How Kendrick Lamar's pgLang is Building a Creative Empire
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When Kendrick Lamar took to the field for the Super Bowl halftime show in February, it was the culmination of an extraordinary stretch for the Pulitzer Prize–winning rapper. The performance—which delivered verbal and visual bravado, Samuel L. Jackson as Uncle Sam, a subversive commentary on American patriotism, and a record 133.5 million viewers—capped a run that began last April when Lamar and Drake rekindled their decade-long rivalry. Their flurried exchange of diss tracks led to Lamar’s incendiary “Not Like Us.” It shot to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and (to add insult to injury) broke Drake’s Spotify record for most-streamed rap song in a single day. But Lamar was just getting started.
Last summer, pgLang—the record label, production house, and creative agency that Lamar and business partner Dave Free cofounded in 2020—channeled the momentum from “Not Like Us” into the sold-out Pop Out concert at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, on Juneteenth, struck a deal with Amazon to livestream the concert on Prime and Twitch, and produced a viral music video (codirected by Free and Lamar) on the streets of Compton.
A few months later, pgLang dropped Lamar’s critically acclaimed album GNX, released a hypnotic music video for the single “Squabble Up,” and announced a tour. GNX wasn’t eligible for the 2024 Grammys, but Lamar still took home an impressive five awards for his diss track, including record and song of the year.
Over the past couple of years, Lamar and Free have been establishing pgLang through music releases, design collaborations, and brand partnerships, including with Chanel and Converse. The company has partnered with Global Citizen on Move Afrika, an ongoing concert series in Africa aimed at promoting local economies. And it’s produced viral campaigns for Cash App. The company put billionaire investor Ray Dalio in a 2022 commercial to talk about the importance of investing in yourself (his jargon-filled advice was translated by Lamar himself); last year, pgLang featured rapper Doechii chatting about savings from a barbershop chair. These productions are often austere and slightly off-kilter, but always riveting. Like Lamar’s Super Bowl show, they’re both visually appealing and filled with deeper meanings and messages.
Lamar and Free have now cemented pgLang’s position as a daring multimedia-savvy design shop capable of commanding the attention of fans and brands alike through music, videos, and epic live events. After creative directing and coproducing the Super Bowl halftime show, they’re now taking the show on the road: Lamar and SZA’s Grand National tour kicks off in April, produced by pgLang and sponsored by Cash App.
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