Kendrick Lamar is known as one of the greatest rappers of all time, the first rapper to win the Pulitzer prize, and most recently, the vanquisher of his nemesis, Aubrey Drake Graham. He is proud be to from his hometown of Compton, California, he namechecks the great West Coast rappers of the 90s. None of these facts are new information, even to the most casual of Kendrick fans. What I noticed on a recent spin of GNX was a something about Kendrick that I hadn’t really realized until now: Kendrick likes to rap about food.
I did a double take listening to the song Peakaboo off of GNX when I heard this line:
“Peekaboo, cacio e pepe if I'm doin' pasta”
I definitely didn’t catch it on my first listen, and this isn’t the only song on GNX where he raps about food (and no, I’m not counting him yelling “MUSTARD!” or his reference to broccoli on “Squabble Up”). He also reminisces about having Jack in the Box and Pepsi in the studio on and splitting Louisiana Riverboat Specials with Schoolboy Q on “The Heart Part 6”.
I’m not saying that GNX should’ve been called Mm… Food or Food and Liquor, but food is a topic that actually comes up quite a bit throughout his career. In fact, his origin story centers around how a chance encounter at a drive-thru could’ve completely changed not only his life’s trajectory, but the trajectory of of TDE founder, Top Dawg’s life as well.
Kendrick isn’t the 1st rapper to rap about food in his lyrics, especially to conjure up memories of the past. It is interesting that he isn’t particularly interested in using food to flex in the present. While you won’t find cacio e pepe at a fast food restaurant, it is a simple dish of noodles, cheese, and pepper (though not easy to perfect). On the Baby Keem track, “Hillbillies”, Kendrick slips in a line about eating “caviar when [he’s] depressed”, which I guess you consider a flex, depending how you look at it. He’s not rapping about popping fancy bottles or eating at 3 Star Michelin restaurants.
In fact, Kendrick’s most famous of mention of food, takes place in his Drake diss, “Euphoria”, where in the middle of taking Drake down a peg, he mentions New Ho King, a 2 and a half star rated restaurant in Toronto. It’s extremely likely that the rating has been manipulated by the feuding fanbases, but it’s definitely not a fine dining restaurant. It also now offers a Kendrick Lamar special.
Kendrick’s order: fried rice with a dip sauce (I assume for eggrolls).
There are other mentions of food in Kendrick’s discography like his mention of Church’s Chicken in “Backseat Freestyle” or how he’s going to be “dessertin like Tiramisu” in the unreleased, “Bodies” (which he performed a snippet of to open his Super Bowl set). Hardcore stans can also point to the G.O.O.D Kid MAAD City B-side "Cartoon and Cereals" as well. I'm sure there are even more references if you comb through his guest features and mixtapes.
For all the ink that I've seen spilled about Kendrick Lamar, the lyricist, I find it surprising that I never see his love of food in any of these think pieces. For it to appear as commonly as it does throughout his career, I figured there would be more mentions of it outside of this Complex video where he breaks down his favorite cereals.
While rapping about food isn't exactly a revolutionary idea, everyone seems to be analyzing everything else about Kendrick, from his jeans during the Super Bowl Halftime Show to every detail in his music videos, so it's curious why his culinary raps haven't been broken down in multiple think pieces. Perhaps it's not as appetizing as breaking down his rap beef (puns galore!). but as someone who also enjoys reminiscing about past meals, I whole heartedly approve and cannot wait to see what dish he raps about next.