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Kendrick Lamar did not attend the 2025 MTV VMAS. It was nominated in 10 categories there. This year, he cleaned up the Grammys with five wins on “Not Like Us” and played in the Super Bowl.
Kendrick Lamar received 10 nominations at the MTV VMA tonight, but that wasn’t enough to force him to go to the show. Lamar went missing from the ceremony and won one award in the technical category. It’s the best cinema shoot for “I don’t like us.” He was away from social media that night and away from the public eye.
Despite these results, 2025 is one of the most decorated years in Lamar. At this year’s Grammy Awards, he won five awards for his single “Not Like Us.”
The rapper reflected the tension between his public persona and his private self in a conversation with SZA for Harper’s Bazaar last fall. “We can’t identify performances on stage,” he explained. “I can’t hold a true identity to anyone on stage, and if so, that means I judge every move, so every time I’m lined up in the lyric, I get off.
He also spoke openly about his growth and openness about his feelings. “Learn integrity and being honest with myself, my perspective on the person sitting across from me, and that vulnerability is not a weakness. The last one was probably something I was still developing.”
Asked about balancing the energy between men and women in his work, Lamar replied. “At first, all I knew was masculinity and I always kept that wall for my pop. Where my superpower is there.”
