If you need any more proof that there really are great role models within the music industry, this is it.
Time’s list of the Top 100 Most Influential People for this year has been released with plenty of artists joining the ranks.
Among them were Kendrick Lamar, Adele, Nicki Minaj, Ariana Grande and Hamilton composer Lin-Manuel Miranda. Each person had a mini-essay written about them by another important person in society, honouring them with some words about their personal impact and their overall influence.
Below are extracts from a few examples.
Activist Alicia Garza spoke about Lamar in ways that speak on behalf of many of us:
“The first time I heard To Pimp a Butterfly was on a crowded plane heading to Jackson, Miss. With headphones on, there I was, bobbing my head and having audible conversations with myself because that album made me feel—moved and troubled, challenged, uplifted, angry, skeptical and raw. Far from creating “conscious rap,” Kendrick Lamar has evolved a new genre of movement music that asserts no answers but raises hard questions and brings us together to take them on.”
Lil Wayne wrote these words of admiration for Minaj:
“She’s reached far beyond everything I would have imagined. Man, she’s so influential and doing all the right things. She’s an icon, a boss and a role model to all these young girls out here on how to do it the right way. Her work ethic speaks volumes and has yielded these results. The scary thing is she’s still going. Ha!”
While actress Jennifer Lawrence poured her heart out for Adele:
“Growing up. Changing in some ways and being stuck forever in others. Being so young with the most successful career in the world. She says, “I wish I could live a little more, look up to the sky, not just the floor.” The way she is able to capture herself, and then in turn us, has turned her into a star that’s not a star we look at, but a giant star with its own gravity that we are drawn to. All of this about her lyrics, and I haven’t even gotten started on the voice—how could I? It’s once-in-a-lifetime. All this about her voice and I won’t have time to talk about her intelligence. Her 500-year-old wisdom. Her patience and kindness all wrapped up in the tough skin of a damn gangster.”
See the full list of the Most Influential People on Time’s website.
Image: Danielle Hansen