Some would call him a rapper, others a poet, but everyone agrees that Kendrick Lamar is a musical genius. But despite his success in the music world, Lamar's life hasn't been easy.
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00:00Some would call him a rapper, others a poet, but everyone agrees that Kendrick Lamar is
00:05a musical genius.
00:07But despite his success in the music world, Lamar's life hasn't been easy.
00:12Lamar was born on June 17, 1987.
00:15His mother, Paula Oliver, was a hairdresser, and his dad, Kenneth Kenny Duckworth, was
00:20a former member of the Gangster Disciples, a gang that operated on Chicago's South Side.
00:25Lamar's mom wasn't down with that lifestyle and gave him an ultimatum — leave that life
00:29or else.
00:30In a 2015 Rolling Stone interview, Lamar recalled,
00:34"'She said, I can't f— with you if you ain't trying to better yourself.
00:37We can't be in the streets forever.'"
00:39Duckworth chose her, so the couple packed up and moved to California.
00:43Lamar explained,
00:44"'They were going to go to San Bernardino, but my auntie Tina was in Compton.
00:48She got him a hotel until they got on their feet and my mom got a job at McDonald's.'
00:53They were barely getting by at the time, sleeping in motels some nights and in their car on
00:57others."
00:58According to Lamar,
00:59"'Eventually, they saved enough money to get their first apartment, and that's when they
01:02had me.'"
01:03Despite moving to California, however, Duckworth and his wife never completely left the street
01:08life.
01:09Speaking with writer Paul Cantor in 2010, Lamar admitted,
01:12"'They wasn't no perfect m——.
01:15My pops did his thing, my moms did her thing.
01:17In the streets, you know what I'm saying?
01:19Together, they stayed with it for the sake of me.
01:22I'm their firstborn.'"
01:24After starting their family, Kendrick Lamar's parents struggled to make ends meet, relying
01:27on government programs and food stamps.
01:30The way Lamar described it,
01:31"'My moms used to walk me home from school, we didn't have no car, and we'd talk from
01:36the county building to the welfare office.'"
01:38Oliver and Duckworth tried to hide their financial struggles from their young son, but it didn't
01:42take him long to figure out that things weren't great.
01:45While his dad was working at KFC, Lamar was paying attention, and as he remembered,
01:49"'I realized his work schedule wasn't really adding up.
01:52They wanted to keep me innocent.
01:54I love them for that.'"
01:55In an interview with Spin, Lamar recalled seeing his father do anything he possibly
01:59could to make money.
02:01Despite their financial challenges, Lamar has plenty of good childhood memories.
02:05His parents frequently had house parties in their home, some of which he snuck into.
02:09But even better, Oliver and Duckworth always made sure to give their son a gift on special
02:13occasions.
02:14As he told Spin,
02:15"'I didn't know it was hard times because they always had my Christmas present under
02:19the tree and for my birthday.'"
02:22Lamar's early life was undeniably hard.
02:24In 1992, the L.A. riots broke out in response to the acquittal of the four policemen who
02:29assaulted Rodney King the year before.
02:31Lamar was only four years old, but living in the heart of the chaos.
02:35He vividly recalled,
02:36"'I remember riding with my pops down Bullis Road, and looking out the window and seeing
02:40mother f-----s just running.'"
02:42In the midst of the upheaval, many people, including Lamar's father, saw it as an opportunity
02:46for looting.
02:48Lamar shared,
02:49"'I can see smoke.
02:50We stop and my pops goes into the auto zone and comes out rolling four tires.
02:54I know he didn't buy them.
02:55I'm like, what's going on?''
02:57But rioting and looting weren't the worst things Lamar witnessed as a child.
03:01When he was only five, Lamar saw a teenage drug dealer killed in a drive-by shooting
03:05in Compton.
03:06Speaking to NPR, Lamar explained,
03:08"'It was outside my apartment unit.
03:10A guy was out there serving his narcotics and somebody rolled up with a shotgun and
03:14blew his chest out.'"
03:16All of these incidents and more eventually shaped Lamar's point of view and heavily influenced
03:20his music.
03:21Since getting his big break in the industry, Lamar has continuously addressed police brutality
03:25with his songs.
03:27In 2015, Lamar released You, a track off his To Pimp a Butterfly album, in which he delved
03:32into his struggles with depression and thoughts of suicide.
03:35"'Nothing was as vulnerable as that record.
03:38So it's even pulling from those experiences of coming up in Compton.'"
03:42Lamar further shared that a part of his mental health struggle stemmed from survivor's guilt
03:46after losing some of his childhood friends to the rough life in Southern California.
03:50In I, another song off To Pimp a Butterfly album, the Compton native once again touched
03:55on his struggles, revealing with a very pointed line,
03:57"'I've been dealing with depression ever since an adolescent.'"
04:01In an effort to face his troubles head-on, Lamar sought out therapy, which helped him.
04:05But he admitted that asking for help and opening up to a therapist was a strange experience
04:10for him as a Black man.
04:11"'To challenge myself to go to therapy, f-----, that's like a whole new step in a whole new
04:16generation.
04:17It's a growth.'"
04:19When he was in 10th grade, Lamar enrolled in a summer school that he had to walk to
04:23each day.
04:24At the time, two rival neighborhood gangs were at war, which made even just getting
04:28to school a challenge.
04:29"'I hate going to the summer school class because we gotta walk home at this time in
04:33the summertime where we know the war likes to pop off.'"
04:38Unfortunately, Lamar was eventually sucked into the lifestyle.
04:42While still in high school, Lamar and some of his friends started committing home invasions
04:46and other robberies.
04:48It wasn't long before Lamar got in trouble.
04:50On one occasion, one of his crew members got shot.
04:53And another time, police visited Lamar's home to inform his parents of his criminal activities.
04:58To discipline him, his parents sent him out of the house for two days, an experience that
05:02left him terrified.
05:04Lamar remembered,
05:05"'That's a scary thing, because he might not come back.'"
05:09During his 2015 interview with NPR, Lamar opened up about the tragic death of his friend
05:14Chad Keaton, saying,
05:16He was like my little brother.
05:17We grew up in the same community."
05:19Lamar had been best friends with Chad's older brother, Jason, who was incarcerated at the
05:23time.
05:24But Jason asked for help with Chad.
05:27Lamar shared,
05:28"'Him just always telling me to make sure that Chad is on the right path.
05:31And you know, he was on the right path.
05:33But you know, things happen where sometimes the good are in the wrong places.
05:37And that's exactly what happened.
05:38He got shot.'"
05:3923-year-old Chad Keaton was gravely injured in a drive-by shooting in 2013 while Lamar
05:45was out on tour.
05:46Given his promise to Jason, Lamar was riddled with guilt.
05:50In an episode of the podcast The Big Hit Show, Lamar's friend and business partner Dave Free
05:54shared,
05:55"'Chad was a really hard one for Kendrick.
05:58It was really hard for him because Chad was younger than us, the little bro.
06:01We were supposed to go see him.
06:03We didn't make it back to see him before he passed.'"
06:07Lamar doesn't drink or smoke, but he has his vices, like everyone else.
06:11When the song Mother, I Sober released on his 2022 album Mr. Morrell and the Big Steppers,
06:16Lamar opened up about his battle with sex addiction and how it led him to cheat on his
06:20longtime partner, Whitney Alford.
06:22According to the song, Lamar lied to Alford about his addiction at first, but keeping
06:26her in the dark didn't work.
06:28Eventually, she caught on and encouraged him to seek help.
06:31Lamar and Alford were high school sweethearts, but in the years since, their relationship
06:35has evolved into something deeper.
06:37In 2015, the notoriously private rapper confirmed that they were engaged, and they now have
06:42two children together, daughter Uzi, born in July 2019, and son Enoch, born in 2022.
06:49In a 2015 interview with Billboard, Lamar opened up about Alford, admitting,
06:54"'I wouldn't even call her my girl.
06:56That's my best friend.
06:57I don't even like the term that society has put in the world as far as being a companion.
07:02She's somebody I can tell my fears to.'"
07:04Although it's unclear whether Lamar and Alford have ever officially tied the knot, their
07:08relationship looks to be solid.
07:10As Lamar told The New York Times,
07:12"'She's been here since day one.'"