Emulating the legendary Michael Jackson isn’t something that Kendrick Lamar expects to do during his career. Yet the American hip-hop star went tantalisingly close to matching the ‘King of Pop’ recently in one regard. His 11 Grammy award nominations for this year’s awards was just one shy of the record set by Jackson.

58th Grammy Awards

The 28-year-old Californian has set himself lofty targets though and is looking to dominate the competition with his album entitled “To Pimp a Butterfly”, when this year’s ceremony takes place on February 15th in Los Angeles.

It will be the 58th time that the prestigious awards will have been handed out, as the Staples Center plays host to the top musical talent of the current day.

Jackson’s magical evening in 1984

Jackson won 13 Grammy Awards during his star-studded time at the top of the Music industry, although he lags some way behind the record total of 31 held by the conductor Sir Georg Salti. Jackson’s 12 nominations in one year alone remains the record, although he was probably more proud of the 8 Grammys that he won on the night in 1984.

Lamar praised Jackson

Lamar recognised as much upon hearing the news ahead of this year’s awards, commenting that he was “still soaking that all in.” He was also glad that “it was at 11” as for him “Michael will forever be the greatest.”

Hip-hop culture

His motivation to sweep the board at the Grammy Awards is very much rooted in the culture of his hip-hop community and background.

With that clearly on his mind, he stated that he would “love for us to win them all.”

Paid tribute to Nas

In acknowledgement of the foundations set by those that went before him, Lamar (previously known as “K-Dot”) paid particular tribute to Nas who “didn’t get a chance to be in that position.” Nas has previously been denoted as one of Lamar’s top five favourite rappers, although it is believed that Tupac Shakur has actually been the biggest influence on his music so far.

Topped US and UK album charts

To Pimp a Butterfly” was released last year as the artist’s third studio album and has sold more than 750,000 copies in the US alone. Topping both the US and UK charts, the album incorporates a variety of musical elements including funk, jazz and the spoken word.

Among the 11 nominations bestowed on Lamar are those in the categories of ‘Album of the Year’, ‘Song of the Year’ and ‘Best Rap Album’.