Kendrick Lamar will return to the Super Bowl stage on Sunday (Feb. 9), but this time, the Compton native is slated to headline the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show in New Orleans.
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Between the Drake battle, arrival of GNX and “Not Like Us” taking home five Grammy Awards — including song of the year and record of the year — it’s quite possibly been the most decorated 10-month stretch of Lamar’s career.
As detailed in this episode of Billboard Explains, the 37-year-old West Coast hip-hop titan has long laid the foundation, with decades of work honing his craft and refining his flows to get to this point at the top of the rap food chain.
Born in 1987, Kendrick took an interest in poetry and released his first mixtape as a teenager in 2003 titled Y.H.N.I.C. (Hub City Threat: Minor of the Year) under his initial K-Dot alias.
It wasn’t until his fourth mixtape, Overly Dedicated, that he made his Billboard chart debut in 2010 and changed his rap name to Kendrick Lamar.
Following his Billboard 200 debut (No. 113) with Section.80 in 2011, Lamar unleashed his major label studio album under Top Dawg Entertainment/Interscope Records when Good Kid, M.A.A.D City arrived in October 2012 and debuted at No. 2 on the all-genre albums chart.
The cinematic LP earned Kendrick seven Grammy nominations and was led by singles such as “Swimming Pools (Drank),” which was his Billboard Hot 100 debut, reaching the top 20.
To Pimp a Butterfly saw Lamar continue to elevate his profile when he scored his first Billboard 200 chart-topper in 2015. Two years later, DAMN. hit the streets and made history as K. Dot became the first artist to win the Pulitzer Prize for a hip-hop album.
He curated the Black Panther soundtrack in 2018, and Kendrick returned in 2022 following a hiatus with the poignant Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.
2024 proved to be his biggest year yet, as his Drake diss “Not Like Us” topped the Hot 100, and he spun the block before the year ended with the release of GNX, which produced the No. 1 “Squabble Up” and occupied the entire Hot 100’s top five.
Explore more about Lamar’s rise in the video above.