Young rappers are often buried by the shadows of the greats before them. Legacies and hype force new artists to grow up under the harsh glare of the spotlight and unfair expectations. And nowhere did this seem to be more prevalent than in L.A., where there has been a drought of hip-hop talent for some time.
Fresh acts like Odd Future and Tyga have helped to breathe new life into west coast hip-hop, along with a slew of underground artists who have yet to blow up on a major scale like Dom Kennedy, Casey Veggies, YG and Nipsey Hussle to name a few. While all of these young cats are great in their own right, do they adequately stack up to west coast legends like Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube and Eazy-E?
Compton's own Kendrick Lamar, however, is unafraid to walk among the greats. Lamar quietly made his presence felt with a killer flow and one of the illest bodies of work (mixtape or album) Section 80 in 2011. The project, and Lamar, quickly gained critical acclaim. But instead of being judged harshly in comparison to the west coast's legends, there were few arguments about this young man's claim to the throne. He even received recognition as the heir to the west coast royal family from Snoop Dogg and Game at his concert in L.A.
Those of you who may have missed Section 80surely caught the up and comer's polarizing verse on "Buried Alive" from Drake's Take Care album.
Even the most traditional of hip-hop heads who claim Drake is "soft" found themselves saluting the Canadian for giving Kendrick the opportunity to shine. Aubrey hasn't stopped there either. He also offered the up-and-comer some major exposure by extending an invitation to Kendrick to tour with him on his Club Paradise Tour. It seemed that with all of this major attention, the next step for Kendrick would be to sign a deal with a major label and put out an album. But there was no solid news coming from his label TDE (Top Dawg Entertainment) for quite some time.
But Kendrick's time in the waiting room is finally over. Top Dawg founder, Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, recently announced that TDE and Kendrick Lamar had both closed deals. Kendrick Lamar will officially be releasing his debut album Good Kid in a Mad City through a joint venture with TDE, Interscope and none other than Dr. Dre's Aftermath imprint.
Let's hope this project features actual beats by Dre and not just plugs for the producer's famous headphones. If Dre comes through for Kendrick, it'll be a homecoming of sorts for west coast hip-hop.
TDE also did a deal with Interscope themselves that will handle other artists on their roster besides Kendrick Lamar's solo work. This means that Black Hippy (Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul, Jay Rock, and Schoolboy Q) will be releasing any projects through TDE and Interscope as well.
For those of you headed to SXSW you can catch all four members of Black Hippy performing at the Fader Fort in what looks to be a great week of music.
Check out Kendrick Lamar and Black Hippy Below:
