Exercise of personality traits evaluating and comparing 4 studio albums of the artist Kendrick Lamar using the Model of the Big Five, through the use of the tool and modeling of the IBM Watson Personality Insights

1. KENDRICK
LAMAR
ALBUMS’
PERSONALITY
2017
IBM Watson™ Personality
Insights
Drawing by Class of 'estudos vira-lata s/a

2. KENDRICK WHO?*
Kendrick Lamar Duckworth (born June 17, 1987)
is an American rapper and songwriter from
Compton.
Known for his storytelling, imagery,
wordplay, passion and varied song structures,
Kendrick brings hard-hitting lyricism with
narratives to the West Coast, not
traditionally known for its lyricists.
Lamar is placed No. 9 on Billboard’s The 10
Best Rappers of All Time, along with popular
artists, Jay-Z, Nas, Notorious B.I.G., and
more.
He has won 73 awards from 183 nominations,
including 7 Grammy Awards and the ASCAP
Vanguard Award for his work as a composer.
*Source: Genius.com

3. In 2011, his album Section.80, released
exclusively through iTunes, instantly
ranked as one of the top digital hip-hop
releases of the year.
In 2012, he crossed over to mainstream
audiences with his major label debut
good kid, m.A.A.d city which was widely
regarded as an instant classic.
In 2015, he dropped To Pimp a Butterfly
to widespread acclaim. The album debuted
at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Albums
Chart.
The following year, untitled unmastered.
dropped by surprise.
In April of 2017, Kendrick dropped DAMN.
on Good Friday.
*Source: Genius.com
NOMINATED
NOMINATEDWON
STUDIO ALBUMS*

4. "So powerful is the effect of music ...
which is surprising to find out in the
history of psychology and psychotherapy so
few references as experimental or even
speculative, on the use of music “
(Pimentel e Donnelly apud Cattel quoted by Hall, Lindsey, &
Campbell, 2000)

5. GOALS
I. Explore the relation between
personality traits and each
album’s lyrics;
II.Understand, among the four
studio albums of Kendrick Lamar
(S80, GKMC, TPAB and DAMN.), the
differences, similarities and
patterns through textual-
analysis ;
III.Compare in-depth personality
changes at the evolution of the
artist’s studio works.

6. We sought for a taxonomy, that
is, a systematic set of
characteristics that can be used
to summarize the personality of
an individual.
"The lexical hypothesis proposes
that most socially relevant and
salient personality traits were
incorporated into natural
language (SILVA, apud Allporr,
1937);
In this perspective, the Five Big
Personality Factors model aka Big
Five Model (for a general review,
see McCrae & John, 1992),
represents one of the most
important developments in the
THIS IS HOW WE DO IT

7. BIG FIVE TRAITS
Big Five personality
characteristics represent the most
widely used model for generally
describing how a person engages
with the world. The model includes
five primary dimensions:
i. Openness [to experience];
ii. Conscientiousness;
iii.Extraversion ;
iv. Agreeableness ;
v. Emotional range, also referred to
as Neuroticism or Natural
reactions.
IBM Watson™ Personality Insights
uses linguistic analytics to infer
individuals' intrinsic personality

8. THE BIG FIVE MODEL
by IBM Watson™ Personality Insights
“The Personality Insights service infers personality characteristics
based on 3 primary models:
• Big Five personality characteristics for generally describing how a
person engages with the world. The model includes five primary
dimensions. Each dimension has six facets that further characterize
an individual according to the dimension.
• Needs: The model includes twelve characteristic
needs: Excitement, Harmony, Curiosity, Ideal, Closeness,
Self-
expression, Liberty, Love, Practicality, Stability, Challenge,
and Structure.
• Values The model includes five values: Self-transcendence / Helping
Art by Samuel Adamson

9. SCORES &
PERSONALITY TRAITS
• Openness to Experience: "Personality
dimension that distinguishes creative
and imaginative staff from conservative
people, keeping both feet on the
ground“
• Conscientiousness: “The way in which we
control, regulate and direct our
impulses“
• Extroversion: "It is marked by
pronounced engagement in relation to
the outside world, versus being
comfortable with the company itself“
• Agreeableness: "individual differences
about cooperation and social harmony“
• Neuroticism: "tendency to experience

10. SECTION.80
ALBUM’S PERSONALITY
9665 words analyzed

11. You are imaginative; you have a
wild imagination. You are proud.
You bold yourself in high regard,
satisfied with who you are. And
you are carefree, you do what you
want, disregarding rules and
obligations.
Your choices are driven by a
desire for modernity.
You consider both Independence
and helping others to guide a
large part of what you do. You
like to set your own goals to
decide how to best achieve them.
And you think if is importante to
take care of the people around
you.
SECTION.80: You are excitable and explosive.
90%
50%
69%
36%
72%
Openess
Conscientiou
sness
Extraversion
Agreeablenes
s
Emotional
Range
SECTION.80's PERSONALITY TRAITS

12. 100%
96%
93%
86%
53%
Stimulation
Helping
others
Taking
pleasure in
life
Achievement
Tradition
SECTION.80:
NEEDS and VALUES

13. SECTION.80: CLOUD TAG e WORD LINKS
9,665 total words and 1,800 unique word
forms.
Vocabulary Density: 0.191
Average Words Per Sentence: 85.9
Keywords are shown in blue and collocates
(words in proximity) are showing in
orangeCreated with Voyant-Tools

14. good kid m.A.A.d
city
ALBUM’S PERSONALITY
12354 words analyzed

15. You are appreciative of art: you
enjoy beauty and seek out
creative experiences. You are
proud. You hold youserlf in high
regard, satisfied with who you
are. And you are imaginative, you
have a wild imagination.
Your choices are driven by a
desire for modernity.
You consider both Independence
and helping others to guide a
large part of what you do. You
like to set your own goals to
decide how to best achieve them.
And you think it is importante to
take care of the people around
you.
good kid m.A.A.d city: You are excitable and somewhat
critical.
86%
51%
66%
29%
72%
Openess
Conscientiousne
ss
ExtraversionAgreeableness
Emotional Range
good kid m.A.A.d city's PERSONALITY
TRAITS

16. 100%
96%
93%82%
40%
Stimulation
Helping
others
Taking
pleasure in
life
Achievement
Tradition
good kid m.A.A.d city:
NEEDS and VALUES

17. good kid m.A.A.d city:
CLOUD TAG e WORD LINKS
12,354 total words and 2,746 unique word forms.
Vocabulary Density: 0.153
Average Words Per Sentence: 53.6
Keywords are shown in blue and collocates
(words in proximity) are showing in
orangeCreated with Voyant-Tools

18. To Pimp A Buterfly
ALBUM’S PERSONALITY
13709 words analyzed

19. You are imaginative; you have a
wild imagination. You are
appreciative of art, you enjoy
beauty and seek out creative
experiences. And you are
carefree, you do what you want,
disregarding rules and
obligations.
Your choices are driven by a
desire for modernity.
You consider both Independence
and helping others to guide a
large part of what you do. You
like to set your own goals to
decide how to best achieve them.
And you think it is importante to
take care of the people around
To Pimp a Buterfly: You are excitable.
88%
60%
66%44%
78%
Openess
Conscientiousne
ss
ExtraversionAgreeableness
Emotional Range
To Pimp A Buterfly's PERSONALITY
TRAITS

20. 100%
94%
89%82%
40%
Stimulation
Helping
others
Taking
pleasure in
life
Achievement
Tradition
To Pimp A Buterfly:
NEEDS and VALUES

21. 13,709 total words and 2,399 unique word forms.
Vocabulary Density: 0.181
Average Words Per Sentence: 55.8
Keywords are shown in blue and collocates
(words in proximity) are showing in
orange
To Pimp A Buterfly:
CLOUD TAG e WORD LINKS
Created with Voyant-Tools

22. DAMN.
ALBUM’S PERSONALITY
8886 words analyzed

23. You are carefree; you do what
you want, disregarding rules and
obligations. You are imaginative;
you have a wild imagination. And
you are proud, you hold yourself
in high regard, satisfied with
who you are.
Your choices are driven by a
desire for modernity.
You consider both Independence
and helping others to guide a
large part of what you do. You
like to set your own goals to
decide how to best achieve them.
And you think it is importante to
take care of the people around
you.
DAMN.: You are shrewd.
83%
35%
54%
24%
63%
Openess
Conscientiousne
ss
ExtraversionAgreeableness
Emotional Range
DAMN.'s PERSONALITY TRAITS

24. 100%
96%
95%81%
56%
Stimulation
Helping
others
Taking
pleasure in
life
Achievement
Tradition
DAMN.:
NEEDS and VALUES

25. 8,886 total words and 1,800 unique word forms.
Vocabulary Density: 0.206
Average Words Per Sentence: 72.2
Keywords are shown in blue and collocates
(words in proximity) are showing in
orange
DAMN.:
CLOUD TAG e WORD LINKS
Created with Voyant-Tools

26. ALBUMS PERSONALITY’S
COMPARISION

27. Multi-technique rhymes for different speeches
SECTION.8
0
good kid m.A.A.d
city
To Pimp A
Buterfly
DAMN.
Words
analyzed
9,665 12,354 13,709 8,886
Unique words 1,800 2,746 2,399 1,800
Vocab.
density
0.191 0.153 0.181 0.206
Average words
x sentence
85.9 53.6 55.8 72.2
While GKMC and TPAB presents not only more lyrics as so more verses than
others, S80 and DAMN. uses less to say more.
In 2011 and 2017’s albums there are bigger verses than GKMC and TPAB. Here,
there is also bigger proportion of new words (vocabular density) in rhymes.
At the same time, the 2012 and 2015’s albums utilizes greater unique words
(in absolut numbers) than S80 and DAMN.
That is to say Kendrick overcomes rhymes techniques in a way that his
speech is conditioned by his album’s positioning. Or would it be the
reverse?

28. 2 TRANSITION WORLDS OF WORDS
Street-world
Actions
Drinking
Eating
Hanging out
Lifestyle
People/Personas
Knowledge
Character
Feelings
Ethnicity
SECTION.80
To Pimp A Butterfly DAMN.
goog kid m.A.A.d city
Tag Clouds created with Voyant-Tools

29. From excitable and explosive to shrewd
It is remarkable to see how the forcefulness of his discourse evolved over those six
years.
A first album that provoked: "I'm here and I have something to say", followed by a more
critical work, allowed him to write a third album much more exciting and more defined
than the others (in a personality traits’ analysis).
Finally, his most recent work comes with a tone that a considerable territory was
conquered and appropriated by the artist and he is not willing to let him. More than
that, the personality of the album reflects that it is no longer necessary to "scream
for attention", it is enough for the artist to observe and absorb his current
environment.

30. DAMN.: weakest in personality traits,
strongest in showing needs.
On the other hand, TPAB (whose cover is a Compton’s hommies-crowd) is much
more intense in personality traits than demonstrating needs (while DAMN.’s
cover is a portrait of a head-down-Kendrick).
As an evolution of the artist and his path, the necessity for challenge gave
way to the liberty and self-expression needs.

31. Kendrick for the people
The break even point is To Pimp A Butterfly. When Kendrick chose being more
explicit in his personality instead of reinforce needs and values, he is
finally preparing a whole audience to be ready to the unexpected from now over:
Showing his masterpiece-of-personality, he definitely opened the doors to his
freedom (and a kind of conscious-experimental stage) in art.
As fist effect, dropping by surprise untitled unmastered in 2016. To reinforce
this process, DAMN.’s tradition value takeback and overcome what was first said
in SECTION.80. As so, the same happens in taking pleasure in life and with the
helping others value’s score.

32. An attempt to failure: PERSONALITY for a next
album
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
SECTION 80 GOOD KID M.A.A.D CITY TO PIMP A BUTERFLY DAMN.
PERSONALITY TRAITS
Openess Conscientiousness Extraversion Agreeableness
Emotional Range Expon. (Openess) Expon. (Conscientiousness) Expon. (Extraversion)
Expon. (Agreeableness) Linear (Emotional Range)
KENDRICK’S NEXT ALBUM
PERSONALITY TRAITS?

33. An attempt to failure: NEEDS for a next
album
KENDRICK’S NEXT
ALBUM NEEDS?
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
SECTION 80 GOOD KID M.A.A.D CITY TO PIMP A BUTERFLY DAMN.
NEEDS
Liberty Excitement Curiosity Harmony Ideal
Structure Self-expression Stability Practicality Closeness
Love Challenge Expon. (Liberty) Expon. (Excitement) Expon. (Curiosity)
Expon. (Harmony) Expon. (Ideal) Expon. (Structure) Expon. (Self-expression) Expon. (Stability)
Expon. (Practicality) Expon. (Closeness) Expon. (Love) Expon. (Challenge)

34. An attempt to failure: VALUES for a next
album
KENDRICK’S NEXT
ALBUM VALUES?
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
SECTION 80 GOOD KID M.A.A.D CITY TO PIMP A BUTERFLY DAMN.
VALUES
Stimulation Helping others Taking pleasure in life
Achievement Tradition Expon. (Stimulation)
Expon. (Helping others) Expon. (Taking pleasure in life) Expon. (Achievement)
Linear (Tradition)

35. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Considering personality traits through the analysis of his four albums, Kendrick
Lamar is excitable, imaginative and proud. Modernity is his main choice-driven.
At the same time he is carefree for the status quo he is also a person that
considers a big deal taking care of people around him.
Although the possibility of drawing trendlines for personality, needs and
values, it is only possible to forecast some similarities of the artwork.
External facts as social context and production may strongly infer at the final
speech for a next album.
What comes next?
Facing times of nominations and awards, more than the “unconventional solution
for awards season confusion” presented by Joey Bada$$*, this kind of research,
that applies linguistic & personality traits at the RAP genre may stimulate
furthers studies focusing in categorize and label subgenres of the music.
This study has also stimulated the author in evaluate possibilities at the
development of a series of studies aiming a rapper-personality-mapping, plotting
different lyricists by his own speech.
*http://uproxx.com/realtalk/joey-badass-hip-hop-officials-rap-
subgenres/

36. REFERENCES
IBM Watson™ Personality Insights, available at:
https://console.bluemix.net/docs/services/personality-insights/
GENIUS.”Artists: Kendrick Lamar”, available at:
https://genius.com/artists/Kendrick-lamar
PIMENTEL and DONNELLY “The relation between music preference and the big five
personality traits”
SILVA, Tarcizio “Big Five PersonalityTraits and Social Media”
UPROXX “Joey Badass Says Hip-Hop Needs Officials To Label All Of Rap’s Subgenres
Properly”, available at http://uproxx.com/realtalk/joey-badass-hip-hop-
officials-rap-subgenres/

37. PLEASE, SEND ME A MESSAGE :}
IBM Watson™ Personality Insights & VOYANT-TOOLS
Marketing Exercise
barreto.pedroh@gmail.com
in/barretopedroh
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estudos vira-lata s/a