton adversary by dropping yet another diss track. Then, on 21 April, Kanye West sided with Kendrick Lamar, releasing a remix of Like That where he took aim at Drake’s major label record deal, suggesting he’d been short-changed. “I ain’t gonna lie to y’all the past two days felt terrible,” he told the audience, explaining that he’d caved into pressure to respond to Lamar’s diss. It’s worth noting that the placement of Lamar’s verse is also significant, as Metro Boomin’ is a former Drake collaborator who fell out with the Canadian star.
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“Fortnight,” from the 14-time GRAMMY winner’s The Tortured Poets Department, serves as both the LP’s first single and opening track. The chart-topping smash introduces the album’s moodier tones, telling the story of a woman in an unhappy marriage who is now the neighbor to her ex-lover and his new wife. Branding Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” as merely a diss track would be doing it a disservice. The 17-time GRAMMY winner’s tune is not just a rap song, but a cultural phenomenon. A seething finale to his (very public) feud with Drake, “Not Like Us” is a triumphant win for both Lamar and rap music as a whole.
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And I think the Chili Peppers lived up to their funkiness – “Give It Away” is a very funky track. An ambitious venture, indeed, but one that paid off, making Queen Bey the first Black woman to top Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart and earning her a spot on this year’s Song Of The Year nominee list. The unexpected collaboration unfolded while Gaga finished her upcoming album in kendrick lamar drugs Malibu. “After a long day, he asked me to come to his studio to hear something he was working on … We stayed up all night and finished writing and recording the song,” Gaga said in a press release. Before this year, Shaboozey was just another rising artist ready to make a name for himself. With the April release of “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” he blossomed into the most prolific country musician of 2024, coinciding with his 10th anniversary in the music industry.
- He’s also no prosperity pimp, pushing a gospel of good-and-plenty in the here and now.
- Lamar’s acting appearance shows that he is not only a master of musical and verbal expression, but shows promise of adding “triple threat” to his esteemed resume.
- Remarkably, though, the new album will somehow mark only the second body of work the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show co-headliners have ever completed together (after Snoop’s smash 1993 debut Doggystyle) when it drops on Dec. 13.
- The Canadian goaded his Compton adversary by dropping yet another diss track.
- Lamar says that he wants to tell the public that there are times when you can’t follow a trend just because it has become popular.
- Unfortunately, Keaton ended up getting gravely injured in a drive by shooting while Lamar was on tour in 2013.
It also feels symbolic of the sacrifice one makes upon accepting a calling to give one’s life to God. Kendrick follows that intro (“Blood”) with the Mike WiLL Made-It-produced “DNA.,” on which he goes on a lyrical warpath, taking personal inventory of his heritage of human contradiction. The Old Testament is packed with stories of God’s chosen people cyclically falling out of favor with the Lord, only to be defeated by their enemies, thrown into slavery and forced to worship foreign gods as divine retribution. It’s a narrative that bears more in common with the Transatlantic Slave Trade than coincidence. Like the prophets of old, Lamar uses a range of rhetorical devices to convey Halfway house the urgency of his message. That an album as unlikely as this epic conceptual narrative, steeped in Old Testament theology, has emerged as the year’s centerpiece speaks to the seemingly troubled state in which we find ourselves.
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- Through tough-on-crime efforts such as the war on drugs, African American men are arrested and incarcerated at shockingly disproportionate rates.
- The Senator applauded the rapper’s 10-year music career, but specifically picked out his work helping the youth of his home city, by supporting music and sports programs and donating hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The achievement meant Drake tied with Michael Jackson for the most number one singles by a male solo artist. The song debuted at the top of the US singles chart, becoming Drake’s 13th and Cole’s first number-one song. The feud simmered for a few years, boiling over again last year when J Cole and Drake described themselves, along with Lamar, as the “big three” of rap, on the song First Person Shooter. Lamar also alleges that people on the payroll at Drake’s record label OVO are “sex offenders”. The Compton-born rapper proceeded to call out Drake’s parents, and his six-year-old son, by name. Drake’s track, Family Matters, appears to suggest that one of Lamar’s children was fathered by another man.
- The anger definitely explodes on “Good Luck, Babe!,” with Roan channeling ’80s divas like Kate Bush and George Michael.
- Most prophets die misunderstood, their pronouncements discarded by the rulers of the day and their followers, only to be paid credence in hindsight.
- Using this recent data, Muller and Roehrkasse identify groups that are at risk of experiencing incarceration both directly and indirectly.
- A test of lyrical skill and a declaration of superiority that has produced hundreds of classic “diss tracks”, from 2Pac’s Hit ‘Em Up to Jay-Z’s Takeover.
- Even with the juxtaposing lyrics, the song’s airy production and wistfully gauzy synths still make for a beautiful, adoring statement piece.
A second court filing accuses UMG of defamation for releasing the song, which accuses Drizzy of liking underage girls, and engaging in an illegal pay-for-play scheme to promote the song with iHeartRadio. After more than two decades as a solo artist, Beyoncé’s latest era has been defined by risk-taking experimentation. The first installment of her trilogy project, RENAISSANCE, revived house. Her latest addition, COWBOY CARTER, invites listeners to throw on their Western boots in her first full-length venture into country music, led by “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM.”