While he’s said that he’s never really had any desire to drink or do drugs, it’s also notable that he’s pretty naturally turnt up as it is. “No to drugs, I never spark it”, Tyler said on the first track of his very first project, Bastard. Tyler’s straight-edge lifestyle has been a large part of his personality from the very beginning, despite being surrounded by his permanently stoned Odd Future crew 90% of the time. “Everybody else can do what they want, but that stuff isn’t for me. I’ve been drunk nine times in my life, and I ate some weed brownies once,” he told Paper Magazine.

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Drake, in response, resorted to suing his own record company for promoting Lamar’s track, calling it “defamation” against him. While Kendrick Lamar could be considered lucky for making it out of Compton relatively unscathed, many of his friends haven’t been so lucky. As Lamar told NPR, “I probably lost more friends in this past summer than any other summer.” One, though, struck a particularly deep chord with Lamar. Although he’d witnessed how life in a gang can devastate lives and communities, and his father had worked hard to leave that world behind, it seemed impossible for Kendrick Lamar to completely escape it. Living in Compton meant he was exposed to gang culture at almost every turn, and when he was a teenager, he started slipping into it himself. The drug known as “Molly” was most recently publicized when the rapper Rick Ross spoke of using the drug to sleep with a woman without her permission.

• Many have penned verses about taking drugs to cope with trauma and depression.
• “I don’t do drugs. Period.” Joe Budden proclaimed in a 2013 interview with ThisIs50.com.
• But while Oliver and Duckworth tried to hide their financial woes from their little son, it didn’t take him too long to figure it out.
• His dancers’ red, white, and blue outfits evoked Crips and Bloods, which made it a bit stunning when they lined up to form an American flag, and raised their fists in what looked like the Black Power salute.

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Lamar’s song won Song of the Year and Record of the Year at last week’s Grammys, but even so, it seemed possible that his own lawyers would forbid him from playing the song on live TV. As he Oxford House gets ready to play the Super Bowl, it’s the perfect time to look back on how far he’s come. With an artist like Kendrick, who’s spent his entire career going from high point to high point, it’s nearly impossible. Some would call him a rapper, others might call him a poet, but one thing that we can all widely agreed on is that Kendrick Lamar is a musical genius.

Drake sues for defamation over Kendrick Lamar song

Having grown up in Compton, Kendrick Lamar smoked and drank a bit as a teenager. Lamar recalled the conversation he had with his father in an interview with SPIN’s Jessica Hopper. J. Cole’s KOD album even explored the severity of drug abuse and addiction.

• At the time, two rival gangs in his neighborhood were at war, making the journey to school unbearable for young Lamar.
• In 2015, the rapper, who’s notoriously private, confirmed his engagement to Alford.
• Hip hop culture heavily promotes alcohol and drugs, from club tracks that endorse “popping bottles” to street anthems that glorify “sipping lean.” Some rappers have been vulnerable, exposing the dark side of drug use in their music.
• Three of his works were included in Rolling Stone’s 2020 revision of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

His struggles with sex addiction

The rapper had been on tour when the incident took place, but he fortunately got to speak with Keaton over video before he died. However, Lamar told HipHopDX back in 2011 that his dad had an incredible impact on the his life and it kept the rapper from falling into the lifestyle. On social media, many rap fans speculated that the chain Kendrick wore during the performance, which was literally a “minor” letter “A,” was also a diss toward Drake while others explained that it was part of the pgLang brand. The title of the grammy-winning star’s tour nods to the history of black music and entertainment. “Throughout his career, Drake has intentionally and successfully used UMG to distribute his music and poetry to engage in conventionally outrageous back-and-forth ‘rap battles’ to express his feelings about other artists,” the label said. Lamar rapped from the hood of a Buick GNX—the car that he, on his latest album, has held up as a symbolic trophy of his struggle to survive the violence and poverty he was raised amid in gangland Compton.

In 2015, the rapper, who’s notoriously private, confirmed his engagement to Alford. The couple has since welcomed two children together, daughter Uzi born in July 2019, and son Enoch, born in 2022. “I wouldn’t even call her my girl. That’s my best friend. I don’t even like the term that society has put in the world as far as being a companion — she’s somebody I can tell my fears to,” Lamar gushed to Billboard in 2015.

‘Father Time’ feat. Sampha (

During his performance at the 2025 Super Bowl, K- Dot reignited the controversy when he sang the “a minor” lyric and pointedly dissed Drake by calling him out by name while looking directly at the TV camera. Plus, he also featured the name of the company on the back of his performance jacket. The “A” also appeared on flags being waved by his crew on the Super Bowl field. Headquartered in Los Angeles, pgLang focuses on music, film, television, art, books, podcasts and clothing.

Musical style

But despite drug culture’s influence over music and trends, a number of the game’s favorite artists embrace sobriety. In a 2015 interview, Lamar explained that he drew inspiration for the song from his upbringing. “Nothing was as vulnerable as that record, so it’s even pulling from those experiences of coming up in Compton … the experience of going through change,” he shared in a conversation with MTV. Lamar further shared that a part of his mental health struggle stemmed from survivor’s guilt after losing some of his childhood friends to the rough life in Southern California. “This was the time kendrick lamar drugs the gang rivals was heavy between my neighborhood and the neighborhood a few blocks down,” he explained. Lamar and his classmates dreaded walking home after class because they knew violence could be waiting around every corner.

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The rapper has never shied away from expressing himself, whether about the socioeconomic issues that plagued his childhood, his thoughts on other hip-hop icons, or Lamar’s feelings about Donald Trump. Nearly 15 million Americans suffer from depression, Kaiser says, but many people feel ashamed or embarrassed to get help because of ongoing stigmas around mental health — particularly among black communities, where resources tend to be more limited. While his lyrics and rhyme skills may get the party going, the things Kendrick does in his personal life may seem like he’s going against the grain. Even paying for a modest house cash instead of financing a multi-million dollar home like many other rappers, Kendrick seems to go left when others are going right. From proclaiming to be the best rapper alive, to winning multiple Grammy’s, creating one of the most widely played songs in the history of a rap beef, and now performing at the Superbowl, Kendrick star continues to rise. In a review of the gig, the Guardian said the Pulitzer prize-winning rapper “delivered the final blow to his diss track nemesis”.

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• In an appearance on Drink Champs, Vince expressed that he never wanted to get caught with drugs and always wanted to stay alert when growing up in an area filled with gang violence.
• Having grown up in Compton, Kendrick Lamar smoked and drank a bit as a teenager.
• In a separate interview with Apple Music, the “Happy” singer shared that one of the things responsible for Lamar’s excellent songwriting skills is that he “knows how to be very disciplined with a subject matter.”

It was a deeply personal album that separated him from his Slim Shady alter ego. On the hit single “Not Afraid,” Eminem raps, “It was my decision to get clean, I did it for me.” The hip hop icon celebrated his 15th year of sobriety earlier this year. Some of today’s biggest names like Lil Wayne and Kid Cudi, among others, have spent much of their careers looking for a way to cope with their own personal traumas. Many times, the glamorization of substance use is in their rhymes, peppering hooks with one-liners that speak to those internal struggles.