I was unable to listen to this audiobook. I had downloaded on my iPad and every time the app updates, it deletes my downloads.

Promise That You Will Sing about me highlights the life and musical achievements of Kendrick Lamar and gives an overall history of hip-hop. After having seen the completed hard-copy of this book, I felt that a lot of what makes this book is lost in the audiobook. The book itself is beautiful and includes lots of photos and quotes for reference. There is a visual representation of how Lamar has affected pop culture that is simply absent in the audiobook. In the audio version, the quotes seemed to be placed haphazardly within the body of the text, sometimes in the middle of the paragraph and left me rather confused at times.

An interesting look into the life and music of Kendrick Lamar, although I wanted more - Lewis assumes we the readers know certain things so skips some explanations or event details that could've added more context and color. Also, because I listened to this as an audiobook, it would've been awesome to actually HEAR the songs themselves as part of the book!

Stunning. The narration is beautiful. This could easily be dissected in a classroom of juniors or seniors and even college students. This is a work I can see myself revisiting. Simply beautiful.

Promise That You Will Sing About Me explores the artistic greatness of rapper and modern-day revolutionary storyteller, Kendrick Lamar. Not only do we journey through the prose and meaning of lyrics and conceptual albums, we are given a glimpse into the make-up of the man formerly known as K Dot and forever ingrained in our being as Kendrick Lamar.

As a music critic, Mr. Lewis writes a riveting account of his time with the artist showcasing the intricate and beautiful mind of this talented creator. Masterfully, he interweaves comparisons of musical and social warfare from the past and present to provide an in-depth view of the impact of the world around us as it relates to music. At the precipice, the author reveals the beautiful tapestry of rhyme as the calming agent that rides with us through times of turbulence, but also as the reflection of our history and guide for the future. Tied into this, sits Kendrick Lamar’s awe-inspired poetry guaranteed to spark the mind of the future just as artists before ignited him.

Thank you NetGalley for this book and we are voluntarily leaving an honest review.

I loved this one!

I loved the style, writing, and storytelling.

I’d recommend this to music lovers and fans of Kendrick!

Incredible blend of memoir and hip hop history. You will be surprised to learn how great Kendrick Lamar is beyond his music. The beginning was a little bit hard to follow but ultimately a good read if this sort of thing interests you.

This was an interesting book - pitched between a pop biography and an academic analysis of Kendrick Lamar and his place in Californian, Hip Hop, and US culture. Lamar is a great MC recognized in both hip hop and wider circles; his album Damn won the Pulitzer prize in Music in 2019, the first in forever that wasn't opera or contemporary Avant Garde orchestra music And he fits both the strong / hard / misogynistic trappings of most hip hop these days while also moving beyond that to an examination of the effects of these stances. His lyrics are interesting and dense and he does the somewhat unusual tactic of often rapping from the point of view of created characters in his songs, normal in music in general but pretty unusual in rap.

The author does a good job of discussing what makes Lamar interesting, where he came from, and (most interestingly to me) connects him to larger trends in society (especially BLM), in contemporary hip hop (Drake and J. Cole), soul and jazz (especially Marvin Gaye), alternative Hip Hop (with connections both to the pre-gansta rap period where acts like De La Soul, PM Dawn, and especially A Tribe Called Quest could exist and to the members of his supergroup Black Hippy), and other prominent rappers that came before (with long discussions of Tupac).

This isn't an exhaustive biography, nor does the author goes as deep into doing close readings of Lamar's lyrics as I expected. He also expects you to have a good grounding in Hip Hop to follow along. But I liked the way he made connections to rap and pop music history and the way he wove in his and other's reactions to Kendrick's music and how it's affected them and Hip Hop at large.

🎶A J.Cole diss, something like “there’s better out there, just not as CORPORATE”…

🎶A Drake shout out, something like “PANDERING to women from the beginning”…

🎶Even a comparison between Snoop and Lamar and Snoops inability to surpass the GREATNESS of Doggystyle.

🎶A few questions about Pulitzer award worth including who deserves it and who doesn’t.

🎶It talks of the roots of rap and new trends like mumble and emo rappers.

🎶It talks of media coverage 🆚 what should or deserves to be covered. He believes there is a grave difference.

🎶It talks of Dr Dre’s impact.

🎶It talks about Kendricks unique delivery and vocal styling.

🎶It’s talks of Lamars growth and explores his influence on culture and cultures ever evolving influence on him.

🎶It talks about a lot. Maybe too much. Which would be my only criticism of the title. It is much too long in my opinion.

🎶I loved hearing different accountings from people who are close to him, know him in different ways.

🎶I learned a lot and listened to a lot of Lamars songs while reading. I am now, much more informed on parts of his personal life, his importance and significance.

🎶I recommend this book to people who are already a fan, people who are new to Kendrick Lamar, and those who are a fan of rap in general.

🎶Also, I’m a moody listener. This book goes over a lot of his lyrics. Including ones that I do not listen to on a regular basis.

🎶It helped me to appreciate the magic of his words beyond enjoying them as lyrics. That to me is how transcendent Kendrick Lamar is. What a pleasure to have read this.

🎶Thanks to @netgalley and @macmillanaudio for this advanced listening copy!

There is repetition of information throughout the chapters. At times I thought I was listening to the same chapter again. There was more about the history of rap than about Kendrik Lamar. Perhaps this was the point. This was a DNF for me.

I was so impressed by this book. Not knowing what I was getting into going and I thought I was going to hear probably some poetry and enjoy the style of Kendrick Lamar. I learned a lot about the things that he’s been through and the way that the world works in his eyes. I really think that this book should be read by every young person aspiring to be a rapper or get out of the hood. I think I would definitely write this a four-star book and it was definitelyA plus listening to it on audio. Thank you bet galley for granting me a free audiobook listen for review and return

3.5 stars.

Overall, a pretty decent book. Though I was hoping for a bit more about Kendrick’s rise to fame and his backstory. So I feel like Lewis really only scratched the surface of who he is as an artist. But I did, however, learn some very interesting (and also some very messed up) pop culture history that I had never heard of before, which blew my mind. I also really liked the narrator. All in all, it just felt like a comprehensive rap history book, rather than one focused on Kendrick, which I had hoped for. But I totally agree with Lewis - Kendrick deserved that Pulitzer Prize for “DAMN.” & he’s definitely the most talented, poetic rapper of our generation.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I definitely feel like this book deserves all the hype in the world. It's executed perfectly, told in such a compelling way, provides information on less discussed topics, and brings humor and accessibility to the forefront! The narrator did a really fantastic job and brought the written words to life. There was a huge echo for me, but I'm not sure if that was due to the NetGalley Shelf app or the narrator itself.

I will say that I am not a fan of memoirs or biographies at all. I picked this up because I also had a physical ARC and I'm super interested in Kendrick Lamar so I figured if I wanted to give the genre one last try- this would be the book. I can see the appeal, but this really just solidified for me that I'm not a memoir/biography reader at all. The genre just doesn't do it for me. This is not to say anything bad about this book AT ALL! The genre as a whole just isn't for me and I've finally realized that and won't be picking up anymore in the near future. In comparison to other biographies I've read, this one is fantastic and I highly recommend picking it up!

This book was a page turner from beginning to end. I was not aware of half of the things that Kendrick went through in his life and brought him into the career he is in today. This book is so well put together and full of knowledge, information and I just could not put it down. Memories jumped to me from the way they were explained so well. Highly recommend. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This book was really insightful, not just about Kendrick Lamar but of hip hop and R&B and the history behind them.

There was a lot of context given for the creation of rap and the times in which it evolved.

The author examined Kendrick's music not only in the context of his life but the framework of the world in which Black people live that inspired his work.

I loved that the author talked about the history of the music and the important figures like Tupac that made rap a global phenomenon.

To understand Kendrick's music you have to understand the world in which he lives and the history of Black people in America. These two things are essential as they inform his voice and inspiration.

I believe Kendrick's music will grow as he matures and experiences more of the world outside of what he can see around him but what and who he can connect to universally.

Is he the Tupac of this generation as he has been called? I don't think so. I think he is his own voice and I'm excited to see how it grows.

I enjoyed the writing style of this book. I really enjoyed learning more about Kendrick Lamar, however, I really felt it was more of a hip-hop history as opposed to focussing on Lamar.

Regardless, I still enjoyed the book, and I enjoyed the writing style of this author.

I went into this knowing nothing about what would be discussed. I am pleased that I did. I learned a lot about a person who I consider one of the greatest rappers of my time.