Can Kendrick Lamar Be a Prophet — and Be Rich?

FILE PHOTO: Kendrick Lamar, winner of the Record Of The Year, Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song, Best Music Video, and Song Of The Year awards, poses in the press room during the 67th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California, U.S., February 2, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

Kendrick Lamar is a prophet — and a multimillionaire. Through his music, he tells the stories of the oppressed and marginalized, even as his own net worth surpasses $140 million. He calls for spiritual and political resistance to empire yet stood center stage at the Super Bowl halftime show — America’s most-watched spectacle of capitalist excess. At the end of it, he delivered a moment of rebellion, urging viewers to “turn the TV off,” subverting the very platform that elevated him. And yet, the performance also propelled his music sales and deepened his entrenchment within the industry’s elite. At a sold-out Pop Out show, he brought together feuding Bloods and Crips in a powerful gesture of peace and unity — sponsored, ironically, by Amazon, a corporation widely criticized for its union-busting, exploitative labor practices, and surveillance capitalism. 

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