Kendrick Lamar’s Net Worth Reveals How He Became the Multimillionaire He Is Today—How Much He Makes
Jason Pham
With 22 Grammys and millions of albums sold worldwide, it’s no wonder why fans want to know about Kendrick Lamar’s net worth and how much he’s made since his first album in 2011.
Kendrick—whose full name is Kendrick Lamar Duckworth—was born in Compton, California, on June 17, 1987. In an interview with Rolling Stone in 2017, Kendrick looked back on his childhood in Los Angeles, where he grew up on food stamps and welfare. “Things could be worse. That’s how I look at it. I always go back to that – food stamps and welfare and being evicted out of house rentals,” he said. “I still got family that go through hard times, and I have to look out for them. Think of it like this: This lifestyle I live now has only been, what, five years. Since 2012. Before that, it was a whole two decades of not knowing what’s next to come. I still have that embedded in me. So I can’t let my career get the best of me.”
When he was 16 years old, Kendrick released his first mixtape under the stage name K.Dot. The project led him to a recording contract with Top Dawg Entertainment, a new indie record label based in Carson, California. Kendrick went on to release several more mixtapes before the release of his debut studio album, Section.80, in 2011. Kendrick followed the release with his second studio album, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, a year later. The album was a runaway success with more than 1.7 million units sold in the United States and a peak at number two on the Billboard 200. Kendrick’s success continued with his third and fourth studio album, 2015’s To Pimp a Butterfly and 2017’s Damn, both of which reached number one on the Billboard 200.
So how much is Kendrick Lamar’s net worth? Read on for what we know about Kendrick Lamar’s net worth and how much he’s made from te Super Bowl Halftime Show and other career milestones.
What is Kendrick Lamar’s net worth?
Kendrick Lamar’s net worth is $140 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Kendrick made $9 million in 2013; $9 million in 2014; $12 million in 2015; $19 million in 2016; $30 million in 2017; $60 million in 2018; and $39 million in 2019 for a total of $178 million over the course of seven years. He released his first album, Section.80, in 2011. The album peaked at 113 on the Billboard 200 and sold 130,000 units in the United States. Kendrick’s big break came in 2012 after he released his second studio album, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, which peaked at number two on the Billboard 200 and and sold more than 1,720,000 units in the United States. His success continued with his his third and fourth studio albums, 2015’s To Pimp a Butterfly and 2017’s Damn, which both reached number one on the Billboard 200 and have sold more than a million copies in the United States. Kendrick has also won 13 Grammys (including for “Best Rap Song” for “I” in 2015) of 37 nominations. He’s also been nominated for an Oscar for the song “All the Stars” from Black Panther in 2018. In 2019, Kendrick ranked number eight on Forbes‘ highest-paid hip hop acts above artists like Cardi B, Nicki Minaj and Migos at the time.
Along with his music career, Kendrick Lamar’s net worth also includes what he’s made from partnerships with brands like Reebok and Nike. In 2020, Lamar announced that launch of his “artist-friendly service company” PGLang with music producer Dave Free. “[PGLang] is not a record label, a movie studio, or a publishing house. This is something new. In this overstimulated time, we are focused on cultivating raw expression from grassroots partnerships,” Free said in a press release for the company.
How Much did Kendrick Lamar make at the Super Bowl Halftime Show?
The answer is nothing. According to National Football League spokesperson Joanna Hunter, Super Bowl Halftime Show performers aren’t paid but the NFL does cover the expenses for their performance. “We do not pay the artists,” Hunter told Forbes in 2016. “We cover expenses and production costs.” However, there is a limit to how much the NFL will pay. The Weeknd’s manager Wassim “Sal” Slaiby told Billboard in 2021 that the “Starboy” singer contributed $7 million of his own money to “make this halftime show be what he envisioned” when he performed at the Super Bowl LV.
According to Forbes, the total production cost for Beyoncé’s 2013 Super Bowl Halftime Show performance was $600,000, though some reports claim that the number was $10 million. So why aren’t Super Bowl Halftime Show performers paid? With more than 100 million people who tune into the Super Bowl each year, the Halftime Show often serves as free promotion for its performers. According to Forbes, Bruno Mars’ 2012 album, Unorthodox Jukebox, soared from number seven to number three on the Billboard 200 after he performed at the Super Bowl in 2014. The magazine also reported that sales for Unorthodox Jukebox spiked by 92 percent to 81,000 after his Super Bowl Halftime Show performance. Beyoncé’s 4 also saw a similar spike of 59 percent after she performed the Super Bowl Halftime Show in 2013.
According to Spotify, Shakira’s streams spiked by 230 percent, while Jennifer Lopez’s streams went up by 335 percent after they performed at the Super Bowl Halftime Show in 2020. Justin Timberlake’s sales also rose by 534 percent after his performance at the Super Bowl Halftime Show in 2018, according to Billboard. Katy Perry’s manager, Steven Jensen, also told Forbes in 2015 that her Super Bowl Halftime Show performance “took her from being a big star to the stratosphere.” Perry’s manager also told the magazine that, as a result of her Super Bowl Halftime Show performance, Perry’s endorsement deals doubled.
When It Was Just a Game: Remembering the First Super Bowl
For more about the Super Bowl, football fans can check out When It Was Just a Game: Remembering the First Super Bowl by Harvey Frommer. The best-selling book delves into the history of the first Super Bowl, which was originally known as the AFL-NFL Championship Game. (The term “Super Bowl” was coined only in its third year.) The debut game, between the winning Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs, was played in front of only 61,946 people at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum—an audience well below the stadium’s capacity. Harvey Frommer, a sports historian and reporter, puts the tale of that momentous game together using oral history, gathered by hundreds of interviews with players, coaches, media and spectators alike.
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