Kendrick Lamar Once Broke Down Hip-Hop’s Evolution and How the Genre ‘Is a Little More Grown up Now’ Back in 2012

Hip-hop has changed a lot over the 50+ years since its inception. The reach widened drastically from the mecca in New York to the rest of the world. Gradually, the essence shifted, especially when it folded itself more into mainstream audiences. The bigger hip-hop got, the more it lavished in its riches. The game didn’t reward artists who weren’t tough or good at flexing or both. But when rappers like Kendrick Lamar burst onto the scene, there was a significant shift.

Let Lamar tell it, it’s just another extension in the growth of hip-hop. In a 2012 interview with The Guardian, he argued that “hip-hop is a little more grown up now.”

“[In the past] you wouldn’t have hardcore rappers attempting to talk about anything like a gay marriage [because] they would feel it was wrong for their image. When you get people in hip-hop unafraid to discuss these topics, it is an evolution,” Kendrick Lamar told the outlet.

Ultimately, it’s this evolution that carved a lane for K. Dot to succeed. “At the end of the day [my success] is because people perceived me as a human being rather than an action figure that can’t be touched,” he added.

Kendrick Lamar Shows How Hip-Hop Has Changed Over the Years

It’s an outlook like this that informed his approach to his classic good kid, m.A.A.d city. He tells the interviewer that the aim of the album was to try and alter how we look at street life. If we don’t understand the people who have to live in such stark settings, we’ll never truly root out the core issue. Since Kendrick Lamar made it to the other side, he felt obligated to try and demystify Compton.

“People are used to music that justifies street culture, but something that’s not touched on is why these kids act the way they act, live the way they live. The true story behind this album is showing how the world looks at my friends as delinquents when they are good kids at heart. They have great hearts,” Kendrick Lamar said.

“But from the time they was born in the 80s, when crack was everywhere, they had no figure to guide them. Father in jail, mother strung out. I knew I was blessed with a gift of having both parents. That right there gave me a little bit more insight than a few of my other homeboys. My parents being there gave me a whole lot of confidence.”

The post Kendrick Lamar Once Broke Down Hip-Hop’s Evolution and How the Genre ‘Is a Little More Grown up Now’ Back in 2012 appeared first on VICE.

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