Kendrick Lamar's massive impact as an LA artist goes beyond the Super Bowl

LOS ANGELES - Kendrick Lamar is regarded as one of the most influential hip-hop artists of this generation, and has now made history as the first solo rapper to headline the Super Bowl halftime show. 

Kendrick performed for Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans as millions of people around the world watched. 

In an interview with Apple Music before the show, Kendrick spoke about the importance of the performance. 

"This is a true art form [hip hop] so to represent it on this type of stage is like everything I've worked for and everything I believe in as far as the culture. I live and die by it," said Lamar.

Kendrick, 37, is a Pulitzer prize winner and a 22-time Grammy Award winner. He won five Grammy Awards for the chart-topping hit, "Not Like Us," just last week at the 2025 Grammy Awards.

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Lamar previously appeared as a guest on the Super Bowl stage in 2022. For Super Bowl LIX, SZA joined Lamar as a special guest for the performance. 

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Lamar said a lot of people "don't see the story before the glory," in the interview.

Kendrick Lamar started rapping under the name K.Dot and often raps about his upbringing in Compton. His 2012 studio album, "good kid, m.A.A.d City, detailed his life growing up in Compton. He then made history with his record DAMN, which became the first from the rap genre to earn a Pulitzer Prize in 2018.

Compton educator recalls introducing Kendrick Lamar to poetry

However, before the fame and awards, he was a student in Compton. Kendrick attended Vanguard Learning Center. His teacher, Regis Inge, has been credited by Kendrick as the person who introduced him to poetry. 

"He [Kendrick Lamar] had a very, very large burning passion for writing. When I see him [Kendrick] talking about me, it's like wow you're talking about me, you're talking about your teacher," said Inge.

Inge said Kendrick was a "shy" kid, and he remembers working with him in the classroom.

"I would tell him [Kendrick Lamar] to go over there, get that thesaurus, [and say] I want you to find synonyms for all of these words but when you find them, don't just do it for my assignment, do it and learn the word so you can start using high vocabulary. When you're teaching in Compton, I didn't want people to give my children a negative stereotype based on where they came from. I want them to be able to open their mouths and compete with anyone regardless of where you come from," said Inge. 

Inge still has a relationship with Kendrick today, and said Kendrick is one of thousands of students who he cares about deeply. 

"My relationship with these kids is a little bit unique. When I say I'm with them, that's exactly what I mean. It's not just ten months, it's forever. We are family, and I'll always be there for you and Kendrick understood that. His friends understood that. A lot of his friends that you see around him, I taught them too. Even when they were 11 years old, I treated them like they were my own and they never forgot it and that's why when we're grown men now, it's family, we're a family," said Inge. 

Inge said teaching in Compton can be challenging, but it is very rewarding, especially to see his students succeed. 

"I did not know the magnitude and the heaviness that comes with being a teacher in the inner city, but I wouldn't change it for the world. Compton has done nothing but give me joy. Compton is a city that's a lot more than just gangbanging and things you see on tv, the music, the rap videos. Compton is full of culture, the kids in this district are great, you just have to get to know them and understand them and where they're coming from," said Inge.

Compton is full of culture, the kids in this district are great, you just have to get to know them and understand them and where they're coming from," said Inge. 

DJ Hed call's Kendrick Lamar's performance a ‘cultural moment’

DJ Hed has been friends with Kendrick Lamar for nearly 20 years now. He spoke with FOX 11 at Will.i.am’s FYI Campus.

"Our relationship is different, it's not a typical relationship. Most people think it's industry related or music related, but it's just homies trying to come up in the music business. I met him through Top Dawg, so one of my older brothers, "Glasses," "G Malone" started taking me around Top Dawg back in the day when we were trying to figure out how we were gonna matter in music, and Dot, was quiet. He was just observant so it was intriguing to see how he moved in the space and then we just formed a bond," said DJ Hed. 

DJ Hed said Kendrick's Super Bowl performance was about more than just him. DJ Hed said he knew Kendrick Lamar would have success, and foresaw Grammy Awards, but wasn't able to see the Super Bowl because he didn't think it was attainable. 

"People make it about him, but I don't think it's about him. This was his moment, but I don't think it's about him. I think it's a big moment culturally because the ideology behind the Super Bowl halftime performance, pre Jay-Z and Roc Nation's involvement was you had to look like this, and you had to have this type of music catalog," said DJ Hed. 

DJ Hed said he spoke with Kendrick about the rap beef between him and Drake last year that had the world talking. 

"I think it [the rap beef] just displayed who he actually is to the world. That's a conversation I had with him where he's like I'm not holding back anymore. We just talked about that recently where having a family changed his perspective on life and now whether the mic is in front of him or he's on camera or off camera, he's gonna be honest about everything. People look at him like he's Tupac, like he's this angry Black Panther, and no, he's a dude from Compton, and he got jokes but he'll fight you, he'll run a fade, we call it that, run a fade [meaning fight], he'll battle you in a rap or whatever. When you get something that's potent and rich in authenticity, you can tell," said DJ Hed. 

DJ Hed said he remembers dreaming about this level of success with Kendrick Lamar back in 2010. 

"It was me, him [Kendrick] and the homie Glasses Malone sitting there on the tour bus. I don't think I've ever talked about this publicly, but I think Dot was looking at corvettes, and he was like damn, I could never get one of these, look at this corvette and I remember Glasses was like you can, you're gonna get all of it watch and we were broke, really broke. We would eat noodles and oatmeal on the bus, making sandwiches so we didn't have nothing. We just had dreams so those are the things I think about," said DJ Hed. 

DJ Hed said Kendrick Lamar performing at the Super Bowl is a cultural moment. 

"Hip-hop is the most impactful genre in the world. We run culture. We are the culture. We are the art form. We set the trends. We are the metric. We are the barometer, but there's still doubt around what hip-hop means to the world, which is crazy to me but that's how some people feel. This is the first time a solo rapper has ever headlined the Super Bowl ever in the history of the Super Bowl, and that's a big deal," said DJ Hed. 

DJ Hed recently worked with Kendrick Lamar, deejaying for The Pop Out: Ken & Friends concert that was held on Juneteenth at the Kia Forum in Inglewood June 2024. The concert was streamed on Amazon, and was the first time Kendrick performed his rap diss track against Drake, "Not Like Us." 

"I didn't look at it [The Pop Out concert] as this is my moment. I was stressed because, not even worried about something happening or the homies getting out of control, I was just stressed like I need to do my part. If this is a three spoke wheel, I need to make sure my spoke is sturdy, it's executed perfectly, and I need to make sure to get my people on and off the stage and I got 25 minutes to do what I need to do and that's all I cared about. I didn't think about the wardrobe. I wasn't thinking about none of that stuff. It was just about me playing my position, playing my role, which is something that I took serious," said DJ Hed. 

DJ Hed is proud of his friend, and thinks Kendrick Lamar has hit a new level of "intention" in his music. 

"I think that's what his intention is now is to share his message and to inspire the next person that's looking at him like he looked at Tupac," said DJ Hed. 

 

DJ Quik, legendary DJ from Compton, discusses Kendrick Lamar's rise to fame

DJ Quik is an iconic rapper and producer from Compton. He said it is significant to have Kendrick Lamar perform at the Super Bowl, representing Compton. 

"He's the young mayor of hip-hop so it's like having your favorite celebrity come on your show-and-tell day at high school. He's like a little oracle, a little ball of energy that's such a good look. He is quintessential Compton, the epitome of what the City is so it doesn't behoove me to see him on murals, to see him everywhere, he's omnipresent. He made this little mean city of ours look like a darling city, he took the edge off it in a sense, and then he brings everybody together. He unites everybody, everybody's gonna watch, and then he handles the pressure well, if you call it pressure to him. He knew he was cut for this and he's running his race," said DJ Quik. 

DJ Quik said it's hard to succeed in Compton. 

"Compton is the hardest place to succeed because you have obstacles, governmental obstacles, neighborhood disagreement obstacles, and the fact that too many people are applying for one job, if there's a job available so people have to do ancillary things for income if you know what I'm saying. If you survive this minefield of obstacles in Compton, you can pretty much make it anywhere," said DJ Quik. 

DJ Quik spoke about his thoughts on the rap beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar. 

"At first I was worried because I saw the Tupac and Biggie thing go awry because that left a big canker sore on the hip-hop platform. It's like a nuclear bomb exploded [Tupac vs. Biggie], it's still radioactive so I just felt the fear of dang somebody could get hurt, and just being a parent now, being older, even a grandparent, you don't want that, but then when I realized that these are two really high upper caliber artists, it's gonna stay on wax because they have a way of wording it but they're also two of the nicest guys you'll ever meet, Drake and Kendrick but Kendrick is from my hometown so I gotta support the hometown so my boy all the way," said DJ Quik.

DJ Quik describes Kendrick as an introvert. 

"Kendrick is like I'll show you guys without saying much. He's not a guy of many words when you're with him. He's cool. He's Compton like how we talk in Compton, he has the Compton lingo, accent and all. When it comes to an ink pen and composing a song, writing songs, he's got that honest," said DJ Quik. 

DJ Quik remembers working with Kendrick early on for a song with EA Sports. 

"I'm working with him [Kendrick Lamar] and I'm recording him and I'm going got damn this boy's voice is, do y'all hear him? They're like that's Dot, and I'm like what y'all gonna do with him? This dude is awesome. I knew he was gonna be that [successful]. It was obvious and he didn't say a lot of words then. He just stood in front of the mic with his little cool curly top and just started killing it. I'm like this dude is a star, and now look at him, more popular than Obama right now," said DJ Quik.

DJ Quik wasn't able to make the Pop Out concert because he was touring with Snoop Dogg and Warren G at the time. 

"I was in my feelings a lot. I still feel something about that. I should've been there," said DJ Quik.

DJ Quik said it takes a lot of work to get to the highest level in music, and he believes he helped inspire Kendrick's music. 

"I'm happy to be one of Kendrick's inspirations for music. He shouts me out, some of my records were his favorite records because they're jazz, they're funk, but it's also what's going on in Compton at that time. I was very timely about documenting what was going on, just like a newspaper over these funky beats that our parents and uncles and aunties used to listen to and he kind of took the same thing. I feel like I influenced him and that makes me proud as all outdoors," said DJ Quik. 
 

Romeo, KDAY Morning show host says Kendrick Lamar ‘been that dude’ 

Romeo, the popular KDAY morning show host, said Kendrick Lamar has "been that dude." 

"He's [Kendrick Lamar] a lyricist. When he drops those bars, people do listen, and sometimes if you're not listening properly, you might miss something but it's one thing to have a track but when you have an artist such as Kendrick Lamar that can lay down those lyrics like he does, it's the perfect combination. You have to understand, he's been that dude since day one. I know there's a moment that's been happening over the last year and a half but Kendrick's been that dude so we have to take that into perspective and understand that's why he's at the Super Bowl," said Romeo. 

Romeo said Kendrick Lamar represents the West Coast proudly.

"Years ago, Snoop Dogg said I'm passing the torch [to Kendrick], he's gonna carry West Coast into the next movement, and he's been doing that and now he's officially done it as people may say. The fact that he's there [Super Bowl LIX], what it means for the West Coast, it means so much because we've always had that artist that we leaned on who represented and stood for us from NWA to Snoop Dogg to Dr. Dre, it's been there so now who's gonna be that guy and Kendrick has proven he's that guy time and time again so why not give his flowers," said Romeo.