Kendrick Lamar is an experienced storyteller whose ability to paint a picture with his words is unparalleled in contemporary hip-hop. The Compton artist (real name Kendrick Duckworth) has always been open about his life concerning his childhood and family, and in one track, the To Pimp A Butterfly lyricist addressed his daddy issues.
Kendrick Lamar’s father was a well-known figure in Chicago and was a member of the Gangster Disciples. Prior to Kendrick’s birth, his father only had $500 to his name and moved to California. However, when he and the rapper’s mom, Paula Oliver, arrived on the West Coast, he still got his money in the streets.
On his 2022 track, ‘Father Time,’ Lamar addressed how his father brought him up to have a gangster mentality and never show his emotions. According to the emcee, this affected his mental health and led him to have “daddy issues.”
The 2022 song, which appears on Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, opens up with a skit-like segment during which Lamar’s fiancée, Whitney Alford, tells him to seek counselling from spiritual teacher and author Eckhart Tolle.
In several lyrics, Lamar expressed how his father skewed his views concerning friendship and forgiveness between men. In one rap, Lamar rhymes, “When Kanye got back with Drake, I was slightly confused / Guess I’m not as mature as I think, got some healing to do.”
Lamar’s reference to Drake and Kanye is not an accident. In 2021, the pair hosted a ‘Free Larry Hoover’ concert in December 2021. The incarcerated individual is the co-founder of the Chicago street gang Gangster Disciples.
‘Father Time’ features UK neo-soul singer Sampha and peaked at number 11 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The track is not the first Lamar has made about his father. In 2017, Lamar recorded ‘DUCKWORTH’, which describes an encounter in 1984 between his dad and TDE boss Anthony Tiffith.
