Regarded as one of the most influential hip-hop artists of his generation, and one of the greatest rappers of all time, he was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music, becoming the first musician outside of the classical and jazz genres to receive the honor.

[3] Despite suffering hardships, Lamar remembered having "good memories" of his childhood that sparked his interest in hip hop music, such as sneaking into his parents' house parties.

Through its connection to hip hop, Lamar studied rhymes, metaphors and double entendres, which made him fall in love with songwriting: "You can put all your feelings down on a sheet of paper, and they'd make sense to you.

[27] Lamar recorded five mixtapes throughout the 2000s; his first, Youngest Head Nigga in Charge (Hub City Threat: Minor of the Year), was released on April 15, 2003, through Konkrete Jungle Musik.

[28] In a series of retrospective reviews for Rolling Stone, Mosi Reeves complimented Lamar's "unerring" sense of rhythm and timing found in Hub City Threat: Minor of the Year, but criticized his "clumsy" lyricism and that his flow was "overly beholden to ... Jay-Z and Lil Wayne".

[29] Tiffith was impressed with Lamar's burgeoning abilities and invited him to partake in an audition process for entry into his newly established independent record label, Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE).

[40] For his eponymous debut extended play (2009),[41] Lamar eschewed the creative process of his mixtapes in favor of a project heavily focused on his songwriting over "lovely yet doleful" production.

[45][46] After watching the music video for the song "Ignorance Is Bliss" on YouTube, he reached out to Lamar with hopes of working with him and Snoop Dogg on his unfinished album, Detox.

[70][71] He worked with producers such as Pharrell Williams, Hit-Boy, Scoop DeVille, Jack Splash, and T-Minus to create an atmospheric West Coast hip hop album with heavy gangsta rap influences.

Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune applauded him for giving gangsta tropes a "twist, or sometimes upend[ing] them completely" on a record that "brims with comedy, complexity and the many voices in [Lamar's] head.

by Miguel,[97] "Collard Greens" by Schoolboy Q,[98] "Control" with Big Sean and Jay Electronica,[99] "Give It 2 U" by Robin Thicke featuring 2 Chainz,[100] and "Love Game" by Eminem.

[148] It contained eight untitled, dated, unfinished, and entirely self-written tracks that were intended to be included on To Pimp a Butterfly, and continued the album's exploration of jazz, funk, soul, and avant-garde styles.

[198][199] Lamar was featured on five songs throughout the year: "Dedication" by Nipsey Hussle,[200][201] "Mona Lisa" by Lil Wayne,[202] "Tints" by Anderson .Paak,[203][204] and "Wow Freestyle" by Jay Rock; he also executive produced the latter's album Redemption.

[208] After his two concert tours ended, he entered a four-year recording hiatus;[209] although he contributed to Beyoncé's The Lion King: The Gift, Schoolboy Q's Crash Talk, and Sir's Chasing Summer (all 2019).

[215] Lamar announced through an August 2021 blog post that he was in the process of producing his final album under TDE, confirming rumors that emerged last year that he would be leaving to focus on PGLang.

[223] He co-headlined the Super Bowl LVI halftime show alongside Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 50 Cent, and Mary J. Blige on February 13, 2022, which won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special (Live).

[293] Various R&B and soul artists, including Marvin Gaye,[294] the Isley Brothers,[294] Michael Jackson,[295] Teddy Pendergrass,[296] Sade, and Anita Baker, have influenced Lamar.

[297] He performed with Prince, who impacted his vocal register,[298] at Paisley Park to celebrate the release of the latter's 2014 albums Plectrumelectrum and Art Official Age, which GQ described as "five minutes of brilliant insanity".

Unlike his earlier mixtapes, which consisted of freestyles over CHR and urban radio singles, the EP incorporated melancholic and "doleful" original production that emphasized his lyrics.

[324][325] Described as a "blazing" technical rapper and "relentless searcher" by The New York Times,[301] Lamar's "limber, dexterous" flow switches from derivative to generative metrics,[326][327] while incorporating internal and multisyllabic rhyme schemes.

[328] His rhymes are typically manipulated within common time, allowing him to subtly control his metrical phonology and suggest formal ambiguities similar to pop and rock repertoires.

[335] Pitchfork noticed how his harmonies on To Pimp a Butterfly never made him sound alone throughout his "desolate" performance; comparing his vocal layering to "standing in the middle, unnoticed, of a large quarrelsome crowd.

"[336] Praised for his willingness to use his voice as an instrument,[337] Lamar adopts different cadences, tones, modulations, and timbres to suggest conflicting personalities, paint distinct emotions, and communicate stories using characters and personas.

[340] MTV writes that by manipulating his voice, Lamar calls back to a lineage that runs through James Brown's foundational work in the 1960s, 1970s psychedelia, Prince's "sweaty" phantasmagoria in the 1980s, and 1990s gangsta rap.

"[346] Lamar's reflective narrative songwriting pulls from a wide range of literary and cinematic techniques, such as hip hop skits and voice-overs, to allow his audience to follow internal and external storylines.

[356] HuffPost opined that his work is a "great" piece of journalism because it "speaks from the prerogative of black communities facing oppression and directly attacks the institutions responsible for their pain," an achievement most reporters cannot attain.

[359][360] The nonlinear narrative structure of Good Kid, M.A.A.D City is billed as a coming-of-age short film that chronicles Lamar's harsh teenage experiences in his native Compton.

[363][364] To Pimp a Butterfly unfolds as both a poem and blank letter that explores the responsibilities of being a role model and documents life as an African American during Barack Obama's presidency.

[403][404] Although some journalists declared him the winner of his highly publicized conflict with Drake,[405] some felt that his victory was pyrrhic due to the severity of accusations introduced and the spread of online misinformation.

[30] He partnered with American Express on advertising campaigns for Art Basel and Small Business Saturday,[422] and is an angel investor of the music creation platform EngineEars.