Kendrick Lamar Stars In Chanel Sunglasses Campaign
Kung Fu Kenny is the latest rapper to nab an endorsement from a luxury shades brand.
The hits keep coming, in the best way possible, for Kendrick Lamar: The chart-topping rapper just joined Chanel as its newest global ambassador, and now takes center stage again as leading man for the new Chanel Spring/Summer 2025 Eyewear Collection.
Sporting a jet black pair of Chanel’s iconic Oval Sunglasses, Lamar “shares his own take on the allure of Chanel,” the famed fashion house said. He’s the latest hip-hop mogul to put his own spin on utterly classic eyewear, as A$AP Rocky debuted earlier this year as Ray-Ban’s first-ever creative director.
It’s the latest in a string of major wins for Lamar: His infamous Drake diss track “Not Like Us” has proven to be a global sensation (buoyed by Lamar’s five Grammy wins and a Super Bowl halftime show performance). He’s got the numbers to back it up: Industry sales data notes that Kendrick’s 2024 album GNX just made waves as 2025’s first rap album to top 1 million sales units in the U.S.
Lamar won’t be leaving the headlines for some time, as his “Grand National” Tour with SZA kicked off last week. The Compton legend is no stranger to Chanel, appearing at the couture brand’s fashion show in the summer of 2023 (as reported by HighSnobiety) and famously wearing a pair of Chanel bell bottom jeans at this year’s Super Bowl, Man of Many noted (among others).
A client of celebrity stylist Taylor McNeill, the hip-hop icon has a penchant for blurring the lines between menswear and womenswear, not unlike Chanel’s influence on the fashion ecosystem at large. GQ further reported that since Chanel doesn’t produce menswear at the moment, sunglasses (of course, sporting the double “C” logo) were an obvious selection for the hit-making superstar.
Lamar isn’t the only generational luminary tapped by Chanel: The rapper notably appears alongside Margaret Qualley, Lupita Nyong’o and Nana Komatsu in the campaign, which was photographed by Karim Sadli and features each sporting their own take on a different pair of Chanel shades.