The Butterfly Effect

Chapter 1: How "You Got Robbed" 1 How "You Got Robbed"
There are musicians, and then there's Kendrick Lamar Duckworth. A welterweight, and just five feet, five inches tall, he looks more like a Baptist youth minister than the greatest rapper of his generation. But he is the greatest rapper, and he worked damn hard to make it so. Kendrick wasn't some sort of prodigy; he didn't descend from his bassinet with a microphone and a composition book. Instead, he simply found something he loved and stuck with it. Through creative writing, he could say things on paper that he couldn't say out loud. He was shy, an only child until the age of seven. He grew up in Compton, California, in the early to mid-1990s, not even a decade after the city's police brutality and gang culture were immortalized by the rap group N.W.A in 1988. Young black and brown children had to navigate that land before they could fully comprehend street politics. They had to learn the differences between the Piru and Crips gangs on the fly, in a city where wrong decisions could mean the difference between life and death. Kendrick spent time alone, cultivating his art in hopes of becoming great. For a naturally quiet being like Kendrick, writing poetry gave him the space to reveal his innermost thoughts without judgment from others. Prowess came in silence.

Kendrick ascended to the top of the music industry by being himself and staying true to what drove him artistically. He's been called esoteric and downright weird, but really he's just an old soul with a profound reverence for hip-hop, R&B, and funk-black music-and he moves throughout life with Compton in his mind and heart. Maybe that's why he's so beloved, because he stresses the importance of home no matter where he goes.

Yet at the beginning of the 2010s, Kendrick was just another upstart lyricist trying to find his place in music. In July 2011, Kendrick released his first official album, the kaleidoscopic Section.80, to an unknowing

Marcus J. Moore is an award-winning music journalist, senior editor, curator, and pop culture commentator, whose writing can be found in Pitchfork, The Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, The Nation, NPR, The Atlantic, BBC Music, and MTV, among others. He’s created nationally syndicated playlists for Google, discussed new music live on FM radio, contributed to national podcasts, and guest-hosted live shows on Red Bull Radio. In 2009, Moore launched his own site—DMV Spectrum—which covered music and entertainment in Washington, DC; Maryland; and Virginia. He was originally from the Washington, DC, area, and now lives in Brooklyn, New York. The Butterfly Effect is his first book.

Praise for The Butterfly Effect

"Kendrick Lamar is the most creatively captivating rapper of the past decade. This means inspecting and placing into context his profound legacy is nothing short of a gargantuan task. Fortunately for us, Marcus J. Moore exists. His writing has never been sharper, never been more concise, never been more insightful than it is here. This book is smart, confident, and necessary." -Shea Serrano, New York Times bestselling author of The Rap Year Book and Movies (And Other Things)

"I have a great amount of gratitude for The Butterly Effect and the triumph of chronicling one of our great artists while they're still here with us. Marcus J. Moore is thoughtful, incisive, and generous in this work, and will hopefully set a blueprint for how we honor the brilliant and living." -Hanif Abdurraqib, New York Times bestselling author of Go Ahead In The Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest

"The Butterfly Effect is much more than a biographical look at the voice of hip-hop's new generation. It's an analytical deep dive into the life of that good kid whose m.A.A.d city raised him, and how it sparked a fire within Kendrick Lamar to change history. Through thoughtful prose, strong investigative research, and a deep passion for the subject matter, Marcus J. Moore paints a picture of Kendrick that anyone can admire." -Kathy Iandoli, author of God Save The Queens: The Essential History of Women in Hip-Hop

"Marcus J. Moore's look at Kendrick Lamar beautifully illustrates the power of the word and the great value it holds in the community that birthed hip hop. Therein, we all better understand and appreciate why Black lives-and rhymes-matter." -Sacha Jenkins, Emmy-nominated director of Showtime documentary Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics And Men