Why These Celebrities Were Given The 'Key To The City'

Publish date: 2024-05-12

Being given a key to a city is an honor for odd folks with an abnormal contribution to the explicit hood. While it isn't precisely a key that opens a city's gate, it's still a nice gesture, particularly for many who have achieved such a lot for the town. Some folks put the city on the map thanks to their contribution to track, motion pictures, or other acting arts, whilst others simply helped the town all through a depressing time for its voters.

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With that being mentioned, these celebrities are top examples of how one could be given the key to the city. For instance, Usher, who is of Atlanta local, received his honor after his tremendous philanthropic efforts to rebuild the city of New Orleans after the deadly Hurricane Katrina. Here are other celebs, in addition to the R&B king, who've received the key to the town and the way they did so.

6 Paul McCartney Received The Key To Austin, TX

Paul McCartney has been an avid spokesperson of veganism. Since becoming a vegetarian in 1975, the powerhouse singer has been an advocate of green eating for many years, functioning on the stage of charity concert events and supporting many consciousness campaigns over the years. To recognize his contribution, Mayor Lee Leffingwell of Austin gave the singer the key to the town and honorary citizenship.

"The influx of forward-thinking musicians and techies, the thriving university, and the food trucks all over the city run by young veg-friendly hipsters have made Austin the absolute cutting-edge place for green eating," the former Beatles frontman wrote, in a while after receiving the award.

5 Kendrick Lamar Was Presented The Keys To Compton, CA

Kendrick Lamar has been proudly repping his place of origin of Compton, California, so much that he dedicated a complete album, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, to the city. It is, in fact, the birthplace of many hip-hop greats like Dr. Dre and Ice Cube of N.W.A., Coolio, The Game, and more. In 2016, Mayor Aja Brown introduced him with the key to Compton for his willpower to hip-hop and placing the city on the map.

"It's the biggest thing. It's really not about how famous I get, it's really about me utilizing my platform and giving it back to these kids because that's what I wanted as a kid," mentioned the Pulitzer-winning artist. "Everything that I do is a reflection of how I felt when I was younger."

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4 Usher Was Given The Key To New Orleans, LA

Usher used to be given the key to New Orleans thank you to his contribution to restoring the group after the deadly consequences of Hurricane Katrina back in the 2000s. The Grammy-winning R&B artist even pulled up with dozens of volunteers to clear the city's streets and colleges and dedicated a good amount of cash thru Usher's Foundation for the victims.

"To see it, in this state, it's devastating," mentioned the Atlanta native back in 2006, as reported by CBS. "I'm here to physically do something and hopefully motivate other people to do the similar."

3 Michael Jackson Received Numerous 'Keys To The City'

Michael Jackson was so liked that he received numerous "keys to the city" accolades during his life. The King of Pop won the keys to Las Vegas and his hometown of Gary, Indiana, again in 2003. Even after his death, the Thriller singer joined his Jackson 5 brothers posthumously to obtain the key to Detroit, presented by way of Detroit police chief James Craig all the way through the Detroit Music Weekend Festival again in 2018.

"We used to come play the Fox Theatre amateur nights, trying to make a name for ourselves," Marlon Jackson informed Billboard about the particular bond between the Motor City and the Jackson 5. "So the Jackson 5 and Motown goes back many years… There’s some synergy there with the Jackson 5 and the Jacksons and Detroit."

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2 Big Sean Was Presented The Key To Detroit, MI

Another recipient of the key to Detroit, rapper Big Sean scored historical past as the youngest recipient of the honor. The rapper, who's of Detroit, Michigan origin, was once awarded the key to his native thank you to his contribution thru the Sean Anderson Foundation. Earlier in April 2017, the rapper launched "Mogul Prep," a sequence of small workshops to teach low-income scholars about the trade aspect of the music trade.

"[The mayor] honored me and my foundation for motivating the city through my music [and] messaging and starting an actual curriculum called ‘Mogul Prep’ that teaches kids all the behind the scenes jobs available in the music industry and taught to them at a high school level," stated the rap megastar, as famous by Rolling Stones. "This will be applied to Detroit Public Schools come this fall and some schools in Baltimore and more."

1 Dr. Dre Has The Keys To Compton, CA

Before Kendrick Lamar were given his fingers on the honor, there was Dr. Dre who received the key to his local Compton. Mayor Aja Brown said Dre's entrepreneurial achievements after he used to be in talks to sell his Beats Audio corporate to Apple in a deal value up to $3.2 billion with the key to Compton again in 2014. According to TMZ, he and Interscope boss Jimmy Iovine donated a whopping $70 million to develop a music and business curriculum at the University of Southern California in LA.

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