Kendrick Lamar Duckworth was born on June 17, 1987, in Compton, California.[1] He is the first child of Kenneth "Kenny" Duckworth, a former gang hustler who previously worked at KFC,[2] and Paula Oliver, a hairdresser who previously worked at McDonald's.[2] Both of his parents are African Americans from the South Side of Chicago.[2]When they were teenagers, they relocated to Compton in 1984, due to his father's affiliation with the Gangster Disciples.[3] Lamar was named after singer-songwriter Eddie Kendricks of the Temptations.[4] He was an only child until the age of seven and was described as a loner by his mother.[2][5] Eventually, his parents had his two younger brothers and younger sister, businesswoman Kayla Sawyer (née Duckworth).[6]His cousins include basketball player Nick Youngand rapper Baby Keem.[7][8]

Lamar and his family lived in Section 8 housing, were reliant on welfare and food stamps, and experienced homelessness.[9][10] Although he is not a member of a particular gang, he grew up with close affiliates of the Westside Pirus.[3]Despite suffering hardships, Lamar remembered having "good memories" of his childhood that sparked his interest in hip hop music, such as sneaking into his parents' house parties.[2][11] He was raised secular, although he occasionally attended church services and was taught the Bible by his grandmother.[12] He felt "spiritually unsatisfied" as a child due to the "empty" and "one-sided" nature of the sermons.[13]

After hearing a recording of his voice for the first time, Lamar became interested in rapping.[14] He was introduced to police brutality after experiencing the first day of the 1992 Los Angeles riots.[2] When he was five years old, he witnessed a murder for the first time while sitting outside of his apartment unit, as a teenage drug dealer was killed in a drive-by shooting.[2] "It done [sic] something to me right then and there," Lamar later admitted to NPR Music. "It let me know that this is not only something that I'm looking at, but it's something that maybe I have to get used to."[15] His parents nicknamed him "Man-Man" due to his precocious behavior, although he confessed it "put a stigma on the idea of me reacting as a kid sometimes—I would hurt myself and they would expect me not to cry."[16]

In school, Lamar was a quiet and observant student who excelled academically and had a noticeable stutter.[17] His first grade teacher at Robert E. McNair Elementary School encouraged him to become a writer after she heard him correctly use the word “audacity".[18] As a seventh grade student at Vanguard Learning Center, Lamar was introduced to poetry by his English teacher, Regis Inge.[19] Inge integrated the literary form into his curriculum as a response to the growing racial tensions amongst his students.[19] Through its connection to hip hop, Lamar studied rhymes, metaphors and double entendres, which made him fall in love with songwriting: "You can put all your feelings down on a sheet of paper, and they'd make sense to you. I liked that."[2][19] Instead of completing assignments for other classes, Lamar would scribe lyrics in his notebooks.[19] His initial writing was entirely profane, but it helped him manage his psychological trauma and depression, which he struggled with during his adolescence.[19][20] Inge played a vital role in his intellectual growth, often critiquing his lexicon and suggesting prompts to strengthen his prose.[19]L

amar later attended Centennial High School.[21]He was enrolled in summer school during the tenth grade, which he dreaded because it forced him to be embroiled in a gang war.[21] Despite his efforts to avoid them, Lamar soon became heavily involved with Compton's hedonistic gang culture, which led to numerous health scares and encounters with the police.[2] He distanced himself from the lifestyle following an intervention staged by his father.[5] When he was 16, he was baptized and converted to Christianity following the death of a friend.[22][23] Lamar entered a lasting romantic relationship with his high school sweetheart, Whitney Alford.[24] His sexual addiction and repeated infidelity caused numerous difficulties within their on-and-off relationship.[25] Lamar graduated from Centennial High School in 2005 as a straight-Astudent.[26][27] He flirted with the idea of studying psychology and astronomy in college, but suspended his academic pursuits to focus on his music career.[2][28