THE MOMENT KENDRICK Lamar rapped the words “What the fuck is cancel culture, dawg?” he must have known he’d fixed the kind of response he’d be getting from certain quarters. The line — from “N95”, the lead single from his album, Mr Morales and the Big Steppers — is calculated to aggravate too-online liberals the kind of people who’ve been among Lamar’s biggest boosters.
Since his first album in 2011, Lamar has established himself as a voice of smart, savage political commentary on). He’s the only popular musician full stop to have won a Pulitzer. He’s significant. Respectable. And he’s got a reputation for dropping the kind of hard truths that are actually easy to swallow for an NPR-type audience.
