Introduction: [Playing “Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe” instrumental by Kendrick Lamar while scenes of Compton and gang violence are displayed to set a calm vibe and introduce the reader to the general feeling of Compton]

How does one rise above Compton’s violent gang culture?

Kendrick Lamar’s childhood mirrored a majority of his generation who grew up in gang ridden cities throughout the 80s, especially Compton. However after achieving enough success to escape Compton, Lamar continued to base his career and music on his hometown. Lamar only knew Compton’s violence as a child, so how can he see the city’s beauty and potential within the pain?


Part 1: Kendrick Lamar birth and define compton’s history and how it became the way it is
(Playing “Straight outta Compton” by N.W.A. with flashes of the albums mentioned and the riots and other events mentioned later.)

Kendrick Lamar Duckworth was born on June 17th, 1987 in Compton, California. His parents left Southside Chicago to escape the prevalent gang culture with the image that Compton would be a safe, black suburb where they could raise their children in a healthy environment (Wikipedia 2024). However, they couldn’t have been any further from the truth. 

Compton’s homicide rate grew to unprecedented highs throughout the 80s and peaked in 1992 with an astronomical 424 homicides in the year (Los Angeles Sheriff's Department 2012). However, this violent culture wasn’t always present and Lamar’s family was actually correct to some extent. 

Compton originated as a quiet and wealthy white neighborhood but eventually became increasingly popular amongst young, black families in southern California for its affordable housing, strong education, and friendly black community. However, the civil rights movements simultaneously became increasingly relevant among black communities in the 60s especially with figures such as Malcolm X frequently visiting. These events resulted in clashes with the LAPD that only grew worse as white flight resulted in a 75% black population and from Compton’s new black consciousness sparked by the Watt Rebellions (Johnson, 2022). By the 80s, high interest rates that led to a housing market crash, Reagan’s destructive policies, and an increased emphasis on the war on drugs created a hot spot for crack, crime, and corruption. The city’s extreme police brutality and gang warfare were brought to public attention by the appalling Compton rap group N.W.A in 1988 and violence became further embedded into the culture. From this, Compton developed a reputation for its aggressive street life and became the pinnacle of a destructive community that failed to address greater concerns (Tse 2015). Gang-dominated cities, especially Compton, often became filled with so much hatred for small diversities, that negativity became perpetuated. This lack of community love is something that a young Lamar realized when witnessing so much violence.



Part 2: Kendrick Lamar Growing up (learning poetry), his dad, his friends, his influences
(Play the instrumental for “Institutionalized” by Kendrick Lamar with photos of him throughout his childhood. Hopefully this will display how Lamar responded to the violence of the city.)

Kendrick Lamar grew up as a “Crack Baby” during the most violent years Compton saw. In fact, Lamar during 1992, the most violent year, witnessed the Rodney King Riots and his first murder outside of his apartment when he was five years old (Wikipedia 2024). Lamar from a young age realized that he wouldDraft of Script for video essay
Answering: What is the environment Kendrick grew up in and how did it become that way? Why might have this inspired Kendrick to become an advocate for others


Introduction: [Playing “Bitch don’t kill my vibe” instrumental by Kendrick Lamar while scenes of Compton and gang violence is displayed to set a calm vibe and introduce the reader to the general feeling of Compton]

How does one rise above Compton’s violent gang culture?

Kendrick Lamar’s childhood mirrored a majority of his generation who grew up in gang-ridden cities throughout the 80s, especially Compton. However, after achieving enough success to escape Compton, Lamar continued to base his career and music on his hometown. Lamar only knew Compton’s violence as a child, so how can he see the city’s beauty and potential within the pain?


Part 1: Kendrick Lamar birth and define compton’s history and how it became the way it is
(Playing “Straight outta Compton” by N.W.A. with flashes of the albums mentioned and the riots and other events mentioned later.)

Kendrick Lamar Duckworth was born on June 17th, 1987 in Compton, California. His parents left southside Chicago to escape the prevalent gang culture with the image that Compton would be a safe, black suburb where they could raise their children in a healthy environment (Wikipedia 2024). However, they couldn’t have been any further from the truth. 

Compton’s homicide rate grew to unprecedented highs throughout the 80s and peaked in 1992 with an astronomical 424 homicides in the year (Los Angeles Sheriff's Department 2012). Despite this, the violent culture wasn’t always present and Lamar’s family were actually correct to some extent. 

Compton originated as a quiet and wealthy white neighborhood, but eventually became increasingly popular amongst young, black families in southern California for its affordable housing, strong education, and friendly black community. However, the civil rights movements simultaneously became increasingly relevant among black communities in the 60s especially with figures such as Malcolm X frequently visiting. These events resulted in clashes with the LAPD that only grew worse as white flight resulted in a 75% black population and from Compton’s new black consciousness sparked by the Watt Rebellions (Johnson, 2022). By the 80s, high interest rates that led to a housing market crash, Reagan’s destructive policies, and an increased emphasis on the war on drugs created a hot spot for crack, crime, and corruption. The city’s extreme police brutality and gang warfare were brought to public attention by the appalling Compton rap group N.W.A in 1988 and violence became further embedded into the culture. From this, Compton developed a reputation for its aggressive street life and became the pinnacle of a destructive community that failed to address greater concerns (Tse 2015). Gang dominated cities, especially Compton, often became filled with so much hatred for small diversities, that negativity became perpetuated. This lack of community love is something that a young Lamar realized when witnessing so much violence.



Part 2: Kendrick Lamar Growing up (learning poetry), his dad, his friends, his influences
(Play the instrumental for “Institutionalized” by Kendrick Lamar with photos of him throughout his childhood. Hopefully this will display how Lamar responded to the violence of the city.)

Kendrick Lamar grew up as a “Crack Baby” during the most violent years Compton saw. In fact, Lamar during 1992, the most violent year, witnessed the Rodney King Riots and his first murder outside of his apartment when he was five years old (Wikipedia 2024). Lamar from a young age realized that he will soon be accustomed to the violence of gangs such as the Pirus and Crips. His dad almost didn’t escape the violence as the KFC he worked at was robbed at gunpoint but he was fortunately spared since he showed the robber kindness in previous interactions (Wikipedia 2024). Lamar’s situation demonstrated that the city wasn’t as terrible as the media made it out to be, as showing compassion is what spared his father–an idea that resonated with Lamar.

These events seemed to have matured Lamar more than harmed him, as he forced himself to be a “Man-Man” and develop a nuanced perspective on society (Moore 2020, 7-9).  Compton wasn’t just a place of violence for Kendrick. It was also a place where people lived with purpose, community, and strength in opposition to the corrupted system.

Despite his trauma, Lamar excelled academically and discovered poetry in middle school. He learned how to create rhymes and metaphors which he soon applied to songwriting. Lamar always indulged in Compton and the West Coast’s artists such as DMX, Snoop Dogg, and most notably Tupac. Lamar even witnessed how Dr. Dre and Tupac by filming their “California Love” music video brought together the Compton community and became inspired as an “offspring” of Tupac’s conscious artistry (Wikipedia 2024). Lamar would soon combine his poetry background with his love for West Coast “gangsta rap” to not only make sense out of the chaos but also tell the story of those affected by the crack epidemic.


Part 3: gangs in his life and how he got recruited into music
(Play “Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst” by Kendrick Lamar. Images will pan to the things I mention such as the members of Top Dawg Entertainment.)

Lamar became caught up with drugs and crime throughout his high school years. While before he was always a witness to the city’s violence, Lamar personally became involved with numerous gangs and encountered the police often. Only when his close friend died from gang activities did Kendrick realize that gang life was not meant for him and pursued music. Kendrick rapped freestyles in high school and was recruited by the local record label Top Dawg Entertainment. From there, Lamar finally achieved an advantageous position where he could talk about the daily violence he felt as evidenced by his friend’s death and bring a voice back to his generation.



Part 4: Small music and how his progression and his topics and GKMC esp
(Play “Fuck your ethnicity” by Kendrick Lamar with photos of Section.80.)

After releasing several smaller projects, Lamar released his first studio album Section.80 where Lamar already demonstrated his desire to create a safer community. Lamar realizes that the violence in Compton wouldn’t be perpetuated if citizens could look past their differences and confront greater issues such as police brutality. Kendrick acknowledges the deep history of gangs, but states, “Fuck your ethnicity. You understand that? We gon' talk about a lot of shit that concerns you, all of you” on the track “Fuck Your Ethnicity”. At this point, Lamar has become a local celebrity yet still encourages everyone to recognize one another as just another human who needs to help each other take on life’s challenges (Dev'l 2020). 

(Play “Real” By Kendrick Lamar with photos of GKMC)
Lamar continues to tell his story on Good Kid m.A.A.d City, where Lamar recounts a series of events that explains his perspective on Compton’s gang culture. This album alone has become a monumental album itself and should be expanded more on, but for now, to summarize: Lamar and his generation will forever be connected to Compton’s culture. Lamar narrates the drugs he indulged in and crimes he committed with his friends, eventually resulting in his friend being shot dead. As a result, Lamar is confronted with the question of what they should do, to which his mom answers by telling Lamar he should make music on his experiences to give back to the city.




Part 5: success and how that led up to To pimp a butterfly’s themes
(Play the Instrumental for “Momma” by Kendrick Lamar with scenes from the “Alright” music video)

GKMC explores how Lamar’s experiences are not unique within Compton. It is an album that exposes the “Crack Baby” narrative to a border audience similarly to how predecessors such as Tupac or N.W.A commentated on the 80’s “Gangsta” perspective. In all of his projects up to this point, Lamar successfully illustrated the crack epidemic’s effects on his generation and how he discovered hope within Compton. After realizing his purpose at GKMC’s conclusion though, Lamar fully confronted the societal issues Compton and the greater black community faced and sought to break their chains on To Pimp a Butterfly. Especially on “u” and “i”, Lamar specifically uplifted the scarred “Crack Babies’” and urged them to embrace each other rather than continue the fruitless conflict.







Works Cited

All Lyrics taken from Genius
Moore, Marcus J.. 2020. The Butterfly Effect : How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America. Atria Books. ProQuest Ebook Central.

Wikipedia Foundation. 2024. "Kendrick Lamar." Last modified October 31, at 14:49 (UTC). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kendrick_Lamar.

Wikipedia Foundation. 2024. "1992 Los Angeles riots." Last modified November 1, at 22:38 (UTC). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Los_Angeles_riots.

Tse, Carman. 2015. “How Compton Became The Violent City Of 'Straight Outta Compton'.” LAist, August 13. https://laist.com/news/entertainment/city-of-compton. 

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. n.d. “Department Crime Statistics 1960-2012.” Accessed November 4, 2024. https://file.lacounty.gov/SDSInter/lasd/189076_LASD-Stats1960-2012.pdf.

Johnson, Robert. 2022. “How Compton Became a Citadel of Black Political Power.” PBS SoCal, February 3. https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/artbound/when-compton-was-a-citadel-of-black-political-power#:~:text=Black%20middle%2Dclass%20families%20flocked%20to%20Compton%20for%20its%20housing,southern%20end%20of%20Central%20Avenue.

“Why To Pimp A Butterfly Is The Greatest Album Ever Made.” 2020. Video. Posted October 14, 2020 by Dev'l. YouTube, 34 min. 13 sec. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrnxK0yIGL0.