10 Great Superhero Movie Twists We'll Remember Forever
These superhero movie twists are unforgettable.
Read more >> : Cick here
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Tragic Details About Kendrick Lamar's Life The List
Kendrick Lamar has over 20 Grammys – which is all the more impressive when you consider the tragic circumstances of his early life.
Click Here to read in detail
By Feb. 8, 2025 4:15 pm EST
The following article contains mentions of gun violence and drugs.
Some months after Kendrick Lamar was announced as the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime Show headliner, he won both song of the year and record of the year for "Not Like Us" at the Grammys. Naturally, it seems like 2025 is Lamar's year. Nevertheless, he's been putting out bangers for over 20 years now — many of which have been informed by the tragic details of his life. The rapper has never shied away from expressing himself, whether about the socioeconomic issues that plagued his childhood, his thoughts on other hip-hop icons, or Lamar's feelings about Donald Trump.
Advertisement
Fresh from his Grammy wins, the "Poetic Justice" rapper sat down for Apple Music Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show press conference in February 2025. When asked about his feelings regarding his recent awards, Lamar replied, "I just think about the culture, really. It's always that for me first." He explained that people don't often think of rap as an "art form," adding, "When you put records like that at the forefront, it reminds people that this is more than just something that came 50 years ago."
Lamar's incredible rise to success has been nothing short of impressive, and having come from such a humble background, his modest outlook is truly heartwarming. "I feel accomplished to be able to do that," the rapper concluded. With countless fans eager to see what comes next for the star, we're taking a look back at some of the tragic details Lamar has had to overcome.
Advertisement
Kendrick Lamar's dad was a former gang memberBefore Kendrick Lamar was born in 1987, his parents, Kenny Duckworth and Paula Oliver, lived in Chicago. The rapper's dad had been a part of a notorious South Side gang known as the Gangster Disciples, but the dangerous lifestyle was a dealbreaker for Oliver. As Lamar told Rolling Stone in 2015, "She said, 'I can't f*** with you if you ain't trying to better yourself. We can't be in the streets forever.'" With that, the couple moved to Compton, California, with $500 to their names. Lamar's aunt helped them out until Oliver got a job.
Advertisement
They lived between motels, their car, and the street until, as Lamar explained, "They saved enough money to get their first apartment, and that's when they had me." Life in Compton still brought the realities of gang life to their front doors and it wasn't the safest neighborhood. However, Lamar told HipHopDX back in 2011 that his dad had an incredible impact on the his life and it kept the rapper from falling into the lifestyle.
"As a kid, the biggest influence on you is your pops," he said. "Not only that, but your pops being an active pops." Where many of Lamar's peers grew up without father figures, he felt lucky to have Duckworth in his life. "He ain't the most perfect dude in the world. ... He just didn't want me to follow the same steps he went through."
Advertisement
He experienced poverty during his childhoodWhether fans were tuning in to see the worst-dressed stars at the Grammys or to see who would win what, they saw Kendrick Lamar sweep the awards. And few could have guessed how far he had come. His parents didn't have much when they moved to California, and little changed as they struggled to make ends meet over the years. Lamar's mother worked at McDonald's and would cut hair on the side, while his dad took a job at KFC. They also needed to rely on welfare and lived in project housing.
Advertisement
"I remember always walking to the government building with mom," Lamar told Spin in October 2012. Although they struggled, his parents tried to give him as normal an upbringing as they could. "I didn't know it was hard times because they always had my Christmas present under the tree and for my birthday," he said. Lamar's parents welcomed three additional children and as time went on, the rapper began to understand the financial strain his family was under.
During his 2015 interview with Rolling Stone, Lamar's mom, Paula Oliver, commented, "He would ask me questions about Section 8 and the Housing Authority, so I'd explain it to him. I was keeping it real." The "Money Trees" rapper came to realize that welfare and his parents' fast food incomes couldn't have provided enough for their family, and that his father was likely making extra money from illegal dealings.
Advertisement
One of his earliest memories is of the violence during the Los Angeles riotsPolice brutality has been a recurring topic in the mainstream of late, but its history stems back decades. In the '90s, Los Angeles was marked by several racist incidents. After Rodney King was savagely beaten by four white LAPD officers following a traffic stop in March 1991, they were charged with assault; however, the jury acquitted the officers in April the following year, and the outrage sparked the South Central Riots.
Advertisement
Kendrick Lamar recounted the afternoon of April 29, 1992, when he was just 4 years old. "I remember riding with my pops down Bullis Road, and looking out the window and seeing motherf***ers just running," he told Rolling Stone. Lamar remembered the smoke in the streets and how he witnessed his dad go into an automotive store and come back out with a full set of new tires. Immediately, the "Rich Spirit" rapper knew that his dad hadn't paid for them. When Lamar and his dad returned home, he said, "[My dad] and my uncles are like, 'We fixing to get this, we fixing to get that. We fixing to get all this s***!' I'm thinking they're robbing."
The week-long riots had an incredible impact on the residents of Los Angeles, and it made Lamar realize the stark reality of police brutality. He remarked, "I said to my mom, 'So the police beat up a black man, and now everybody's mad? OK. I get it now.'"
Advertisement
Kendrick Lamar witnessed a murder when he was just 5 years oldAs much as Kendrick Lamar's parents did to provide for him and his siblings, there was little they could do to shelter him from the world outside. In the '80s and '90s, Compton was a dangerous city with drugs, gang violence, and a distrust in the police instilled in many residents' lives. It's exactly what rap group N.W.A. brought to light with their track "Straight Outta Compton," and when Kendrick Lamar was just 5, he observed it firsthand.
Advertisement
In speaking with NPR in December 2015, the "Hood Politics" rapper recalled witnessing a murder for the first time. "It was outside my apartment unit," Lamar began. "A guy was out there serving his narcotics and somebody rolled up with a shotgun and blew his chest out." Seeing something so violent at such a young age influenced Lamar, as it would any young child, but this shock was soon washed away with acceptance. "It let me know that this is not only something that I'm looking at, but it's something that maybe I have to get used to," Lamar explained.
Sadly, he saw yet another person get gunned down just three years later when he was walking home from school. "Dude was in the drive-thru ordering his food, and homey ran up, boom boom — smoked him," Lamar recounted to Rolling Stone. "After that, you just get numb to it," the songwriter added.
Advertisement
He had a stutter as a kidToday he's one of the most decorated rap artists of all time, with more than 20 Grammys under his belt. But several years ago, when Kendrick Lamar was a student in the Compton Unified School District, his abilities weren't nearly as obvious. "As a kid, I used to stutter. I think that's why I put my energy into making music," Lamar stated in speaking with The New York Times in 2014. "That's how I get my thoughts out, instead of being crazy all the time."
Advertisement
Kids who stutter are known to experience a lack of confidence and a difficulty in expressing themselves. It's something a number of stars have dealt with, including Marilyn Monroe, Samuel L. Jackson, Emily Blunt, and even President Joe Biden. Fortunately, it's something Lamar managed to overcome, too, eventually going on to become an incredible lyricist and performer. His teachers, fortunately, always believed in the rapper and helped inspire him to create something beautiful out of his experiences.
One of Lamar's former middle school teachers, Regis Inge, spoke with NBC4 News in February 2025 about learning of the rapper's early success. "Kendrick Duckworth is a rapper? Quiet Kendrick?" he recalled thinking. Inge takes credit for introducing his shy student to poetry and encouraging Lamar to read his poems out loud, but the rest was all Lamar. "The passion that which he was writing with, it was there already," the teacher remarked.
Advertisement
Kendrick Lamar deals with depression, PTSD, and anxietyFans of Kendrick Lamar's music have analyzed the lyrics in many of his songs over the years — even we've said what we think Lamar's "Humble" track really means. But you don't have to dig too deep to find the songs he's written that explore themes of mental health, like "u" and 'Swimming Pools." For example, his 2015 album "To Pimp a Butterfly," which garnered 11 Grammy nominations, included several mentions of the depression he experienced.
Advertisement
"Resentment that turned into a deep depression / Found myself screaming in the hotel room," he raps in one track titled "Mortal Man." This, he told The Guardian in June 2015, was based on something he'd actually been through while touring with Kanye West in 2013. He went on to reveal, "99% of my music is specific events." The rapper experienced depression throughout his teen years, but he'd felt it come back and was able to express the raw emotions of what he was going through on the track.
Lamar also experiences anxiety, and his chaotic childhood has also left him post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), like many youths who grew up in similar circumstances to the star. He recalled hearing a loud banging sound while filming a music video and automatically ducking. "The instinct to get out the way when you hear a popping sound, that's real for me," Lamar told The Guardian, attributing it to the neighborhood he was raised in.
Advertisement
If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.
He became involved in gang culture as a teenAlthough he'd witnessed how life in a gang can devastate lives and communities, and his father had worked hard to leave that world behind, it seemed impossible for Kendrick Lamar to completely escape it. Living in Compton meant he was exposed to gang culture at almost every turn, and when he was a teenager, he started slipping into it himself.
Advertisement
In August 2012, as a part of VEVO's "Lift" series, Lamar walked through Centennial High School, where he'd attended as a teenager, to discuss the impactful moments of his life that inspired his album "Section.80." The rapper revealed, "This was a time period where the whole mastermind behind 'Section.80' began, remembering these experiences." He recounted how he'd flunked gym in ninth grade, despite being decent at sports, and Lamar had to take summer school to make up for it. "This was the time the gang rivals was heavy between my neighborhood and the neighborhood a few blocks down," he explained. Lamar and his classmates dreaded walking home after class because they knew violence could be waiting around every corner.
Advertisement
Unfortunately, around this age, Lamar also began hanging out with the wrong crowd. He became involved in home invasions, robberies, and had even been shot at. When the police arrived at Lamar's door one day and informed his parents he'd gotten involved in some trouble, they kicked him out for two days. Fortunately, it seemed the message got through to him.
Kendrick Lamar lost his friend in a drive-by shooting in 2013While Kendrick Lamar could be considered lucky for making it out of Compton relatively unscathed, many of his friends haven't been so lucky. Sadly, the "United in Grief" rapper has grieved many times. As Lamar told NPR, "[I] probably lost more friends in this past summer than any other summer." One, though, struck a particularly deep chord with Lamar.
Advertisement
"Chad Keaton ... was like my little brother; we grew up in the same community," he explained. Keaton was just 23 years old when he was tragically shot in a drive-by shooting in July 2013, and though he initially survived, he succumbed a month later to his injuries. "He was on the right path. But, you know, things happen where sometimes the good are in the wrong places, and that's exactly what happened," Lamar remarked. The rapper had been on tour when the incident took place, but he fortunately got to speak with Keaton over video before he died.
Lamar had little time to grieve his friend's death, with performances scheduled on either end of the memorial service. He did, however, post a tribute to Keaton on Twitter following the service. Alongside a selfie featuring his late friend, Lamar wrote, "Rest N Heaven my Lil bro. Watched u become a man. U fought bro. The city stole yo life, but not your legacy."
Advertisement
His feud with Drake has polarized fansFrom the iconic Notorious B.I.G. beef with Tupac to Eazy E versus Dr. Dre, feuds amongst rappers have been popcorn-worthy entertainment for decades. Back in 2023, two hip-hop icons clashed and it's become such headline news that we even know where Barack Obama falls on the Kendrick Lamar and Drake feud. Unfortunately, though, some fans have been left polarized over the beef between the stars and it seems that they have to choose a side: Team K.Dot or Team Drizzy.
Advertisement
Five months after Drake and J.Cole released "First Person Shooter," in which the latter insinuated that the Canadian rapper was on par with Lamar, the "To Pimp a Butterfly" lyricist fired back. What followed was a series of diss tracks that were dropped by himself and Drake for months. In "Push Ups," Drizzy called Lamar a "pipsqueak" and in the track "Family Matters," he accused the rapper of domestic abuse, whereas Lamar called Drake "a master manipulator and a habitual liar" on "Euphoria" and claimed he had a secret daughter on "Meet the Grahams." Eventually, Lamar dropped the track that seemed to one-up Drake for good: "Not Like Us."
In including accusations of pedophilia, the hip-hop artist went deeper than ever — and won five Grammys for doing so. "Tryna strike a chord and it's probably A-Minor," Lamar famously rapped. Drake, in response, resorted to suing his own record company for promoting Lamar's track, calling it "defamation" against him.
Advertisement
Kendrick Lamar hurt his fiancée through his infidelityAlthough Kendrick Lamar has been known to keep his family life fairly private, his music has given an in-depth look. While he rarely speaks about being a father of two children or his fiancée Whitney Alford, he dropped "Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers" in 2022, which showed the family of four on the album cover. It was filled with songs that delved into Lamar's childhood, his views on race, sexuality, and the baggage of generational curses, but one song revealed a deep truth about the rapper that few knew about.
Advertisement
First, he alluded to cheating on Alford on the track "Worldwide Steppers." Then, on "Mother I Sober," Lamar recited, "Intoxicated, there's a lustful nature that I failed to mention / Insecurities that I project, sleepin' with other women." Speaking to his sex addiction, Lamar went on to disclose that his partner of many years learned of his infidelity. "Whitney's hurt, the pure soul I know, I found her in the kitchen / Askin' God, 'Where did I lose myself? And can it be forgiven?'"
Some of the most famous rap couples throughout history have dealt with issues like addiction and infidelity. While the couple hasn't spoken publicly about Lamar's cheating, it seemed that Alford was willing to stand by his side and work through things out for the betterment of their family.
Advertisement
