Kendrick Lamar's "Gloria"

The most interesting hip-hop artist of our times is Kendrick Lamar. It was evident he was a rap star from his sophomore album Good Kid, M.A.A.D City (2012), which told of the crime and violence he witnessed in his neighborhood during his upbringing in Compton, California. He next spoke on his struggles growing up a black man in America in To Pimp a Butterfly (2015). Then in DAMN. (2017), he took his own ego to task, an ego we see him try to conquer through family life a la Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers (2022), and sublimate through the creative process a la GNX (2024). Both these recent albums speak to the most challenging question an artist must face: whether he or she is first a person or an artist. In GNX, Kendrick lays down his cards. He loves his family, he loves his friends, but he's an artist first.

Kendrick's declaration that he is devoted to his art above all else comes with the final track on GNX. The track title "Gloria," short for "Gloria in excelsis Deo" (Glory to God in the highest), is also Kendrick's nickname for his pen. It's a complicated relationship, he says.

He describes the first encounter with his "pen," his lyrical artform, on the "porch as a teenager," taking ink to pad in pursuit of a vague promise of financial success. His art told him "one day I would right my wrongs and see paper." But writing songs was about more than chasing money. It was a way for him to find identity.

In the early days, he wasn't self-conscious about craft. In fact, he felt his pen did whatever he wanted. At the time, he did not even see that it was music that was going to make his dreams come true. Mistakenly, he thought the kinds of crimes he was exposed to in his neighborhood might be the only way out of poverty.

Nevertheless, he also saw that the pull of his artform distinguished him from his peers, those around him who claimed to be committed to music, but instead of putting hands to pen and writing, they were "preoccupied playin' Madden and bull—" Kendrick was not going to spend all his time playing videogames like the others or just talk about writing music. He was going to do it.

What writing music showed him was that the creative act could sublimate the pain he faced, and this became the most important thing to him. The first major wakeup was when his grandmother died. It was then that music said to him, "Depend on me as your relief; let your anger be mine." Yet while it helped him overcome the pain of his experiences, Kendrick learned that the art life was not going to be easy. Art took him away from family and friends, and when he discovered that making art was going to be a lifelong commitment, he felt "scared of forever." He nevertheless accepted the terms. In the end, he said to his art, "Whenever you want me, you got me till the end of time."