Transcript: Kendrick Lamar Breakfast Club Interview After To Pimp A Butterfly Release
The Breakfast Club: It's DJ Envy, Angela Yee, Charlamagne Tha God. We are The Breakfast Club. Special guest and friend to the room. The leader of the new school when it comes to these rappers out here. That's right. Kendrick Lamar. What's happening?
The Breakfast Club: K-Dawg, what's up, bro?
Kendrick Lamar: Morning.
The Breakfast Club: Listen, first of all, salute to you for giving props to one of my favorite MCs of all time, Killer Mike, on the Hood Politics record.
Kendrick Lamar: All the time, man.
The Breakfast Club: That never happens. Artists like you give props to guys like Mike.
Kendrick Lamar: He been doing it for a long time, way before me. You dig what I'm saying? So it's only right. He gonna continue to do it too.
The Breakfast Club: Do you actually listen to Mike? Like you listen to Run the Jewels?
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, Run the Jewels, it's crazy. Atlanta, man, come on.
The Breakfast Club: Now what happened with your album? The album was supposed to come out at one week and then it just dropped on a Sunday and then it was only the clean version and the clean version was taken off. And the top dog ran up in the school for the Mac 10 and laid everybody down. It was confusing with your album. What happened?
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, they dropped the clean version. And the crazy part about it is we knew that the iTunes link was going to be down for a minute once they did that because it's a certain system that they put in at the labels to either put it on iTunes or put it up. So the date was actually confused and locked it in and locked it off. So the fans was tripping.
The Breakfast Club: So I'm sure he's seen that on his Twitter and went crazy.
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah.
The Breakfast Club: How much time did y'all spend on the marketing campaign? Like how are we going to roll the album out? Because you can't do a traditional release no more.
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, definitely. We always sit as an entity as far as TDE and make our own rules first. And that's been day one. That's been since iTunes. That's been since our mixtapes. So even though everybody's doing it traditionally now, we always had that neck to, you know, put it out the way you want to. And our thing is, people are going to like it regardless. They're going to like it or they're not. So you can put it out. You can put people on stage. You can do the award shows. You can do radio. But if they don't rock with the music, they're not going to get it.
The Breakfast Club: All right. Now let's talk about "I." The first thing that we heard from this project. It wasn't your normal Kendrick Lamar per se type of record.
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, yeah.
The Breakfast Club: What was the inspiration of "I"? Why did you decide to let that one go first?
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, the inspiration behind it was really talking to some of the older cats in the neighborhood. Really doing something out of the norm. Speaking some type of positivity back in the city rather than doing, you know, what we're used to doing, period. You know, from the initial content of the record, I always said it was for some of my homeboys back in the yard and also the community, period. And it was therapeutic for myself, you know, because sometimes we wake up and we may not feel the same way we felt yesterday. So that was the initial wine state and it did just that.
The Breakfast Club: You won two Grammys, but y'all didn't show up. Did y'all purposely boycott this year?
Kendrick Lamar: I had to work. I had to finish that album. I was locked in. I couldn't lose focus. I couldn't go on tour. I couldn't do no awards. I was on a deadline.
The Breakfast Club: Did you expect to win?
Kendrick Lamar: Did I expect to win?
The Breakfast Club: Yeah. Because, I mean, last year you was expected to win.
Kendrick Lamar: No, I don't expect nothing. I don't expect nothing. I just put the music out.
The Breakfast Club: Now, I read that you started working on this album right when you were finishing Mad City.
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah.
The Breakfast Club: And so it took you like...
Kendrick Lamar: Two years.
The Breakfast Club: Two years to do it.
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah.
The Breakfast Club: Okay, how many songs did you actually do?
Kendrick Lamar: I probably did about 30 to 40 songs that we actually fought over in the studio because a lot of them records was my favorite records. You know, sometimes it be like that. You may do something crazy and it just don't end up because it might not be as cohesive as you thought.
The Breakfast Club: So what happens with those?
Kendrick Lamar: They be for my ear and my iPhone.
The Breakfast Club: There's been a lot of mixed reviews behind the album. Some people feel like you being too preachy.
Kendrick Lamar: Preachy.
The Breakfast Club: How do you feel about the reception of the album?
Kendrick Lamar: I feel great about the reception of the album. I didn't catch the preachy thing because majority of the album is me talking about my faults, especially on records like "You Ain't Got a Lie to Kick It," "Black of the Berry." All these are therapeutic songs for me.
The Breakfast Club: I feel like sometimes when somebody's doing really well, because Kendrick, you have a lot on you. People look at you like Kendrick is the greatest.
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah.
The Breakfast Club: And sometimes people want to come in and be really critical and find some type of fault.
Kendrick Lamar: Oh, yeah. All the time. But we all human, so you're going to find a fault anyway. Somehow. I don't run from, I'm not scared of. I can't live in fear of that. You know, everybody had their opinions and whatnot.
The Breakfast Club: I didn't know you were suffering from depression the way you said you was on the album.
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah.
The Breakfast Club: Did the industry cause that?
Kendrick Lamar: Not the industry, just the change. You know, it's a drastic change when you're around so many different faces, faces that you don't quite understand and meet different people and things are going on back home that it's out of your control to handle. You know what I'm saying?
The Breakfast Club: People would think that that would take you away, you know, the money, the lifestyle. You're able to take a lot of those people that would usually be from the hood. You get another chance, take them to places that they would never see.
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, you can, but you can't take everybody. It's still stuff that go on. I still got family and company. You know, I can't put a million dollars in their pocket and say, you own now. You feel what I'm saying? All I can do is put them in positions where they can fend for themselves. But sometimes the lifestyle that they're in, they may not know how to handle it. They may not know how to handle some type of working world where they never been in. All they know is the streets.
The Breakfast Club: We talked the other day about responsibility and how responsible are artists to the community, like as far as being leaders, as far as speaking out against social issues. And this is something that you've always done in your music. Do you think that more artists should be responsible?
Kendrick Lamar: Do I think more artists should? We have a handful right now. But I think every artist should always be responsible for how they go about marking them or putting their music or how they, you know, put their words together. Because this is something I didn't understand until I went out on these roads and talked to these kids. They take my music very seriously. So with that being said, I know they take the next artist's music very seriously.
The Breakfast Club: So...
Kendrick Lamar: Probably not.
The Breakfast Club: No, they do.
The Breakfast Club: I'll approach Kendrick a little different. A lot of kids are raised by this industry.
The Breakfast Club: No, real talk because...
Kendrick Lamar: The real life that the artists went through for kids in this new generation, it might just be a trend for them until they go out there and get themselves killed. You feel what I'm saying? So how I put my words together, for me personally, it's a strategic way. I'm not just glorifying the streets of what not. It's a reality check, but it's for the better at the end of the day.
The Breakfast Club: That's why I respected "I" so much because it was an uplifting song for a lot of kids that usually, especially during this time, we don't see that. Me and Charlamagne were talking. It felt positive, but it felt outcastish in a way that it was different where kids could see that you ain't just got to sell drugs and shoot. It was a positive joint.
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, definitely.
The Breakfast Club: It take a lot of guts to put a record like that out on your second album, too. What was the labels thing when you came with that type of record? Especially as, like, the first look of it.
The Breakfast Club: First single.
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, yeah. I mean, that was behind it because they know that we came in this business as TDE, Top Dog Entertainment, doing what we want to do. You know, we were selling records. We were selling mixtapes. And the foundation that we have with the kids is strong. It's stronger than any type of number of marketing service that a label can do. So... They was behind it, and I appreciate them for that. They never ever came in trying to strategically move my creativity around, and I respect that, because on your second album, everybody's looking.
Kendrick Lamar: I mean, I know what the kids want. You feel me? I'm fairly young myself. You feel what I'm saying? I got little brothers. I know what they listen to all day, so it takes a strong following and a strong support system, not only from in my camp, but the folks around me to say, okay, continue to do what you do.
The Breakfast Club: And what was that dance in the video? What was that called?
Kendrick Lamar: That was the Holy Ghost. That's LA culture, man. We're going to continue to push that on the next choice. Y'all will see.
The Breakfast Club: Where in the hell did the Tupac audio come from for Mortal Man? Because I thought I had heard every Tupac interview. I have not heard those vocals before.
Kendrick Lamar: Tripp, I got that when I was in Germany from this cat. He said, I got this unreleased Pac interview. He handed it off to me.
The Breakfast Club: What made you listen? Because I'm sure everybody said, I got Biggie.
Kendrick Lamar: I mean, if somebody says that, you're definitely going to listen. He's from the West Coast. One of his influences.
The Breakfast Club: How did they get that close?
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, real talk. I did my research. I had to see, is this official? First off, so I went through it, played it back a few times.
The Breakfast Club: You have to get that cleared by his estate and everything?
Kendrick Lamar: Oh, yeah. You got to get everything cleared.
The Breakfast Club: So when you heard it, you felt like he was talking to you? Or did you have the questions in your mind?
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah. Yeah, because the trip is, Pac was a prophet to me, and everything he's talking about is actually going on today. You feel what I'm saying? And that right there just sparked the idea immediately for what I was talking about in my record.
The Breakfast Club: So when you met Pac in Cuba, is this the story y'all came up with to keep people off the fact that he's still alive? That the whole Germany thing, I got vocals in Germany. What the hell somebody in Germany got vocals, Pac?
Kendrick Lamar: Nah, but it was a blessing I came about and I really appreciate his mother too, you know, for giving me the opportunity to use them vocals because, you know, people hold them things dear and if she would have stood down and said, no, I would have respect that too. I'd have respect that I have for her and her son's legacy because the things that he know, it comes from her. You feel what I'm saying? So either way it would have went, I would show respect, period.
The Breakfast Club: Do you read a lot?
Kendrick Lamar: Mm-mm.
The Breakfast Club: I always wonder, because you seem like you're so full of knowledge and wisdom. Where does it come from?
Kendrick Lamar: I mean, my encounter with people, I'm not scared to talk to people. I'm not scared to interact, whether it's a 5-year-old kid or an 80-year-old man. You know what I'm saying? Of course I read, but I put it to you like this. I'd rather be interacting with a person, you know, rather than gathering up information, you know, from somewhere else, speaking to a person with wisdom that had been here before me.
The Breakfast Club: Some more life experience. It's always.
The Breakfast Club: Now, what about L.A.? You had seemed like you were disappointed with the album sales in L.A. alone. You feel like they're not supporting you like they should?
Kendrick Lamar: I think that was top dog.
The Breakfast Club: You don't strike me as the type to care about album sales. You do the music and you let them handle all that. I can't see you in the studio like, y'all, they only bought 30. Now, Top, absolutely, gut out, ready to go shoot up record stores.
The Breakfast Club: Who are you?
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, he gotta do that. I mean, he the businessman. You know, but he knows the music and he knows the quality of the music. So he look at it not from only a businessman standpoint. He know the magnitude of the record. You know what I'm saying? He's close to it, just like I'm close to it. So if he get angry about something, I can't say you shouldn't be angry because he has a right to. We starved together, man, in the studio.
The Breakfast Club: Did you ever envision all of this happening when you first signed early on and it took some time to get the ball rolling? Did you ever think that things would be this big and you would be considered one of the biggest hip-hop artists today?
Kendrick Lamar: To be 100% real with you, I didn't, but Top Dog did. That's real talk. You can ask anybody that's been around us. Whoever knew him a long time, he always said, K-Dot is going to do something in this game. Way before I even believed it. I was in the studio just playing around. He grabbed me and J-Rock off the streets. Compton and Watts said, get in the studio. Do something better with your life. And we're here doing it now. J-Rock is doing his thing. He's at an all-time level where he's ready to blow and break out. And the same thing with him. He gave me my shot. J-Rock gave me my shot by...
Kendrick Lamar: Jumping out into the wolves of the industry and the politics. I didn't have to go through that.
The Breakfast Club: I felt bad. I always felt like J-Rock had a great debut album, but he was like the guinea pig.
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, man. It was so much we had to learn, so much he had to learn. So by the time we went through all our mistakes, I was ready. And Rock was in my corner giving me gang, like, do this like that. Because when you do that, when you go in this meeting like that, they're going to tell you this, and you got to stand up for yourself. And that's the game he gave me.
The Breakfast Club: Is it true J. Cole was trying to sign you at one point?
Kendrick Lamar: He never told me that. He never told me that.
The Breakfast Club: I heard him say that on the Combat Jack show. I was like, I wanted to sign Kendrick.
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, because I think by the time I met him, he wanted to get his label off the ground. He was already signed and doing his thing. I was still independent. But that's a good eye for talent.
The Breakfast Club: Are y'all doing an album together? That's also a thing that everybody's talking about.
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, all the time. It's always just a schedule issue once we get around that. That's my boy, though. I talk to him on the regular.
The Breakfast Club: You got them extra songs already?
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, we do. We do.
The Breakfast Club: Oh, so y'all got music recorded?
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, we do. It's just a matter of putting it together.
The Breakfast Club: Yeah, exactly.
Kendrick Lamar: But also going back in and continuing to work because new songs are so old. We both grown as artists.
The Breakfast Club: Now, when you dropped the infamous Control verse, it seems like you were ready to compete and eat all competition, but To Pimp a Butterfly off, it seems like you don't even care what everybody else is doing.
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, I mean, you know what? The thing about control is I think people forgot just off the music that I put out that I'm actually from the West Coast, and the aggression that we have in our music, I can't run from that, you know, whether... It be a control verse, whether it be Blacker or the Berry. That's all. I'm influenced by Cube. I'm influenced by Dre.
The Breakfast Club: I hear Sugar Free on you.
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, Sugar Free. The intro. Yeah, respect. Definitely Sugar Free is in my music.
The Breakfast Club: King Kunta. One of the interludes. So... I think what happened was people forgot that. So when you hear something like control come from Kendrick Lamar, it's a reminder that I grew up off gangster rap and that aggression will always be in me.
The Breakfast Club: Were you surprised that nobody snapped back? Because this is a local exercise. Everybody was like, I'm going to leave that man alone.
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And those who did, they did in a friendly way.
The Breakfast Club: Very friendly.
Kendrick Lamar: Very friendly. Yeah, it was cool.
The Breakfast Club: What's more important, love from your peers or love from the consumers, the streets? Because I see a lot of people, a lot of musical artists are bigging up this album crazy.
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, yeah. My fans, for sure. My fans, for sure, because those are the people that's been rocking with me since day one before we even signed to a major, you know.
The Breakfast Club: You remember your first interview you did up here?
Kendrick Lamar: Nah, I don't.
The Breakfast Club: I know y'all was on me, Charlamagne.
Kendrick Lamar: But it was so early that it didn't even go on air. It was on a webisode.
The Breakfast Club: Yeah. It was on a webisode. And I just remember back then, I was like, this kid is going to be something. And we were having a conversation the other day about who are the best lyricists and best rappers. And I mentioned you. And Charlamagne was like, I don't think he has enough in yet.
The Breakfast Club: Do you still do that?
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, yeah.
The Breakfast Club: Yeah, because you said he was one of the greatest of all time. The man only got two albums. Give him some time. But just hearing him snap and some of the things that he says.
The Breakfast Club: He gets busy, but give him time. It's things that most artists and most MCs are not even near.
The Breakfast Club: I don't think they do y'all no favors when they automatically put y'all with the goats already. Give y'all some time.
Kendrick Lamar: I hear it, though. I can hear it. Of course you got to have that time. And that's the thing that I say with the word classic and instant classic album. Me putting To Pimp a Butterfly out, you hear the speculation of kids saying that all over again prior to when we put good kid, m.A.A.d city out. And I always told them, listen to the music a few times, man, before we start throwing words out like that, even when it's on my behalf, because I want you to live with it. You know what I'm saying? I don't want it to be first listening and you like it or first listening and you have an opinion. Live with it. Grow with it. Because at the end of the day, I make albums that have that type of longevity. If not, I can just give you a whole bunch of singles on one record. You feel what I'm saying?
The Breakfast Club: And I was talking to somebody the other day. I make my music basically for people in the system, in the prison system and kids in college. Because they got nothing but time to listen to it. So I want you to treat it just like that. I want it to be an actual course that you're taking and that you can live with.
The Breakfast Club: And I agree with that because I like to read a lot. You can't just rush through a four agreements. You can't just rush through a 48 Laws of Power. And that's how I feel with you. Because every time I hear it, I hear something new. Every time.
Kendrick Lamar: Every time. Every time. And it's supposed to be like that for me personally. Everybody don't supposed to do what I do or, you know, stay in your lane. But as long as I do music, I want to make something people can live with and go back and say, you know what? He did put out a classic album. You know, how many years from now when you keep on playing it back? And it's ridiculous, the album first. The album literally came out, I woke up, it was up at night. Two hours later, it's a classic. I'm like, how y'all figured that already?
The Breakfast Club: Yeah, yeah.
Kendrick Lamar: And I appreciate the love. I think, you know, for the most part, it's excitement of getting something a little bit outside of the norm. And I appreciate that. But at the same time, live with it and learn to love it even more. You feel me?
The Breakfast Club: Now, one of my favorite records is These Walls.
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, that's one of my favorite records too.
The Breakfast Club: Who uses Bilal? Bilal's dope. But who, like, you know, you're a platinum artist.
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, when I went in the studio, when I said I wanted to do this record, I said I wanted to go in with these specific characters and lock in with them for seven months, you know, to a year. And that was Bilal, George Clinton, Anna Wise, Terrace Martin, producer, Soundwave, my in-house producer, and Thundercat and Rocky. We locked in. We locked in for a year and completed the project. So I already had the mind state on what I wanted to sound like then. Me personally, I'm not sold on your celebrity or how many records you sold. I'm sold on the actual talent and what we're trying to convey and get across. So that was my initial idea for making this record.
The Breakfast Club: So you're a Belial fan beforehand?
Kendrick Lamar: Oh yeah, for sure.
The Breakfast Club: You got Snoop sounding like old Snoop. Did somebody help him with his verse or what happened?
Kendrick Lamar: I laid the skeleton down. I laid the skeleton down because I haven't heard him like that in a long time.
The Breakfast Club: Hell no! That's why I know you didn't write it. No disrespect to Stu, but I love Stu.
Kendrick Lamar: Nah, that's the OG. But me going in, I just said, do what you do. You've been doing it before me. This is what I've been a fan of. So all I can do is direct it. I can't sound like it. That's his talent. That comes from God, from him.
The Breakfast Club: You also did a surprise performance on Cali, and you did all of that with Reebok. You look like you've been working out doing CrossFit.
Kendrick Lamar: A little bit. I've been doing some push-ups.
The Breakfast Club: I don't know what to call it.
Kendrick Lamar: I know everybody when they sign up to Reebok, they all do the crossfit and everything. It's something I wanted to try because they always talk about how great it is.
The Breakfast Club: I ain't jumped in it yet.
Kendrick Lamar: You haven't?
The Breakfast Club: You going to?
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, hopefully I get some time before this tour crack off.
The Breakfast Club: Now explain that. You was in a tractor trail or something running through L.A.?
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah.
The Breakfast Club: I seen people chasing you.
Kendrick Lamar: It was a... Making everybody run.
The Breakfast Club: I thought it was a police chase at first seeing everybody running.
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, making everybody run. They had Top Dog out there too.
The Breakfast Club: Top Dog was running?
The Breakfast Club: Top Dog was running?
Kendrick Lamar: Hey, funniest thing alive. All you see is a red hat bouncing up and down.
The Breakfast Club: Nah, it was crazy, though.
Kendrick Lamar: It ran the whole way.
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, it ran the whole way.
The Breakfast Club: Do you know who Noel Gallagher is from Oasis?
Kendrick Lamar: Uh-huh.
The Breakfast Club: They asked him about you, and he was like, who is that, what did he say? I never heard of him. He sounded like a character off Seinfeld. Do you care about stuff like that?
Kendrick Lamar: No. That's funny to me.
The Breakfast Club: Yeah, I don't care. For real.
The Breakfast Club: Now, why doesn't Dre, why you don't do more records with Dre? That would make the album, so to say.
Kendrick Lamar: It's a thing that we got going on that we're waiting on. It's a strategic move, so...
The Breakfast Club: Are you going to do an album completely with Dre production? That's what it sounds like.
Kendrick Lamar: If I could speak on it, I would, but that man is a scientist and we got a plan.
The Breakfast Club: So is that the direction of the third album? More Dre production maybe?
Kendrick Lamar: It could be.
The Breakfast Club: He said he can't speak on it.
The Breakfast Club: How does he help you with the album? Do you do records and then he arranges them for you? I don't know, mixing? Like what?
Kendrick Lamar: Nah, I do that. I do that as far as the arrangements. It's really going in and once I complete it, getting his expertise about, you know, the sonic sound of it. You know, me personally, I'm hands-on with everything, you know, and I'm huge on how I want something to sound. Scratch the record, if it's a good record or not. I want it to sound and feel a certain way. So things like going in and recording on two-inch tape and running it back through analog, him knowing about things like that and Pro Tools, what's the difference between it? I did the majority of the record going back on the mixing was through analog.
The Breakfast Club: Same stuff for people who don't know what analog is. This is what...
Kendrick Lamar: Marvin Gaye, Luther Vandross, what they recorded on prior to Pro Tools. So it's a little bit more difficult, but it gives you a warm sound. And it's techniques is things I don't know. So I go to Dre for that advice.
The Breakfast Club: I saw you say that you're the closest thing that a lot of these kids got to a reverend.
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah.
The Breakfast Club: I say that in the likes of, you know, I got a little brother and little sister and cousins, and their belief level is at an all-time low, you know, these days. You know, they don't believe in anything. You feel me? So if what I'm putting in my music is an act of God and he using me as a vessel, what makes me any different from somebody being in church and giving their word? You feel what I'm saying? So that's how I look at it.
The Breakfast Club: Last time you was up here, you said you're real personal and you're real quiet and private with your relationship. And you said you had a boo.
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, yeah.
The Breakfast Club: And there was rumors that you guys got engaged.
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, yeah.
The Breakfast Club: Is that true?
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, definitely.
The Breakfast Club: Congratulations, man.
Kendrick Lamar: Appreciate that.
The Breakfast Club: Yeah, I'm loyal to the soil.
The Breakfast Club: Welcome to the club, bro.
Kendrick Lamar: That's right.
The Breakfast Club: I just want to say that Top Dog told me no relationship questions.
The Breakfast Club: Oh, I'm sorry.
Kendrick Lamar: But I guess, yeah.
The Breakfast Club: You told the wrong girl in the room, Top Dog. You should have told the other female. You should have told the other female. Okay? The gossipy one.
The Breakfast Club: All right. All right. Damn it, man. I'm glad he told me and not you. I'm sorry. My bad.
The Breakfast Club: But congratulations. Why didn't you text me?
The Breakfast Club: Yeah, something?
The Breakfast Club: Well, congratulations. I think that's a great thing. And that's also a great example to have somebody that you're loyal and faithful to. A lot of people think it's cool to just sleep around and do whatever.
Kendrick Lamar: You know, the thing at the end of the day, you want to always, always have real people around you. Period. Whether it's male or female. And everybody that's been around me, they've been around since day one. And I can't change that. I don't change for nobody. I can't run from that. You feel what I'm saying? So I always show respect when respect has been given. And people that have been by your side, you're supposed to honor that. And that's how you stand up. Running around it and not acknowledging it, it's trivial. You feel what I'm saying?
The Breakfast Club: Yeah. You know, you speak on respect. It's funny, you said, when you made the comments about Ferguson, you said, we don't respect ourselves. How can we expect them to respect us? And people got mad at you. But you say the same thing in Black of the Berry, and people loved it.
Kendrick Lamar: I think that's just people... Like I said this a few times, these are folks, whoever responded to it in a negative way, they actually don't understand or even know where I come from. And I can't knock them for that. I've took a lot from the community where I'm from. My homeboys have. And I still deal with it today. So when I say things like we need to respect, I'm not only talking about a black, I'm talking about myself. Everything comes from me first, you know what I'm saying? And I still deal with these situations today where I have hate towards another guy because he killed my homeboy while I'm on tour. I still feel that that type of resent me, you feel what I'm saying? So when I talk about these things, it always comes from me. So me respecting the fact that he's a black man and not hating the fact that he has a different color, that's what I mean with respect. So whoever take that out of context, you really need to do your research and know where I come from and know the background of who I am rather than just trying to tear another.
The Breakfast Club: Do you feel like messages are better conveyed through music as opposed to like saying them in magazines or saying them in radio interviews?
Kendrick Lamar: All the time because people can't see and feel your sentiments, you know.
The Breakfast Club: Now, with this album, you talk about singles. Was there a single for this album? Because even with the label, the label was like, play what you like. It wasn't like, you know, we're working on this record. It was like, play what you like.
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, play what you like. You really don't hear that often.
The Breakfast Club: Yeah, definitely. That's the groundwork we do. We've been building since day one. For me, this record, I mean, it has potential records on the radio, but that's when I wasn't really trying to identify with that. I was really trying to get the point across of what I was talking about. And... Yeah, they was all for it because you got to have a strong team that stand behind you creatively.
The Breakfast Club: The Walls is out of here for radio.
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah.
The Breakfast Club: What's your favorite song on the album?
Kendrick Lamar: Probably Mama. Mama, These Walls, King Kunta, of course. But yeah, These Walls for sure.
The Breakfast Club: Now, you roll with some crazy guys, Top Dog, Punch. They don't necessarily speak for you, but they're your people. They're your album drop. Kanye started putting out pictures of his girl, and Punch was like, oh, what this got to do? This got to do with Kendrick's album? Enjoy the album? Do you ever have to call them and be like, man, stop it?
Kendrick Lamar: No, I don't have to call him. That's their personal opinion. I don't really be on the social media like that. And me personally, I think that's coincidental. I don't really see Kanye doing that because I actually work with him and he's actually a great guy. You feel what I'm saying?
The Breakfast Club: So they're not speaking for you, because in my mind, I'm like, okay, y'all in the studio, Kendrick's in the studio. You think Kendrick's like, yo, post this? I'm juicing him up. I'm juicing up punch.
The Breakfast Club: Previously, you had also said with this album, you didn't originally have a release date. It was just like, whenever it's ready, whenever I'm ready to put it out, that's when I'm going to do it. When did you decide finally, okay, we got to do this?
Kendrick Lamar: Man, when I'm drained, drained of concepts and what I want to talk about, when I get to a point where I ain't got no more to talk about, it's done.
The Breakfast Club: You can't get hard no more. You're drained.
Kendrick Lamar: Pause.
The Breakfast Club: Shooting air.
Kendrick Lamar: Right. Real talk. Yeah. And that's how I come about and top press the button.
The Breakfast Club: Did you have those discussions, like, okay, so we got to figure out what song is going to be for a single, what's going to be for radio, do we have that? Or did you just not really?
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, definitely. Not that I record, no. We just, what it feel like, you know, what are your sentiments, what I'm trying to convey in that.
The Breakfast Club: Listen, I always go back to having a good team because I don't, I know a lot of artists that's not fortunate to be in their position, you know. Fortunately, I have somebody like Dave Free and Top Dog and Punch to, I'm rolling with it, you know what I'm saying, to get the green light. Do what you do, say what you gotta say, rather than making it just about a number, you feel what I'm saying?
The Breakfast Club: Yeah, Punch was upset he didn't make the album.
The Breakfast Club: He didn't make the album?
The Breakfast Club: No, I'm kidding.
The Breakfast Club: Or rapping.
The Breakfast Club: Is Punch serious about his rap career?
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah.
The Breakfast Club: Punched her for the love.
The Breakfast Club: He said you cut all his verses off.
Kendrick Lamar: He always clowning like that.
The Breakfast Club: Now this is my final question. The Good Kid Magic City album cover, that was your mom's van?
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, yeah.
The Breakfast Club: I think that was like your pops, right? Your pops and your uncles?
Kendrick Lamar: That was my uncles.
The Breakfast Club: Your uncles. So who's the people on the new cover standing in front of White House?
Kendrick Lamar: Oh man, these a few of the homies from the neighborhood. That cover has about several meanings. So the one general I can speak on is it's really taking, you know, people they call negative and people I feel that also have good hearts and taking them around the world. You feel what I'm saying?
The Breakfast Club: Because they look like they never have been out of LA.
Kendrick Lamar: They've never been out of LA. Yeah. No, you're right about that. You know, and that's a concept within itself, but it's also several more. It gets a little bit deeper.
The Breakfast Club: Are we going to have a movie for this album too?
Kendrick Lamar: Man.
The Breakfast Club: What's going on with the movie?
Kendrick Lamar: Hey, what a budget.
The Breakfast Club: We appreciate you joining us as always. It's fun watching you grow, man.
Kendrick Lamar: I'm telling you, man.
The Breakfast Club: I'll never forget the first time I met you in that bowling alley.
Kendrick Lamar: Shut up.
The Breakfast Club: I'm like, I thought he worked there.
Kendrick Lamar: You said I was a janitor.
The Breakfast Club: You said I was a janitor.
Kendrick Lamar: I thought you was a janitor.
The Breakfast Club: And Kendrick really don't socialize now. You know, when they say money don't change you, it just multiplies whatever you are, you're going to buy some place to hide.
The Breakfast Club: Ladies and gentlemen, Kendrick Lamar, it's The Breakfast Club. Good morning. Believe it.
The Breakfast Club: The Breakfast Club, every weekday morning. Tune in.
Event Date: April 3, 2015
