When the Spice Girls released their Spiceworld LP in November 1997, it came at an auspicious time for the group. The quintet’s debut LP, Spice, had come out just a year before, and songs like "Wannabe," "Say You’ll Be There," and "2 Become 1" had turned millions of people into Girl Power fanatics.

In the UK in particular, Spicemania was in full effect, with the group dominating magazine covers, radio airwaves, and even Pepsi commercials. The big-screen Spice World — a Hard Day’s Night-like movie inspired by the band’s aesthetic and meteoric rise to fame — was still about a month out, so Spiceworld offered fans a glimpse at what was to come in the upcoming film. 

For admirers, the five members of the Spice Girls seemed like paragons of self-confidence and universal acceptance. While they most famously preached the gospel of girl power, they were also advocates for universal love, friendship, and just having a good time. Any fan or observer of the group could look at Scary, Sporty, Ginger, Baby, and Posh Spice and recognize that they loved everyone unconditionally and they were proud of who they were, perky plasticity and all. At a time when bands like Limp Bizkit and Korn were projecting messages of rage, isolation, and darkness, the Spice Girls feminine enthusiasm and sass seemed like a gleeful ray of female sunshine in an otherwise dark and mostly masculine world.

Twenty-five years ago, I was 16 years old and living in Cleveland with my parents. I was heavily into Britpop, having fallen head over heels in love with Oasis a couple of years earlier. I spent all my free time watching MTV and all my spare money at the mall record shop buying import singles and concert tickets.

Of course, to get that money, I had to babysit. Typically, it was for the two boys who lived next door. They were 6 and 8, and they weren’t all that much trouble, really. In fact, what I remember most about them was how much the younger son adored the Spice Girls. At the time, he seemed like an anomaly: A kid less interested in video games or TV than he was in dancing around and singing "Wannabe" with a towel on his head. He’d frequently strike "girl power" poses, peace signs out and all, all to the chagrin of his older brother. It was cute, I thought, and I liked the Spice Girls well enough. I’d bring my copy of Spice with us when we went to the zoo and the pool in the summer, and we practically wore that thing out. 

That family moved away a year or so later, and I went away to college. I lost track of what they were up to until one curious night when I looked them up on Facebook and discovered that the younger son — the one who lived and breathed all things Spice — was now an out gay man living proudly in New York City. I friended him, and we joked about his Spice-loving past being a subtle indicator of who he’d later become. 

It wasn’t the first time I’d heard that theory; more than a few contestants on "RuPaul’s Drag Race" (both the U.S. and UK versions) have discussed their deep, longtime love of the group. One queen, DRUK’s Just May, even landed in the competition in part because of her reputation as the world’s foremost Geri Haliwell impersonator.

The relationship between queerness and drag and the Spice Girls has always seemed like a natural one because the personas the women embodied were, in some sense, drag-like archetypes. The Spice Girls were big and brassy, with larger than life looks and cheeky attitudes. 

That’s the kind of attitude that drew in Just May, who was just 7 when Spiceworld was released. She remembers first seeing the Spice Girls performing on a British morning show called "GMTV" in 1996: "Geri was wearing this blue and green tie-dye outfit and I just thought, wow, she is incredible," Just May recalls. "Later, when she really started to play into the Ginger Spice thing with the red hair and big boots, that was when I really thought, Okay, this is what I want to be when I grow up."

For "Drag Race UK"vet Kitty Scott-Claus, Baby Spice had the most draw and resonance. "She was the blonde cutesy one and that's how I always was on the playground," she says. "As a little gay boy, I was always friends with girls, and I was always Baby Spice when we played or talked about Spice Girls. I had the Baby doll, and pretty much any piece of merch with Baby on it. I was absolutely obsessed with her." That love paid off years later when Scott-Claus actually met Baby Spice on DRUK, a moment she has called "the best day of her life."

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DRUK vet Copper Topp says she grew up admiring Mel C. "I got sporty trousers with buttons down the side, and I'd wrap a towel around my head and stick a headband in and have my Sporty Spice hair," she says. "I loved that the Spice Girls were misfits opposed to the patriarchy, and they weren't the same as other bands. That kind of misfit vibe really mirrored my life. [As a queer tween,] I felt like a misfit, and I didn't feel like I quite fit in."

"I remember thinking at the time, I know they're talking about girl power, but there was something in that that resonated with me," Scott-Claus says. "I remember thinking, it doesn't matter that I'm not a girl and I'm a little boy. I knew I was different. I'm one of six children. I've got four brothers and one sister and I'm nothing like any of them. They were all very stereotypical little boys and girls, and I didn't really fit into the mold. Instead, I resonated with the Spice Girls. I resonated with these strong, powerful women."

Elsewhere in the UK, Just May was thinking the same thing. "Because the five of them are all so different but come together as one, it was saying to me as a kid, ‘you can be any of these things and it's still fine,’" she explains. That inclusivity is also what taught her that, "Spiceworld is for everyone. It doesn't matter what race, gender, or sexuality you are. Everyone is accepted into Spiceworld." There are even parallels to more modern, famously inclusive fan bases to be found, with Just May quipping, "The Spice Girls walked so Lady Gaga could run."

When Spiceworld was released, it was viewed by many critics as a quick cash grab or a bit of prefab manufactured pop fluff. Entertainment Weekly’s review of the record called it "superficiality incarnate," while NME dismissed Spiceworld as "tragic," decrying the group as being "in it for the money." Reviews for Spice World, the movie, weren’t much better. USA Today gave it 1.5 stars, while the Chicago Reader wrote that it was, "a promotional tool that establishes its superfluousness simply by existing."

What those critics didn’t realize, though, was that the record was reaching an underserved, unheralded population of queer youth who began to see and accept themselves through their love of songs like "Spice Up Your Life" and "Viva Forever." Copper Topp says even when she was young and unsure of who she was, she could use the Spice Girls to find people with a shared view of humanity. 

"You’d go to other boys houses and guess if they might be queer depending on whether the Spice Girls cassette was on their shelf," she explains. "If you saw Spiceworld or Billie Piper or Lauryn Hill, you’d think, okay, this could be somebody in my tribe." 

The Spice Girls themselves seem to agree with that statement. In the years since Spiceworld, Scary Spice Mel B has come out as bisexual, telling Piers Morgan that she had a romantic thing going with fellow band member Geri "Ginger Spice" Horner during the height of their’ popularity. (Some conspiracy-loving fans speculate their breakup is why Horner left the group in May 1998, but that’s never been confirmed.) 

The group’s 2019 Spice World reunion tour welcomed fans with a poster that said the group and its fans, "welcome all ages, all races, all gender identities, all countries of origin, all sexual orientations, all religions and beliefs, all abilities." The show itself featured a pair of male dancers performing a passionate tango each night before the group performed "Viva Forever."

More recently, Sporty Spice Mel C accepted the "honorary gay" award from queer UK publication Attitude, telling the crowd at the ceremony, "The Spice Girls were about embracing individuality. Everybody was invited into our gang. It wasn’t just girl power, it was gay power." 

Copper Topp, who was at that ceremony, says Mel C talked about how the group aspires to keep educating themselves in order to become better allies, as well. "I think that’s all you can ask for, really," says Copper Topp. "When you’re in the queer community, all you want is good allies and the Spice Girls are pretty good allies to have on your side." 

5 Essential Female Dance Albums Of The 2000s: 'It's Blitz' To 'Youth Novels' And More

Motherhood — and having a mother — aren't one-dimensional concepts, and anyone born of a woman knows that. Some view their moms through the lens of unconditional love, respect and reverence; others feel oppositely. In between is an entire spectrum of shifting feelings, meanings, from grief to resilience to reconciliation and beyond. And that in-betweenness — which defines everything about life on Earth — is where songs are born.

This Mother's Day, celebrate the innumerable facets of moms and momhood with songs that approach the topic from wildly different perspectives. You've got Sun Kil Moon's luminous song about a deeply loved mother's impermanence, and Tom Brosseau's song about his mom abandoning him in a department store. Also at diametric odds: Danzig's and John Lennon's songs, both titled "Mother." (You'll hear why.)

Check out our Mother's Day playlist below.

Editor’s Note: Nina Frazier contributed to this article.

The 2025 GRAMMYs, officially known as the 67th GRAMMY Awards, will air live on CBS and Paramount+ on Sunday, Feb. 2. Watch highlights from the 2025 GRAMMYs on live.GRAMMY.com.

The 2025 GRAMMYs telecast will be reimagined to raise funds to support wildfire relief efforts and aid music professionals impacted by the wildfires in Los Angeles. Donate to the Recording Academy's and MusiCares' Los Angeles Fire Relief Effort To Support Music Professionals.

Editor’s Note: This interview was conducted before the onset of the wildfires in Los Angeles.

Steve Cropper is still "selling energy" — putting forth what a younger generation might call blues rock "vibes" with his pals as if it were still 1970.

This ethos dates back to his time at the legendary Memphis label Stax Records, where Cropper served as a songwriter, producer, engineer and A&R. Crucially, Cropper was the guitarist in Stax's house band, Booker T. & The MGs — they of "Green Onions" fame — and backed artists including Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, and Carla Thomas. Among his many bonafides, Cropper co-wrote Redding's "(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay."

In his post-Stax years, the two-time GRAMMY winner and nine-time nominee produced and played on sessions with Jeff Beck, Jose Feliciano, John Prine, John Cougar, and Tower Of Power. He later joined Levon Helm’s RCO All-Stars group and was among the original members in Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi's Blues Brothers band. Cropper resumed his solo career in the '80s, releasing several albums, while continuing to collaborate with leading lights like Paul Simon, Ringo Starr, Elton John and Steppenwolf.

Steve Cropper has stayed true to himself for over seven decades, thanks in no small part to advice from Stax founder Jim Stewart. "He said, 'Just play yourself and if they don't like it, they'll tell you,'" Cropper tells GRAMMY.com. "So I've been playing myself all my life and it's worked out. That's pretty cool."

At the 2025 GRAMMYs, Cropper is nominated in the Best Contemporary Blues Album Category for the aptly named Friendlytown, recorded with a mix of long-time collaborators and a few newer faces, together billed as Steve Cropper & the Midnight Hour. Friendlytown's 13 tracks are familiar, digestible and straight-ahead rockin' — the kind of tunes you'd be thrilled to hear in a local dive. Featuring ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, Queen guitarist Brian May, singer Roger C Reale, and guitarist Tim Montana, Cropper co-wrote and co-produced all of Friendlytown with bassist Jon Tiven.

"Steve's guitar playing on the song 'Hurry Up Sundown' is probably some of his best solo work and rhythm work," Tiven says. "It's amazing that at this point in his career, he could still be creating some of the greatest music of his life. I think that's a wonderful testament to the strength of his talent."

Meet Me At The Friendlytown Trader Joe's

There was very little methodical music-making behind Friendlytown, which partially grew out of sessions Cropper put together for his 2021 album Fire It Up. "This record was just about a bunch of guys getting together and having some fun. It's just like, Let's have a blast and try to make the party come to the record, rather than the record come to the party," Tiven notes.

Cropper and Tiven had been working on songs for years with the hopes of finding friendly musicians to give them life. While some found homes, the duo sat on instrumentals for years — until Tiven ran into Billy Gibbons at Trader Joe's. When Tiven told the sharp-dressed man he was making a record with Steve Cropper, "He just lit up like a firecracker and said he'd like to bring us a song. I said, 'Well, it's only going on the record unless you play on it.' And he said, 'Well, that could be arranged.'"

Gibbons ended up on 11 tracks; Friendlytown marks the first time he and Cropper worked together in many years. The ZZ Top vocalist's influence is audible on the album, particularly the title track and Eliminator-esque "Lay It On Down."

In Session At Stax

While casual may be the name of Cropper's game these days, "it definitely wasn't 35, 40 years ago," he says. Back then (and largely before, as Cropper left the label in 1970), making music was "was very serious, and I don't even think the guys had a good time." With a laugh, Cropper recalls his best friend, the Stax bassist/MG Duck Dunn, pining for a world in which "Jim Stewart would've only smiled every now and then."  

While Cropper calls Stewart "the greatest guy I've ever met," the label head was known to be critical. "He knew if you fought for something, like a song, that it was a good song. And if you didn't fight for it, it wasn't worth nothing," Cropper says, chuckling. "He was right. I think about that all the time, but I don't use it. A songwriter could tell me how good a song they wrote is, but if I don't like it, I don't like it. I'm sorry!. I'm sure I've thrown away some good ones before." 

Read more: 1968: A Year Of Change For The World, Memphis & Stax Records

A young Cropper put up a couple of fights, and for good reason. He recalls stumping for Wilson Pickett's "Ninety-nine and a half": [Jim Stewart said] "You boys was out there woodsheddin’. That song ain't going to make it." Cropper pressed it, and Stewart relented. The track made the cut for Pickett's 1966 album The Exciting Wilson Pickett.

Another big Stax hit stayed on the shelf for nine months while Cropper and co. battled it out with Stax brass. "Finally Al Bell went to Jim and said, 'You got to put this record out. It's called ‘Knock on Wood.' And Jim says, 'Okay, but you got to use your own money,'" Cropper says. "He hated that record until it was a hit."

Reflecting on the hardest song he's ever played, Cropper quickly points to Sam and Dave's "Soul Man." But the 1967 smash isn't difficult for the reasons you might think: the guitarist had to balance a Zippo lighter on his leg during sessions and performances, which he used to mimic the song's opening horn line. "I always had to dance [when recording] with Sam and Dave, because they could hit a groove. A lot of guitar players don't know that I played with a Zippo lighter and I'd slide it," he recalls.

Cropper reportedly hated the sound and feel of new guitar strings — something, he says, is no longer the case in old age — and in a lip-smacking good tidbit of studio lore, explained how he managed his unique sound. "I carry a thing of ChapStick all the time and I would go up and down the strings; [that would] take about three months out of the string so it would sound like the rest of them."

Sittin' On A Legacy

After decades in the business, it seems as if Cropper – though ever a professional – doesn't take himself or the creative process too seriously. He jokingly shares a reccolation from a studio session during his Stax years: Once the session was finished, Cropper told the group "Damn, this sounds like a hit." "And Al Jackson said, 'Steve, they're all hits until they're released.' He's probably right."

One of Stax's reliable hitmakers was a close friend of Cropper's: Otis Redding. The two shared a deep musical bond and some shared history. Both musicians grew up on farms ("By the time I was 14, I was ready to leave the home. By the time I was 16, I was gone in my mind," Cropper notes) yet the guitarist describes Redding as "most streetwise person that I ever met. I think he just had it. It came natural to him."

Redding played guitar with one finger and you "never argued with Otis" — especially because he was never available for sessions for more than a day or two. Most Otis Redding albums, as a result, were compilations from different sessions.

"I remember we cut 'I Can't Turn You Loose' in 10 minutes," Cropper says. "[When we recorded] Otis Blue, we had everybody come back at 1 [a.m.] -- after they did their gig and they went home and had their shower – so we could cut it."

Cropper knew that  "(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay" — arguably Redding's biggest hit, and Cropper's first GRAMMY win —  was a hit. "You know why I knew it was a hit? Because we had Otis the longest I'd had him; for two weeks."

The gentle lull of "Sittin'" was a radical departure from Redding's Southern soul bombast, and perhaps a sign of what was to come if the singer hadn't died tragically in a plane crash. "That one song, we searched for a long time. We call it crossover music; so it could go either way:, R&B, pop, whatever. That was the first one we ever had," Cropper says.

There's Always A Catch

Steve Cropper is still going strong at 83 years old. He reports that he enjoyed HBO's recent Stax Records docuseries, and has an unfinished instrumentals album in the can. He hasn't time for regrets, only dreams, but the name of the one person Cropper wishes he had worked with fires off like lightning: Tina Tuner.

Cropper saw the late legend three times. "I really did admire Tina. She was the closest person to Otis, I think, in the business. It's the yeller, screamer, but everybody loves their music. She was so good, it didn't matter how it was she's yelling and screaming," he says.

Tina Turner's loudest albums still have melody and something "people will walk away humming" — the very thing Cropper loved about  Stax records. "We were selling groove and all, rather than the music," Cropper says of his work with the MGs. "We don't care about the music. We just cared about melody and what's in the simplicity of the song."

Editor's Note: This article was updated with a new photo and YouTube videos on Dec. 16, 2024.

When it comes to holiday music, you can never go wrong with the tried-and-true classics.

Who doesn't love Nat "King" Cole's "The Christmas Song," Elvis Presley's "Blue Christmas," Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You," Charles M. Schulz's GRAMMY-nominated A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack, or any new version of a festive favorite?

Even so, it's always good to get out of one's comfort zone. With that in mind, unwrap these 12 outside-the-box Christmas songs, spanning rock to rap and featuring everything from refreshing spins on the familiar to unexpected holiday thrills.

Read More: New Christmas Songs For 2024: Listen To 50 Tracks From Pentatonix, Ed Sheeran, LISA & More

This firsthand account of spending the most joyous holiday locked up and separated from the one you love offers a different kind of longing than the average lonesome Christmas tune. In signature John Prine style, "Christmas In Prison" contains plenty of romantic wit ("I dream of her always, even when I don't dream) and comedic hyperbole ("Her heart is as big as this whole goddamn jail"), with plenty of pining and hope to spare.

"Christmas In Prison" appeared on Prine's third album, 1973's Sweet Revenge, and again as a live version on his 1994 album, A John Prine Christmas, which makes for perfect further off-beat holiday exploration.

When it comes to gloriously tasty six-string instrumentals, no one does it better than GRAMMY-winning Texan Eric Johnson. For his take on this timeless Christmas carol, the "Cliffs Of Dover" guitarist intermingles acoustic-based lines, sublime clean guitar passages and Hendrix-y double-stops with his trademark creamy violin-like Strat lines. The result is a sonic equivalent on par with the majesty of the Rockefeller Christmas tree. (For more dazzling holiday guitar tomfoolery, look into the album it's featured on, 1997's Merry Axemas.)

Who doesn't want a large semiaquatic mammal for the holidays? For then-10-year-old child star Gayla Peevey, not only did she score with the catchy tune, she also got her wish.

The 1953 novelty hit, written by John Rox, rocketed up the pop charts and led to a fundraising campaign to buy Peevey an actual hippo for Christmas. Children donated their dimes to the cause, and the Oklahoma City native got her hippo, named Mathilda, which she donated to the Oklahoma City Zoo.

The song itself features plodding brass instrumentals and unforgettable lyrics such as, "Mom says a hippo would eat me up but then/ Teacher says a hippo is a vegetarian." It seems Peevey still has a fond legacy with the hippo activist community — she was on hand in 2017 when the Oklahoma City Zoo acquired a pygmy hippopotamus.

In a contemplative mood this Christmas? Try getting into the holiday spirit by way of meditating on the true meaning of the season with this brash, uptempo Southern California crust punk tune.

Now the best-known song from the Vandals' 1996 Christmas album of the same name, "Oi To The World!" remained a relatively obscure track by the Huntington Beach punkers until it was covered by a rising pop/ska crossover band from nearby Anaheim, Calif., in 1997. (Perhaps you have heard of them — they were called No Doubt.) Ever since, the song has been a mainstay of the Vandals' live sets, and they have also played the album Oi To The World! in its entirety every year since its release at their annual Winter Formal show in Anaheim, now in its 29th year.

Though it's best known from OutKast's 1994 debut album, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, the Christmas version of the track "Player's Ball" was released earlier on A LaFace Family Christmas, an L.A. Reid-led project to introduce new acts. The then-young Atlanta rapper duo took a Southern hip-hop spin on the season, which can come across as a little irreverent, but at least they're honest: "Ain't no chimneys in the ghetto so I won't be hangin' my socks on no chimneys." Though some people may not find it cheerful, OutKast's season's greetings give "a little somethin' for the players out there hustlin'."

You'd be hard-pressed to find a more heartbreaking Christmas story than this Tom Waits' masterpiece from 1978's Blue Valentine. "Charlie, I'm pregnant and living on 9th Street," begins the Christmas card narrative in which a woman writes to an old flame, reporting how much better things are going since she quit drugs and alcohol and found a trombone-playing husband.

Waits' signature early career piano-plinking and tall-tale-storytelling weaves through a dream world of hair grease and used car lots, even sneaking in a Little Anthony And The Imperials reference. In the end, our narrator comes clean with the sobering lyric, "I don't have a husband, he don't play the trombone" before pleading, "I need to borrow money to pay this lawyer and Charlie hey, I'll be eligible for parole come Valentine's Day." For the uninitiated, this is the off-beat genius of GRAMMY winner Waits at his finest.

Though they took some lumps in their '80s hair-metal heyday, few would dare deny Winger's talent and musicianship. Surely on display here, frontman Kip Winger (a GRAMMY-nominated classical musician) and his bandmates begin with a traditional unplugged reading of the Franz Xaver Gruber-penned holiday chestnut, complete with four-part harmony.

But then it gets really interesting: the boys get "funky" with an inside-out musical pivot that fuses percussive rhythmic accents, pentatonic-based acoustic riffing, Winger's gravely vocals, and some choice bluesy soloing (and high-pitched vocal responses) courtesy of lead guitarist Reb Beach.

With lyrics that include "I know I should have thought twice before I kissed her" in the opening, you know you're in for a sleigh ride like none other. It's therefore no surprise that Cyndi Lauper and Swedish rock band the Hives' unconventional Christmas duel describes many marital hiccups that might make some blush.

Yet, the raucous duet somehow comes out on a high note, concluding, "We should both just be glad/And spend this Christmas together." The 2008 track was the brainchild of the Hives, who always wanted to do a song with Lauper. "This is a Christmas song whose eggnog has been spiked with acid, and whose definition of holiday cheer comes with a complimentary kick below the belt," wrote Huffington Post in 2013. "It's also an absolute riot."

Leave it to LCD Soundsystem's producer/frontman James Murphy to pen a holiday song about the depressing side of the season. "If your world is feeling small/ There's no one on the phone/ You feel close enough to call," he sings, tapping into that seasonal weirdness that can creep up, especially as everything around you is incessant smiles, warmth and cheer, and pumpkin-spice lattes. While he doesn't shy away from examining the depressing side of surviving the holiday season as an aging 20-, 30-, 40-something, Murphy does at least give a glimmer of hope to grab onto, transient and fleeting though it may be, as he refrains, "But I'm still coming home to you."

As Snoop Dogg declares, "It's Christmas time and my rhyme's steady bumpin'." This track from the 1996 album Christmas On Death Row lets you know why "Santa Claus Goes Straight To The Ghetto." Church food, love between people, and happiness stand out as Christmas is "time to get together and give all you got; you got food, good moods and what's better than together with your people." Love in the hard hood might have to watch itself, but the various artists of Death Row contagiously testify to abundant love and seasonal joy.

Bypassing the urge to write new material on their rocking Christmas album, 2006's A Twisted Christmas, Twister Sister instead took the most recognizable holiday classics in the book and made them faster, louder and more aggressive. The result — which, to date, equate to the group's seventh and final album — is a supercharged concept collection of songs such as "Silver Bells," "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" and "Deck The Halls" bludgeoned by chainsaw guitar riffs, thundering drums and lead singer Dee Snider's soaring screams. This unusual combination makes A Twisted Christmas the perfect soundtrack for any child of the '80s still hoping to tick off the neighbors this holiday season.

In anticipation of the 2025 NBA All-Star Game in San Francisco, P-Lo breathes new life into T.W.D.Y.'s classic "Players Holiday." Featuring Saweetie, Larry June, Kamaiyah, LaRussell, G-Eazy, thuy, and YMTK, the track celebrates Bay Area culture with its infectious energy and hometown pride. With its dynamic lineup and energetic vibe, "Players Holiday '25" is a love letter to the region's sound and legacy that bridges hip-hop and basketball culture.

This article features contributions from Nate Hertweck, Tim McPhate, Renée Fabian, Brian Haack, Philip Merrill, Nina Frazer and Taylor Weatherby.

Editor's note: This article was updated to include the latest information about Kendrick Lamar's 2024 album release 'GNX,' and up-to-date GRAMMY wins and nominations with additional reporting by Nina Frazier.

When the world crowns you the king of a genre as competitive as rap, your presence — and lack thereof — is palpable. After a five-year hiatus, Kendrick Lamar declaratively stomped back on stage with his fifth studio album, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, to explain why the crown no longer fits him.

Two years later, Lamar circles back to celebrate the west on 2024's GNX, a 12-track release that revels in the root of his love for hip-hop and California culture, from the lowriders to the rappers that laid claim to the golden state.

“My baby boo, you either heal n—s or you kill n—s/ Both is true, it take some tough skin just to deal with you” Lamar raps on "gloria" featuring SZA, a track that opines on his relationship with the genre.

The Compton-born rapper (who was born Kendrick Lamar Duckworth) wasn't always championed as King Kendrick. In hip-hop, artists have to earn that moniker, and Lamar's enthroning occurred in 2013 when he delivered a now-infamous verse on Big Sean's "Control."

"I'm Makaveli's offspring, I'm the King of New York, King of the Coast; one hand I juggle 'em both," Lamar raps before name-dropping some of the top rappers of the time, from Drake to J.Cole.

Whether you've been a fan of Lamar since before his crown-snatching verse or you find yourself in need of a crash course on the 37-year-old rapper's illustrious career, GRAMMY.com answers nine questions that will paint the picture of Lamar's more than decade-long reign.

Who Discovered Kendrick Lamar?

Due to the breakthrough success of his Aftermath Entertainment debut (good kid, m.A.A.d city), most people attribute Kendrick Lamar's discovery to fellow Compton legend Dr. Dre. But seven years before Dre's label came calling, Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith saw potential in a 16-year-old rapper by the name of K.Dot.

Lamar's first mixtape in 2004 was enough for Tiffith's Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) to offer the aspiring rapper a deal with the label in 2005. However, Lamar would later learn that Tiffith's impact on his life dates back to multiple encounters between his father and the TDE founder, which Lamar raps about in his 2017 track "DUCKWORTH."

How Many Albums Has Kendrick Lamar Released?

Kendrick Lamar has released six studio albums: Section.80 (2011), Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City (2012), To Pimp a Butterfly (2015) DAMN. (2017),Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers (2022), and GNX (2024). Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City, To Pimp a Butterfly and DAMN. received both Rap Album Of The Year and Album Of The Year GRAMMY nominations. 

What Is Kendrick Lamar's Most Popular Song?

Across the board, it's "HUMBLE." The 2017 track is Lamar's only solo No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (he also reached No. 1 status with Taylor Swift on their remix of her 1989 hit "Bad Blood"), and as of press time, "HUMBLE." is also his most-streamed song on Spotify and YouTube.

How Many GRAMMYs Has Kendrick Lamar Won?

As of November 2024, Kendrick Lamar has won 17 GRAMMYs and has received 57 GRAMMY nominations overall, solidifying his place as one of the most nominated artists in GRAMMY history and the second-most nominated rapper of all time, behind Jay-Z. Five of Lamar's 17 GRAMMY wins are tied to DAMN., which also earned Lamar the status of becoming the first rapper ever to win a Pulitzer Prize.

His most recent wins include three awards at the 2023 GRAMMYs, which included two for his album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, and Best Rap Performance for "The Hillbillies" with Baby Keem. 

Does Kendrick Lamar Have Any Famous Relatives?

He has two: Rapper Baby Keem and former Los Angeles Lakers star Nick Young are both cousins of his.

Lamar appeared on three tracks — "family ties," "range brothers" and "vent" — from Keem's debut album, The Melodic Blue. Keem then returned the favor for Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, featuring on "Savior (Interlude)" and "Savior" as well as receiving production and writing credits on "N95" and "Die Hard."

Read More: Meet The First-Time GRAMMY Nominee: Baby Keem On Inspiring Rap's Next Generation, Why "Producer Artists" Are The Best & The Likelihood Of A Kendrick Lamar Collab Album

Why Did Kendrick Lamar Wear A Crown Of Thorns?

Lamar can be seen sporting a crown of thorns on the Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers album cover. He has sported the look for multiple performances since the project's release.

Dave Free described the striking headgear as, "a godly representation of hood philosophies told from a digestible youthful lens."

Holy symbolism and the blurred line between kings and gods are themes Lamar revisits often on Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. He uses lines like "Kendrick made you think about it, but he is not your savior" and songs like "Mirror" to reject the unforeseen, God-like expectations that came with his King of Hip-Hop status.

According to Vogue, the Tiffany & Co. designed crown features 8,000 cobblestone micro pave diamonds and took over 1,300 hours of work by four craftsmen to construct.

Why Did Kendrick Lamar Leave TDE?

After five albums, four mixtapes, one compilation project, an EP, and a GRAMMY-nominated Black Panther: The Album, Kendrick Lamar and Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) confirmed that Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers was the Compton rapper's last project under the iconic West Coast label. 

According to Lamar, his departure was about growth as opposed to any internal troubles. "May the Most High continue to use Top Dawg as a vessel for candid creators. As I continue to pursue my life's calling," Lamar wrote on his website in August 2021. "There's beauty in completion."

TDE president Punch expressed a similar sentiment in an interview with Mic. "We watched him grow from a teenager up into an established grown man, a businessman, and one of the greatest artists of all time," he said. "So it's time to move on and try new things and venture out."

Before Lamar's official exit from TDE, he launched a new venture called pgLang — a multi-disciplinary service company for creators, co-founded with longtime collaborator Dave Free — in 2020. The young company has already collaborated with Cash App, Converse and Louis Vuitton.

Has Kendrick Lamar Ever Performed at The Super Bowl?

Yes, Kendrick Lamar performed in the halftime show for Super Bowl LVI in Los Angeles in 2022, alongside fellow rap legends Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Eminem, as well as R&B icon Mary J. Blige. Anderson .Paak and 50 Cent also made special appearances during the star-studded performance. As if performing at the Super Bowl in your home city wasn't enough, the Compton rapper also got to watch his home team, the Los Angeles Rams, hoist the Lombardi trophy at the end of the night.

Three years after his first Super Bowl halftime performance, Lamar will return to headline the Super Bowl LIX halftime show on Feb. 9, 2025 — just one week after the 2025 GRAMMYs — at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. 

Is Kendrick Lamar On Tour?

Yes. Kendrick Lamar is currently scheduled to hit the road with SZA on the Grand National Tour beginning in May 2025. Lamar concluded The Big Steppers Tour in 2022, where he was joined by pgLang artists Baby Keem and Tanna Leone. The tour included a four-show homecoming at L.A.'s Crypto.com Arena in September 2022, followed by performances in Europe,Australia, and New Zealand through late 2022. 

Currently, there are no upcoming tour dates scheduled, but fans should check back for updates following the release of GNX.