Kendrick Lamar: Rap's Reigning King Smashes Records in 2025

Kendrick Lamar BioSnap a weekly updated Biography.

Kendrick Lamar is everywhere this week and every headline bears his name in bold. ThatGrapeJuice just confirmed he smashed through the 50 billion stream mark on Spotify, becoming only the fifth rapper in history to pull off such a feat, driving home his status as a generational force and setting a new bar for streaming supremacy. His fifth album, GNX, still sits atop critical and commercial tallies, taking home Album of the Year at the BETs and sending singles like Squabble Up and Luther to the top of the Hot 100. Lamar’s reign reached a cultural peak with his historic headline slot at the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime Show. As AOL reports, he wasn’t just the first solo hip-hop artist to do so—he brought the house down in New Orleans with SZA as his special guest, thrilling both the 80,000 in attendance and the roughly 100 million watching at home. SZA later called Lamar “the people’s artist” in Access Hollywood. Kendrick himself was quoted praising rap as “the most impactful genre to date” and promising, “they got the right one” for the Halftime Show in his September 2024 announcement.

The big tour wrapped August 9th in Stockholm, with fan clips on Instagram highlighting the electric finish of his 39-date Grand National stadium run spanning three continents. Demand for future dates is already brewing, and tickets for his newly announced Melbourne leg are scheduled for presale this month, according to DiscoverMelbourne.

In the business sphere, Kendrick’s name just resurfaced in connection to a court order in Drake’s lawsuit against UMG—YouTube reports he is once again a central figure of speculation, suggesting his sphere of influence isn’t limited to just the stage. Social buzz is relentless: Instagram reels from his SoFi Stadium gig are trending, and Southern University’s Human Jukebox marching band just performed a Kendrick-inspired set at Houston’s Deluxe Theater on August 22.

In rap’s ongoing story, A$AP Rocky’s recent GQ sit-down has sparked a wildfire of fan campaigns for a Kendrick Lamar and JID collaboration. JID has publicly echoed the call, most recently on The Joe Budden Podcast, fueling hopes for perhaps the next pivotal track in Lamar’s canon. Online forums and Instagram rap pages have spent the last 48 hours hyping this as the dream pairing to happen before “it all ends.”

In short, 2025 is undeniably Kendrick’s year—he’s redefining the rap hall of fame, rewriting industry records, and standing as a cultural north star. The headlines show no signs of slowing down.

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