Kendrick Lamar: Timeline of Rapper’s Life and Career

• Kendrick Lamar, sometimes known as K-Dot, was born and raised in Compton, California.
• He rose to fame in the early 2010s with hits like “Swimming Pools,” “F**kin Problems,” and “Alright.”
• The Grammy-winning rapper has released five No. 1 albums to date, including his latest, “GNX.”

Kendrick Lamar, 37, is one of the most celebrated rappers in the game with five No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200, 17 Grammys out of 57 nominations, a Pulitzer Prize, and soon-to-be two Super Bowl performances under his belt.

Most recently, Lamar emerged triumphant from an extended rap beef with Drake and surprise-released his sixth studio album, “GNX.”

Here’s a complete timeline of Lamar’s early life, career, and rise to critical acclaim.

Kendrick Lamar Duckworth was born on June 17, 1987.

Lamar was born and raised in Compton, California, with his three younger siblings (two brothers and a sister).

His family struggled with poverty and proximity to violence. Lamar told NPR that he witnessed his first murder at 5 years old.

“It was outside my apartment unit,” Lamar recalled. “A guy was out there serving his narcotics and somebody rolled up with a shotgun and blew his chest out. Admittedly, it done something to me right then and there. 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’s parents, who were still teenagers at the time, moved to the West Coast from Chicago three years before his birth. His father, Kenny Duckworth, was reportedly involved with the Gangster Disciples, a South Side street gang. His mother, Paula Oliver, got a job at McDonald’s when the couple first arrived in Compton, Lamar told Rolling Stone, and later worked as a hairdresser charging $20 a head.

Meanwhile, “My pops did whatever he could to get money,” Lamar told Spin. “He was in the streets. You know the story.”

Lamar’s mom described him as a “loner” growing up, which he agreed with. “I was always in the corner of the room watching,” he told Rolling Stone.

Lamar has also said his father believed in a stereotypical version of masculinity and discouraged him from expressing emotion. During a conversation with SZA for Harper’s Bazaar, he described his childhood memories as “traumatizing.”

“My pops, he was tough. He was militant, as far as every day you are expected to go to work, take care of your family, get back up to do it all over again,” he explained. “Being-a-man type shit, right? And he never showed no weakness. He never showed any emotion that could garner a one-up from the person sitting across from him. And I learned to experience that, not knowing I had them same traits, right?”

“But for what I do, there is certainly no growth without vulnerability,” he continued. “If I understood the power of vulnerability earlier, I could have had more depth and more reach to the guys that was around me in the neighborhood coming up.”

Lamar was inspired by Dr. Dre and Tupac Shakur to become a rapper

Lamar was 8 years old when he saw Dr. Dre and Tupac Shakur, aka 2pac, filming a video for “California Love” outside the Compton Swap Meet.

He was awed by the scene — especially by Shakur standing up for himself after a police car nearly scraped his Bentley.

“Yelling at the police, just like on his motherfucking songs,” Lamar recalled. “He gave us what we wanted.”

Later, Lamar’s seventh-grade English teacher encouraged him to learn more about poetry, which prompted him to start writing his own lyrics.

“We used to wonder what he was doing with all that paper,” Lamar’s dad told Rolling Stone. “I thought he was doing homework.”

Lamar was 16 or 17 when he made his first mixtape, “Hub City Threat,” under the stage name K-Dot. The mixtape was never widely distributed, but helped Lamar land a deal with then-local rap label Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE), per Rolling Stone.

Lamar continued to hone his craft and released a series of mixtapes in the mid to late-2000s, sometimes collaborating with other burgeoning rappers like Jay Rock, Ab-Soul, and Schoolboy Q.

Lamar released his first two studio albums in 2011 and 2012

Lamar’s first studio album “Section.80” — its title a combination of Section 8 housing, where he grew up, and his birth decade, the ’80s —was an independent-label release via TDE. It marked Lamar’s first appearance on the Billboard 200, debuting at No. 113 in July 2011.

Though “Section.80” sold only a few thousand copies out of the gate, it fueled the increasing hype around Lamar among hip-hop fans and fellow rappers; Snoop Dogg even crowned him as the “new king of the West Coast” one month after it dropped.

Lamar quickly followed up with “Good Kid, M.A.A.D City,” released jointly by TDE, Aftermath, and Interscope in October 2012.

Lamar’s second album (and first under a major label) is a coming-of-age story, largely inspired by Lamar’s group of friends as a teenager and their run-ins with law enforcement.

As Lamar told Rolling Stone, “The majority of my interactions with police were not good.” Though he struggled to stay out of trouble, he was also subjected to undue threats and racial profiling, he said, including two separate occasions where police pulled guns on him.

“Even if he’s not a good kid, that don’t give you the right to slam a minor on the ground, or pull a pistol on him,” Lamar said.

“Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City” earned near-universal acclaim and became Lamar’s commercial breakthrough, peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and receiving five Grammy nominations, including his first for album of the year.

The tracklist featured production from legends like Pharrell Williams and Hit-Boy, plus guest verses by Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige, and Drake, who had already tapped Lamar to open for his 2012 Club Paradise Tour.

Later that year, Lamar teamed up with A$AP Rocky, Drake, and 2 Chainz for his first big hit

“Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City” spawned a few hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including “Swimming Pools (Drank)” (No. 17) and “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe” (No. 32), but he didn’t break into the top 10 until “F**kin Problems.”

The all-star posse cut was released in October 2012 as a single from Rocky’s album “Long.Live.A$AP.” Two months later, all four rappers assembled for a music video and in February 2013, the song peaked at No. 8 on the chart. It was also nominated for best rap song at the 2014 Grammys.

Lamar scored his first No. 1 album and first No. 1 song in 2015

Lamar’s third album, “To Pimp a Butterfly,” was released in March 2015. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, where it remained for a second week, and propelled the single “Alright” to become an anthem for the Black Lives Matter movement. To this day, it’s widely considered his most iconic and influential work.

The album also led to Lamar’s first slew of Grammy wins: best rap song and best rap performance for “I” in 2015, followed by best rap song and best rap performance for “Alright,” best rap/sung collaboration for “These Walls,” and best rap album in 2016.

During the latter ceremony, Lamar also took home best music video for “Bad Blood,” his hit collaboration with Taylor Swift. Their duet reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 after the music video premiered in May 2015.

Later in 2016, Lamar surprise-released a collection of raw demos that were recorded during sessions for “To Pimp a Butterfly.” The impromptu project, appropriately titled “Untitled Unmastered,” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

Around this time, Lamar got engaged to his high-school sweetheart, Whitney Alford

Outside his lyrics, Lamar is sparing with details about his personal life, including his relationship with Whitney Alford. The two met when they were both students at Centennial High School and have been together seemingly ever since.

Fans know Alford as a grounding presence across Lamar’s discography; he seems to serenade her in 2009 mixtape tracks like “She Needs Me” and “Determined,” and Alford is credited with background vocals in “King Kunta” and “Wesley’s Theory” from “To Pimp a Butterfly.”

“I wouldn’t even call her my girl,” Lamar told Billboard in 2015. “That’s my best friend. I don’t even like the term that society has put in the world as far as being a companion — she’s somebody I can tell my fears to.”

That same year, during an interview with “The Breakfast Club,” Lamar confirmed reports that he proposed to Alford.

“Yeah, definitely,” he said. “I’m loyal to the soul.”

Lamar’s fourth album, ‘Damn,’ received a Pulitzer Prize

Lamar’s fourth album, “Damn,” released in 2017, marked a new peak in Lamar’s career both commercially and critically.

The album’s lead single, “Humble,” became Lamar’s first solo No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Damn” also took No. 1 on the Billboard 200, remaining atop the chart for four weeks, his longest reign to date. The album earned seven nominations and five awards at the 2018 Grammys.

Three months later, “Damn” won the Pulitzer Prize for Music, making Lamar the first non-classical or jazz artist to ever win the award.

“Damn” is described on the Pulitzer website as “a virtuosic song collection unified by its vernacular authenticity and rhythmic dynamism that offers affecting vignettes capturing the complexity of modern African-American life.”

Lamar earned his first Oscar nomination for his work on the ‘Black Panther’ soundtrack

Lamar was tapped to curate and executive-produce the soundtrack for Marvel’s 2018 “Black Panther,” a blockbuster hailed by Business Insider’s Jason Guerrasio as “a deep story about family, heritage, and community.”

Lamar teamed up with SZA, his TDE labelmate and longtime collaborator, for the soundtrack’s lead single “All The Stars.”

The song was nominated for best original song at the 2019 Oscars, though it lost to Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga’s duet “Shallow” from “A Star Is Born.”

“Black Panther: The Album” also received seven Grammy nominations. Its second single, “King’s Dead” by Jay Rock featuring Lamar, Future, and James Blake, won best rap performance.

Lamar and Alford welcomed their first child in 2019

Lamar and Alford reportedly welcomed a baby girl in July 2019, per Us Weekly. The couple had kept Alford’s pregnancy under wraps and did not make a public announcement about the birth.

Their daughter’s name wasn’t revealed until Lamar released his 2022 album, “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.”

“Uzi, your father’s in deep meditation,” Lamar raps in the title track, “Mr. Morale.”

Fans didn’t even know Alford had given birth to a second child until the family of four was photographed for the album cover. Again, Lamar slipped the baby’s name into his lyrics: “My son Enoch is the part two,” he reveals in “Worldwide Steppers.”

Lamar has remained tight-lipped about his fiancée and kids, though he did discuss fatherhood during a 2022 interview with W magazine.

“My children allowed me, in their development as human beings beginning to walk and talk, to remove my ego, to know that my children, too, will have their own independence,” Lamar said. “That allows me to understand the unconditional love on my end — will I allow them to be themselves? Will I allow them to journey off in the world and experience life for what they know of? That’s love, to me.”

“And when I look at that, I try to apply it with how I express myself, how I look at my career, and how I meet other individuals,” he continued. “Am I allowing them to be themselves without any judgment? My children have taught me that.”

Lamar made his Super Bowl halftime show debut in 2022

The 2022 Super Bowl halftime show, helmed by Dr. Dre, was designed to celebrate the legacy of West Coast hip-hop.

The famed producer enlisted an impressive collection of performers to join him on the field, including Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, and Lamar, who performed a shortened version of “Alright.”

The Pepsi-sponsored telecast won an Emmy Award for best variety special.

Lamar’s music has continued to reap critical acclaim, most recently with ‘Not Like Us’ and ‘GNX’ in 2024

Lamar explored themes of generational trauma and fatherhood in “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers,” which critics have described as his most dense, challenging, and personal work to date.

Following the lead of its predecessors, “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers” was a big hit with Grammy voters; Lamar was nominated for eight awards in 2023 and won three, including best rap album.

Lamar has yet to slow down: 2024 proved to be a milestone year with a string of career-topping achievements, including three No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, a decisive victory over Drake in their heated rap battle, and a headline slot at the next Super Bowl halftime show in New Orleans.

In December 2024, Lamar capped off his milestone year by surprise-releasing his latest album, “GNX,” which drew positive reviews and debuted atop the Billboard 200.

At the 67th annual Grammy Awards in February, Lamar’s scathing diss track “Not Like Us” (named the fourth-best song of 2024 by BI) will compete in five categories, including both record and song of the year.