Last year, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention presented research demonstrating that ?youth living in inner cities show a higher prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder than soldiers?. The report estimates that 30% of young people in urban ?combat zones? suffer from some form of PTSD.
When a reporter mentioned this to Kendrick Lamar, he nodded and said: ?That?s real.? Recently, he was making the video for his new single, Alright, when he was startled by a loud bang. In a split second the successful 28-year-old rapper disappeared and the wary teenager from the streets of Compton, California resurfaced.
?I don?t know if somebody threw a rocket at a trash can or what, but it made a loud-ass popping sound and everybody who was in the car with me ducked,? he remembers. ?The instinct to get out the way when you hear a popping sound, that?s real for me. I?m sure it?s real for a lot of artists who grew up in neighbourhoods like that.???
