While performing his emotional depression anthem “u” at Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival in March, Kendrick Lamar singled out a boy from Houston and pulled him on stage. “The reason I brought him on stage,” the Compton rapper told the crowd of 30,000 people at Okeechobee’s Sunshine Grove, “is because he was singing that shit with his motherfucking heart out, you know what I’m saying? Suicide is some real motherfucking shit, man… This man right here understands about that shit.” If it made you cry, join the club.
Two months later, the fan’s brother has written what is probably the most sweetest r/hiphopheads post in the history of Reddit. Apparently Logan — who was at Okeechobee solely to see Kendrick — had his life completely turned around on the evening of March 3. “Since the concert and this everythings [sic] changed,” his brother wrote yesterday. “He is serious about losing his weight. He found a great girlfriend. He’s taking school seriously. This has 100 percent been for the best of my brother and I’m so thankful he got the chance to join his idol on stage.”
Apparently Logan had submitted a 1000 word essay for his college English class about “u” just two days prior to the festival. He initially had no clue that Kendrick had seen his flawless word-for-word delivery of the track, and had to enlist the help of a few friends he had made while waiting to push him over the barrier. Kendrick then had the crowd chant Logan’s name and gave him VIP status for the rest of the evening. “He got to watch the rest of the concert from the side of the stage and walk with his IDOL to his car before he left,” his brother wrote.
Kendrick has previously spoken quite specifically about the depression and suicidal thoughts that color the vulnerable recording. “I’ve pulled that song not only from previous experiences, but, I think my whole life, I think everything is drawn out of that. Even situations from Good Kid M.A.A.D City…” Lamar said in an interview with MTV last year, adding that he struggled with “survivor’s guilt” after seeing friends killed back in Compton. “I gotta get back off that tour bus and go to these funerals… Talk to my mom and talk to their aunties — the kids that lost their lives,” he said. Logan might not have been plagued with quite the same demons growing up in Houston, but depression is a universal problem.
In further comments to readers, it is revealed that Logan busted his ankles waiting in the same spot so that he could be front row for Kendrick, and that he has already dropped 40 pounds since the best night of his life. “I appreciate all the things you’re saying to my brother and when he gets back from the lake with his girl I will be sure to show him this,” his brother wrote in response to the support.
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Text Hannah Ongley