Compton’s legendary rapper, record producer and film director Kendrick Lamar and his longtime collaborator Dave Free have won 5 “trailblazing” awards at The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
At the Cannes Lion 70, Lamar and Free were bestowed with the “Grand Prix” honour for the “We Cry Together” short film under the Film Craft Lion category. The short film, which further served as the visuals for The Alchemist-produced track, explored troubled relationships through unapologetic and at times disturbing “dialogues” which in fact were the lyrics of Lamar’s rap record.
Speaking on pgLang’s remarkable win at this year’s Cannes Lions, the Film Craft Lions Jury President, Kim Gehrig reflected on what led to the “We Cry Together” short film winning, perhaps one of the highest prizes in human creativity.
“The Grand Prix winner is a trailblazing piece that uses film craft in all its strengths to create a work that is seminal and genre defining. There are so many creative choices in the direction and execution of this film where craft is what fuels its evocative power. From the choice of the camera choreography, the lighting, the framing, the language, the drama and the truly extraordinary performances,” Gehrig said.
“All these craft decisions culminate to make the brave piece of work that effectively challenges us to question ourselves. I am personally inspired by this piece of work as were the entire Jury,” he further added.
Further, pgLang took home the Gold Lion and the Bronze Lion for “We Cry Together” and “The Heart Part 5” respectively. Lamar & Free further won two Bronze Lions for the CashApp commercial starring K. Dot, American entrepreneur Ray Dalio and comedian Exavier TV.
Kung-Fu Kenny’s historic win at the Cannes Lions is just one of the many distinct honours he has received across his rap career.
For his fourth studio album “DAMN.”, produced by rap superproducer Mike Will Made-It, ‘King Kendrick’ was honoured with the Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Over the years, Lamar has won 17 GRAMMY Awards at the Recording Academy, a Primetime Emmy Award and was nominated by the Academy Awards for his affecting work on Black Panther Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.
At the 65th Annual Recording Academy, Kendrick Lamar was honoured with three GRAMMY Awards including “Best Rap Album”, “Best Rap Song” and “Best Rap Performance”.
Most recently, Kendrick Lamar linked up with his cousin Baby Keem on “The Hillbillies”. The hard-hitting rap record arrived within days after Beyoncé recruited Oklama, Mike Dean and The-Dream on “America Has a Problem Remix”.
Listen to Kendrick Lamar’s influential rap LP ‘Mr. Morales & The Big Steppers’ here.
