Before his grammy takeover Kenrick Lamar had a less publicized award given to him that highlights just how amazing this man really is in his local community.

On Saturday he was given the Key To Compton by city Mayor Aja Brown. The key was given to him, it seems, due to his amazing impact on the city and his work with the youth.

Local community leaders spoke of him and his awesome impact and Kendrick’s alma mater Centennial High School performed “i” and “Alright”.

Last year California also gave him Generational Icon status and noted he has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to youth programs!

Best of all was Kenrick’s acceptance speech. He said

“Having this key to the city is not just a representation or the glorification that I have Compton, it’s a representation of all of us, this is a representation of us opening more programs for these kids, opening more job opportunities, that’s how I’m looking at it from my own platform. With that being said, as long as I’m doing music, as long as I’m using my platform for something, I will always scream ‘Compton’ and make sure to come back to this community and do right by it, because you all did alright by me. Through all the hardship, losing family members, losing homeboys, for some reason we always still love Compton, because we have faith.”

Here is his speech