Kendrick Lamar is now Billboard’s official Greatest Pop Star of 2024. For the record, this is big news. While Billboard’s editorial team noted he was “on the fringes of pop stardom” at the start of the year, it was “world-swallowing” by year’s end. The California rapper had an extremely eventful 2024 featuring diss tracks that confronted Drake. Now Lamar is coming up the ranks at the top, which has provoked very interesting discussions as of late.
Although the fans still eagerly syncing their chants and dancing for a win, the internet has not jumped on board the Lamar bandwagon quite yet. Users cannot really decide whether Kendrick Lamar belongs to the category of pop stars.
To set the record straight, a pop star is roughly synonymous with somebody who is inescapable. They are the ones who make TikTok dances trend and rule the song charts. Of course, Kendrick Lamar is not serving up bubblegum pop, but his presence cannot be denied. However, Internet critics suggest that his sound is too out of the mainstream.
A user humorously noted: "Back in my day rappers weren't pop stars."
Another user added: "How does a rapper get named pop star of the year?"
Stressing on the word pop, a user posted:
As per this user, this is Drake right now:
A user said: "Pop??? star??? POP STAR??? absolutely not."
A comment read: "lol I’m sorry what?"
Yet another humorous comment read: "Is the pop in the room with us?"
"Don’t let the drake fans find out about this or it’s gonna get messy 😭", another user stated.
Kendrick Lamar in 2024 — diss tracks, albums, and more
On November 22, 2024, Kendrick Lamar dropped off his latest album, GNX.
The first song of the album, “wacced out murals,” sets you up by outlining that Lamar has something to say. He goes into detail about his own life, particularly his complicated interactions with Lil Wayne and his Super Bowl performance release.
Kendrick’s biggest hit of 2024, Not Like Us. In case you didn’t know, the tension between Kendrick and Drake has been bubbling up for years, but this year, it hit new levels. The diss track made fans choose sides.
Not Like Us became the anthem for anyone tired of the whole “Big Three” narrative. That’s Drake, J. Cole, and Kendrick’s ongoing debate of who reigns supreme.
His Juneteenth concert, titled The Pop Out—Ken & Friends, was a huge flex, and his performance of Not Like Us was iconic.
Drake’s release of First Person Shooter with J. Cole threw a whole new wrinkle in the game. Kendrick responded with another diss track.
Later on, Drake claimed that Universal Music Group (UMG) was rigging the streaming services to increase Kendrick’s count over his own. The allegations got more complicated, but UMG outright dismissed the entire issue.
And finally, in the middle of all this drama, Kendrick Lamar declared he would be performing at the Super Bowl LIX halftime show. This would have been a big W for Kendrick Lamar, but fans of Lil Wayne were expecting the New Orleans rapper to headline.
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Preposterously, Kendrick, being Kendrick, did not fail to point out the drama on GNX. He, therefore, referred to Wayne but with a deference and rivalry touch.
Leading the headlines again, Kendrick Lamar was announced as the Billboard’s No.1 Greatest Pop Star of the year 2024.
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