Author and music critic Miles Marshall Lewis has written a new book about the Pulitzer prize-winning rap artist, Kendrick Lamar. The book, “Promise That You Will Sing About Me: The Power and Poetry of Kendrick Lamar” is the second book to emerge after music journalist Marcus J. Moore’s book “The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America,” which was released in September of 2020.
Lewis’ book focuses on the “power and poetry” of Lamar’s lyrics, along with taking a deep dive into the rapper’s life and how he was able to become one of the most influential rappers in hip hop history. Lamar’s music stands out from the plethora of career rappers because of his ability to create uniquely touching, honest, and out-of-the-box music while weaving in his heavy influence of Tupac Shakur and other rappers of the past.
“Promise That You Will Sing About Me” includes commentary from culturally respected writers of this generation including Ta-Nehisi Coates and Alicia Garza.
Lamar’s 2012 debut studio album, “Good Kid, M.A.A.D City” was broadly embraced by music critics and listeners, causing the album to receive platinum status, selling 242,000 copies in its very first week. The young rapper continued his successful run which his groundbreaking 2015 album “To Pimp a Butterfly,” which has been considered to be one of the greatest rap albums in history due to its usage of spoken word poetry, experimental convergence of jazz, funk and soul music and its ability to speak to its generation with grace and deep insight. Lewis writes a bold book that creates a vivid story of the life of Kendrick Lamar who is nothing but deserving of the honor of being immortalized in printed word.
New York Times bestselling author Michael Eric Dyson says of the book, “Miles Marshall Lewis is one of the most gifted and eloquent cultural critics of his generation. His astute observations about Kendrick Lamar’s formidable body of work offer ample evidence of the magisterial literacy that courses through Lamar’s densely allusive and complicated lyrics. ‘Promise That You Will Sing About Me’ is a timely and poignant meditation on the remarkable artistry of our pioneering Pulitzer Prize-winning urban wunderkind.”
“Promise That You Will Sing About Me: The Power and Poetry of Kendrick Lamar” is set for release in August of 2021 from St. Martin’s Press and is available for pre-order wherever books are sold.