Posted by Kendrick Lamar is no stranger to winning awards in the music space, but it looks like he could be in the running for an Oscar next year.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the 35-year-old Compton rapper and Pulitzer Prize winner has qualified for consideration for the Academy Award’s Best Live Action Short category.
K Dot’s We Cry Together, a six-minute film starring him and Zola actress Taylour Paige, was shown earlier this year at the Lamelle Royal Theater in West Los Angeles, qualifying it to enter the Oscar race.
The film, which depicts Lamar and Paige as a couple on the break of a messy, verbally abusive breakup, takes its cues from the song of the same name from K. Dot’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers album released in May.
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pgLang, the creative collective founded by Lamar and his longtime manager and business parter Dave Free, ensured no cellphone footage of the film would be leaked on social media as special security detail collected the phones of all attendees.
Mostly friends and family associated with the project saw the film throughout its six-day run, but 20 members of the public were able to buy tickets to each showing.
Since its debut, “We Cry Together” has been one of the more hotly debated singles on Mr. Morale, even making Billboard history for all the wrong reasons. The single originally debuted at No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, only to plummet 81 spots in its second frame, enough to record the biggest downfall for a record in Hot 100 history, according to ChartData.
Nevertheless, it hasn’t kept Kendrick from making waves and bringing fans to tears across the country with his Mr. Morale tour.
Kendrick Lamar Gets Collab Request From Madonna: ‘His New Record Is History-Making’
A security guard in Houston was spotted getting emotional during the rapper’s performance of “LOVE,” prompting Lamar to not only call the moment genuine but also cite how music makes us feel over everything.
“It’s really just about the feeling of it at the end of the day,” Kendrick told Jazzy’s World TV about the moment. “Past all the politics, past all the numbers. It’s what music makes you feel, how it makes you feel. So to see that … And shout-out to him by the way because I seen him, bro. I was like, man, I wonder what he going through? But at the end of the day that’s how you want everybody to perceive your music.”
Meanwhile, Madonna recently revealed Kendrick Lamar is on the short list of artists she’d like to work with.
The Queen of Pop put her K. Dot collaboration dreams in the air during an appearance on The Tonight Show on Thursday (August 11), telling host Jimmy Fallon: “There’s one artist that I worship more than anything in life and I would love to collaborate with him, and that’s Kendrick Lamar.”
Madonna also heaped high praise on the Compton native’s latest album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, saying: “His new record is history-making. Mind-bogglingly brilliant. It’s insane.”