Spotify's Artists of the Decade

Spotify’s Artists of the decade

feat. KENDRICK LAMAR

SPOTIFY (2020)

For this Instagram piece, DIrty Robber hired me as an editor and motion designer, as well as working on the storyboarding. The idea of the series is to showcase artists that have been most influential during the 2010’s.

The narrative is very straightforward, to keep the focus on Lamar’s achievements, and let the graphics be the center piece in the way they represent the different points of the video.

introduction.

We are presented with Kendrick Lamar and his multiple nicknames. They represent the different stages of his career, and how his lyricism and music has evolved during that time. The scrapbook/DYI feel is owed to Lamar’s humble origins coming up in Los Angeles.

2. discography.

I wanted to highlight Lamar’s large discography. During the last decade, he has released 4 albums, 43 singles of his own, plus featured as an artist in 30+ collaborations. He is one of the most sucessful rappers of his generation.

3. AWARDS and recognition

Lamar has won 13 Grammy’s, is considered by media and publications to be on the greatest rappers of all time, and most notably was awarded the 2019 Pulitzer Award. I wanted to emphasize the contrast of a musically untrained rapper (by conventional standards at least) winning an award usually white-male dominated, that has only been given to non-classical musicians once before.
The slot machine echoes the idea of Lamar’s unconventional, and uncompromising style when approaching music. He is an artist that does not shy away from his humble beginnings (including crime).

4. RECORDS AND NUMBERS

I felt it was necessary to add more dynamism to the visual representation of his records and numbers with 3D movement, and wanted to make a nod to the Traditional vs Modern ways in which artists are measured (this ties in nicely with the Pulitzer bit).

To bring us back to Spotify, we finish on an element that brought us back to the app itself and the way in which the user interacts with Lamar’s music. The “scrolling through the playlist vs years changing” perfectly embodies the idea of a career that has been amassed over a long period of time.