It's no exaggeration to say that no other rapper has had as much presence in the last few years as Kendrick Lamar. He's been a hero to the black power movement and has been making appearances on seemingly everyone's records, lending his incredible lyrical and rhythmic virtuosity to songs from artists as diverse as Taylor Swift, A Tribe Called Quest, The Weeknd, Flying Lotus, and Sia - and that's a tiny slice. In his own music, he speaks truth to his own experiences - both as a gang kid in Compton and the man that rose above it, but Lamar acknowledges the REAL truth - the classic narrative of poor kid making good, the bad boy getting on the straight and narrow, is simply a feel-good story - too simple to actually be true. In his lyrics, the devil vs angel battle is constant, with Lamar shining the mirror upon himself, examining his motivations, his actions, and his consistent inconsistency. He is constantly grappling with fame, both celebrating it and reviling it, while he seeks an equilibrium with those things that come with it - sex, drugs, etc. Never has his agonizing been as apparent as on 2015's conceptual record, To Pimp A Butterfly. With a narrative thread connecting the songs via a spoken word piece in which Kendrick addresses himself, he both hates himself ("Loving You Is Complicated") and celebrates himself (the Grammy-winning "I") with no metaphors to cloud or smooth any meaning. Like all of us human beings, Lamar is a complex person and refuses to pretend to be anything else.

Lamar's musical and stylistic breadth is similar to his complex psyche, but with many more sides. He can rap in so many different styles that he can sound like 3 different rappers on one song. He can blend perfectly with whatever track is thrown his way. After the very live, jazzy feel of Butterfly, his most recent record, DAMN., which was just released, features huge, stripped down beats and electronic bass a la the harder, modern style of Atlanta "trap." It's like Kendrick is saying, oh, yeah, I can do that too. No matter the music, whether laying back in the cut or spitting lightning fast phrases, Lamar is always nestled squarely in the pocket, always tasteful, and always impressive. There are no "throw-away" verses from Kendrick Lamar.

While Lamar doesn't commit to any one style, and openly acknowledges the confusion of a human existence, his stance on race in America is more than clear. Lamar has made no bones about his black power politics, both lyrically, in the press, and in performance. His red-hot track "Alright" (on this mix), produced by Pharrell Williams, became an anthem for Black Live Matters protesters, as young black men chanted the Pharrell chorus "We Gon' Be Alright!" as they marched in solidarity. Lamar performed the song (as part of a medley with another Butterfly track, "Blacker the Berry") at the 2016 Grammys, and did nothing to try to de-politicize it or hide its intent, sending a visual message for anyone not listening to his words, as he and his band entered onto the stage in shackles, surrounded by jail cells, and then performed in front of a massive KKK-esque bonfire. The intensity was more than palpable - hot as the fire itself. The looks on the celebrity, rich, industry crowd's faces as the camera panned over them was testament to the shocking effect of the performance of the song. A similarly potent performance of "Alright" at the 2016 BET Awards, where Lamar rapped from on top of a graffiti-covered police car, earned him some attention from good ol' FOX News, with Geraldo Rivera reading one particular lyric on air that particularly upset him: "And we hate po-po / Wanna kill us dead in the street, fo sho." He then went on to offer this nugget of analysis: "This is why I say that hip-hop has done more damage to young African-Americans than racism in recent years." Though Lamar took the high road at the time, and largely ignored the comments (there were more), he clearly didn't forget. On DAMN., he samples the comments at the end of the very first track, and then strikes back with flare in "YAH.", rapping, "Fox News wanna use my name for percentage/Somebody tell Geraldo this nigga got ambition."

On so many levels, Kendrick Lamar is claiming the throne of greatest rapper in the game - a living legend who will go down as one of the all-time greats. 4 albums, an EP, an outtake mixtape, and a massive catalogue of guest appearances into his career, he is still in his 20's, so barring tragedy, we have plenty of time to experience the legend as he continues to grow and transform.