Story Art: Kendrick Lamar’s Father Time Tour visual



I was hired as a story artist to work for Kendrick Lamar’s tour Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers. I was tasked with working on the narrative and story arc for a song titled “Father Time.”

I worked with an animator named Pixel Face to storyboard and animate the illustrations that would be turned into shadow art live on led screens during the show.

Agency: 92 Group, Frameworx, PgLang
Creative Director: Mike Carson for PgLang
Story Artist: Christopher Latouche for 92 Group
Animator: Pixel Face

Narrative


The story starts with Kendrick having a strict upbringing
He sees home invasions
He sees see tough love in his home
He's continuously  told to be tough no matter what at home
The first time he cries as a baby, his dad slaps him as a baby, a newborn.
And it turns him into an animal/ he turns into an actual baby monster.
We see Kendrick going through life as a baby monster.
We see him growing as a monster with superior strength.
He's at the basketball court, playing amongst the other kids, and they are kids,
but he is an actual monster with monster features and spooky hands; he is sizably taller.
Yet he still has human qualities.
He still has fears, doubts, and internal battles about who he is and who he has to be.
He loses a basketball game, gets fouled, and gets bullied.
But he remembers the resilience instilled in him to keep going
He gets up and goes into another mode (think Monstars from space jam), grows in size as a monster,
shows his true strength, and turns into a monstar.
Dunking on everyone winning the game but still broken inside a little man at heart
We see a scene of his dad arguing with his mother on one wall, but the other wall shows who they are.

On the left wall, we see shadows of his mom and dad arguing.

Simultaneously On the right wall, we see shades of a monster trying to catch a butterfly with his hands.

Aimlessly missing dunce like
Throughout the entire song, on one wall, we see
Everything that Kendrick's dad didn't want him to be
And On the other side of the wall, we show everything he was.