“Now, the fact that Kendrick Lamar gets recognition for “DAMN.” is a great honor,” Vincent said. UC Berkeley professor Rickey Vincent, a lecturer in black music history and the cultural politics of Hip Hop, believes that though this is a major accolade for Lamar and the entire genre of hip hop, it also raises the topic of how many great albums go unrecognized. The album consists of infamous songs such as “HUMBLE.,” “DNA.,” “LOYALTY.” and “LOVE.”

Kendrick Lamar’s “DAMN.” has both achieved this feat and remained on the Billboard Top 200 chart since its release on April 14, 2017. Throughout hip hop’s 50 years, only one album has ever won a Pulitzer Prize – one of the top four most prestigious awards for an album to receive. This can be seen in lyrics such as “ I remember looking in the mirror knowing I was gifted/ Only child, me for seven years, everything for Christmas/ Family ties, they accused my cousin. “ talks about issues that aren’t covered in other genres of music.”Īn example of this storytelling is in renowned hip hop artist Kendrick Lamar’s “Mother I Sober,” as Lamar recalled the violence and drama that took place in his family when he was a child. “I would say it’s a genre predicated on storytelling,” Loiseau said. The genre is also widely popular on Trinity’s campus, as 30 percent of the student population said hip hop is their favorite music genre, and sophomore Karl Loiseau is one of those fans. According to The Economist magazine, it is currently the most popular music genre in the U.S. Hip hop celebrated its 50th anniversary on August 11, and the genre continues to remain widely popular. Since hip hop’s birth, the genre has seen the rise of titan artists such as Wonder Mike, Master Gee, Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smalls, and Kendrick Lamar.

Hip hop was born in the Bronx in 1973, when Clive Campbell, otherwise known as DJ Kool Herc, deejayed for his sister’s party and created the beat that became the foundation of hip hop, the “break.” The “break” is a musical technique where short sections of a song pause to give way for an isolated drum beat. After the crowd grew larger and the mother of the boy arrived at the scene, members of the Black Lives Matter movement began reciting the lyrics “We gon’ be alright.” The chanting of Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” symbolizes the popularity and influence of one of the greatest music genres of all time, hip hop. In the summer of 2015, attendees of a Black Lives Matter convention witnessed a police officer pull a 14 year old African American suspected of drinking alcohol and handcuffed him underneath a bus stop.

We are who we are lyrics