Review of Miles Marshall Lewis’s book “Money and Power: A Biography of Kendrick Lamar”

The book “Money and Power: A Biography of Kendrick Lamar” by Miles Marshall Lewis has been published in Russian. Igor Gavrilov believes that it can be a good guide to hip-hop of the 21st century for the domestic reader.

Bronx journalist Miles Marshall Lewis, born in 1970, is almost the same age as hip-hop. On August 11, 1973, the first hip-hop party was held in the Bronx, the ringleader of which was DJ Cool Herc. Lewis watched hip-hop come of age first-hand, and in 2004 he emigrated to Paris, not considering living in the United States until the war in Iraq was over. Lewis’s book, Promise That You Will Sing About Me: The Power and Poetry of Kendrick Lamar, was published in 2021. The cover of its Russian translation reads “Money and Power: A Biography of Kendrick Lamar.” Obviously, from the point of view of Russian publishers, “money and power” are more tempting for the buyer than “power and poetry.”

Los Angeles rapper Kendrick Lamar (full name Kendrick Lamar Duckworth) was born in 1987, and in 2018 he won the Pulitzer Prize, a prestigious American award that is awarded in the fields of theater, literature, journalism and music. By presenting him with the award, the trustees of Columbia University, which distributes awards on behalf of the Joseph Pulitzer Foundation, recognized the right of rap and all pop music to be called art. In terms of importance for popular culture, Kendrick Lamar’s Pulitzer Prize is about the same as Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize for literature.

Kendrick Lamar’s first poetic experiences date back to his school years. In seventh grade, on instructions from an English teacher, he wrote a poem for the first time. Lamar completed it in ten minutes, much faster than his classmates, for which he received the highest score. There were also pocket notebooks with rhymes, and even entire thick notebooks, where he began to write down rhymes after he saw the performance of Tupac Shakur and Dr. Dre.

His life was generally not very different from the life of his peers from the area. “The Duckworth family kicked their own son out of their home for two days after police accused him of being involved in a local shooting,” Lewis writes. “In those same months, while recording his first mixtape, Kendrick survived two LAPD raids—they they pushed him in the back with their boots and shone a flashlight in his eyes.”

In Miles Marshall Lewis’s book, the artist’s story is intertwined with the history of the music industry. Kendrick Lamar’s first mixtape came out the same year that MySpace, a now forgotten but very important social network for its time, launched. Lamar’s career in the book rhymes with the transformation of the concept of “creative freedom.” Unfettered sharing of information and direct contact with fans were critical to Lamar’s generation, and the attention of early music bloggers provided fertile ground for his career. Freedom of expression was so important to Kendrick Lamar that when Spotify tried to remove tracks from artists with criminal backgrounds from algorithmic playlists in 2018, the rapper promised to remove his music from the service if Spotify seriously introduced censorship.

However, this particular episode interests the writer much less than, for example, a careful study of the artist’s texts. This is a rare case when, as part of a biography, an entire multi-page analysis of an album is given, in this case “good kid, mAAd city” (2012). The analysis of the album is based on the history of black music in general and Bronx music in particular. Among the book’s author’s favorite topics is the creative connection between Kendrick Lamar, Lauryn Hill and Marvin Gaye, people of different genders and different eras. “He can be ‘conscious’, comical, quirky, brooding, tough, vulnerable, ‘enlightened’ and cool all at the same time,” Lewis enthuses about his character.

Despite all the fanaticism of the author of the book, “Money and Power…” is a long story and, admittedly, quite confusing. However, his hero, meanwhile, continues on his path and never ceases to amaze. His latest album “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers” received a Grammy this year in the rap category. But perhaps even more evidence of Lamar’s exceptional figure is the recent news that the company he owns has released an “anti-smartphone” – a phone without a web browser, only with a calling option. When you don’t have to constantly be distracted by social networks and instant messengers, rap is written better.

Miles Lewis. Money and Power: Biography of Kendrick Lamar. M.: “Bombora”, 2023.