Transcript: Kendrick Lamar 2010 hardknocktv Interview
Kendrick Lamar: Check, check, mic check, one, two, one, two, one, two. Yo, what's poppin'? It's Kendrick motherfuckin' Lamar, Compton, California, Top Dog Entertainment, Hot Power Crew, you know what I mean? Shoutin' out, Hard Knock TV, what's up with it?
Interviewer: Could you address the name change? Like, what was your mind state when the change came about?
Kendrick Lamar: K-Dot, I first started rhyming when I was 13. And when I said, I want to sit down and I want to perfect my craft, I really went after studying all the greats. Biggie, Tupac, Jay-Z, Nas. You know what I mean? Just to better my lyrical skills because I felt that was the best, you know what I mean, in my time period. All over the world. I'm sure everybody else felt like it. So... It was just me basically developing myself.
I mean, when people heard K-Dot, they was like, yo, the kid is dope. He can rap, but who is he? You know what I mean? That went on for years. He's just another cat in the streets that can rap good, right? So I was like, you know what? I want people to know who I am as a person and what I represent.
So I woke up one morning, I said, the best way to start it off is giving me my name change, my real name. Some of my mother been calling me for years. And this is who I am, and I'ma start putting that on records, you know what I mean? And this shit transcended where I'm putting it on records and it represents me and people accept it, you know what I mean, because they can relate. And that was just the mind state. I felt like, what is an artist, you know what I mean, if you don't know who they are? The biggest people you felt like you can relate to their story, like the Tupac, Biggie, you know what I mean, Nas, Jake, you know what I mean? So I just basically wanted to pattern myself after that and step up to the next level and mature, you know?
Interviewer: I think it was one of your freestyles. You talk about being a good kid growing up in the mad city.
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah. Good kid in the mad city. That's something that I represent. That's something I represent for the whole city of Compton. I feel that we are good kids in the mad city. You know what I mean? It's just the circumstance that's around us. Turns us into the evils that the world, I mean, puts upon the adolescents that's growing up in the city, whether it's gang violence, of course, whether it's police brutality, whether it's drugs, whether it's women. You know what I mean? It all stems from being a kid, and it's just the shit you're exposed to. You know what I mean?
I was exposed to it, too. But I was fortunate enough to have an act of pops in my life. You know what I mean? To show me the stepping stones and show me what's right and wrong. You know what I mean? Most of the friends I grew up with didn't have no pops. You know what I mean? If they did, they weren't active, you know? So I was real fortunate. I mean, he went through all that shit before. And out of respect—
Interviewer: You feel that because you're from Compton people try to put you in a box?
Kendrick Lamar: I mean, it's dope that we started the Gangsta Rap, but I feel that it's way more versatility out here than what people have heard over the years, you know what I mean? I don't want people to put me in a box that's just Gangsta Rap, it's just the hardcore, boom, boom. I got that in me, you know what I mean? Of course, I'm from the city, born and raised. It's what I've been around, you know what I mean? What I've been hearing for years, but it's the next level I think we can go to and people can start seeing. I think I can do that, you know?
Interviewer: One of my favorite tracks is HOC.
Kendrick Lamar: I've actually never smoked weed before in my life. I smoked weed a few times, but I never really got the high that everybody always talked about. I always thought something was wrong with me. You know what I mean? Like, I'm tripping. Like, fuck. Why am I not high? You know what I mean? But it was just something that didn't really stimulate—
Interviewer: I know I get a lot from people who do smoke. You also have that line about taking you to the next level. Oh, man, you're a dope editor, but if you smoke weed, you be on that other level. Do you feel like it keeps you back from reaching some kind of level? Do people tell you that?
Kendrick Lamar: The homies tell me that all day. You know what I mean? We be in friend zone. Shout out to HiiiPower. Them niggas literally try to put blunts in my mouth and shit. Like, yo, you smoke this, you'll probably be thinking like a motherfucking alien on steroids. You're already crazy with it now, but... I don't know. I don't think it would. I think it's a mind thing. You know what I mean? I probably hit that motherfucker and probably do think I'm on some other wild crazy shit. Who knows? But I don't know.
Interviewer: I'm looking forward to working with this new kid out of Compton, Kendrick Lamar. You know, I've seen him on YouTube and I'm excited about meeting him. Last week, you were in the studio with A Good Doctor. Yes, sir. Tell us a little bit about that. What was it like the first time you heard he wanted to work with you?
Kendrick Lamar: Oh, man. It was a shock. You know what I mean? People... He said it over the radio, right? I was in this very studio, but my phone was on silent. It's crazy because I'm frustrated like a motherfucker. I couldn't get this last bar off. You know what I mean? So I walk out, see my phone. See, I got 30 missed calls early in the morning, radio show, Power 106, 7 in the morning. And text message saying, Drayden shouted you out. I'm like, whoa. Next call I picked up, heard that Drayden, good doctor, said my name on the motherfucking air, man. I was like... This shit is real.
You know what I'm saying? Because me coming up in Compton, you know what I mean? That was like a motherfucking god. You dig what I'm saying? I remember plenty of times my pops, my uncles just riding down. I'm riding with them down Rosecrans and they just bumping this dude. And that's all that's implanted in my head. You know what I mean? And not only that, seeing them at Compton swap meet with Pac and a Bentley shooting Cali Love. You know what I mean? I'm thinking about all this shit just running in my head.
So when they told me that, man, it was a fucking honor then. Locked in the studio the next week, that shit just blew me away, man, to just see him actually producing my vocals behind that board and I'm on that mic, you know what I mean? A lot of shit was running through my head, but I had to stay focused at the same time, man. It was a memorable moment.
Interviewer: It feels like Dre works best when he has young talent around him. You think about from Snoop to Em to Game. I think young talent always brings out the best of him. You're working with him. How does that translate into Detox?
Kendrick Lamar: It's crazy because we asked him, we was in the studio with him yesterday, me and my dude Punch. Punch asked him, who are the features you're going to have on the album on Detox? And Dre never want to tell you everything. I mean, you might be... In the motherfucking same circle with him, but the shit that's going on in his mind, he really wanted to keep it, you know what I mean, at a standstill to the end.
But he basically said he don't really like working with the people that's hot at the moment. He like to work with his usual suspects that he's been working with and new artists. He loves to enjoy seeing new artists get on and finding new talent and branching them out, taking them to the next level. And that was tripped out to me. You know what I mean, all I can do is think about—
Interviewer: What does Dre say when you come to the studio? Do you?
Kendrick Lamar: I'm going to the first session with him. I said, what direction you hear me to go as far as the flow, as far as the lyrics? He said, just go. Do what you do. He walked out the studio and just let me write and record. Come back in. When I come back in, after I laid it all the way down, that's when he said, yo, switch this up. Say it like this. Switch to say it like this. Next thing I know, I'm sounding like... Me times 10, like I never thought I'd sound, you know what I mean?
And all I can think about is the stories they used to say when he was working with Snoop. Snoop's whole style came from Dre, you know what I mean? Hearing the melodies and telling him to switch it up and say it with his type of swing or his slur, you know what I mean? So it's crazy, man, to hear him be behind them boards and coaching me like that. That's real producing. It's not just making a beat, you know?
Interviewer: How does that work? Does he have one beat and he's like, this is the beat you're getting on? Or does he play you a couple beats and you actually get to pick what hop's on? Or does he already have a song concept? And he's like, all right, this is the concept, this is the song.
Kendrick Lamar: Sometimes he already has something that he immediately hears me on, that he'll know that my flow and my cadence complement the track. Or sometimes he'll just let me go in the studio. He got about 400 beats, you know what I mean? Just pick through and see what I catch the vibe on. He all about the feeling, you know what I mean? He don't never want to rush, I mean, never want to sit with it too long about creating, unless it's one of them ones, that's for sure, for sure. So he give me creative space, man, where I can do what I do. Then he come in and just tweak it and take me to the next level with it, man. It's crazy.
Interviewer: Can you give us any insight as to what tracks you recorded for him or even like concepts or anything? Can you give us anything?
Kendrick Lamar: City based. I guess that's all I can give you. Dre is real secretive about that music, man. He want people to hear it at one time, you know what I mean? But I say city based.
Interviewer: Is he trying to find you the aftermath, or what's the label situation like?
Kendrick Lamar: It's definitely in talks. It's in the works. I mean, he sat down with me and said he'd love to work with me, you know what I mean, hands-on, you know what I mean, aftermath. So it's definitely in the works. We'll just go see how I pan out at the end of the year. But that's the ideal look, you know what I mean, to be with Dre. I'm from Compton. He's from Compton. He's a legend, you know what I mean, and just passing that torch down to his young homie, you know. So...
Interviewer: There's definitely been a lot of artists that have come through Aftermath, but haven't come out. I mean, the ones that come out, come out with, you know, flattened records, but there's also a lot of people that, talented artists, that have come through, but for some reason, one or the other, things don't work out. Do you ever think about that, or is that not even in your thought process?
Kendrick Lamar: A lot of people around me try to tell me that, but I don't try to— When I think about that type of stigma, I just try to focus on making the best music and what I can do and how we can come together, me and Drake can come together and take it to the next level and seeing the steps that the other artists made or didn't make, you know what I mean, to be in a position that they're in or why it didn't transcend to the next level, you know what I mean? So I just try to think about the shit that I'm focusing on, my type of music, you know what I mean?
Interviewer: We walked in, there was a J. Cole track playing. There's definitely been at least one picture I know that's been floating around the internet and everybody's like, J. Cole, Kendrick, that'd be crazy. What's going on with that? What's the latest with you and J. Cole?
Kendrick Lamar: Shit, we just got up and locked in the studio for a day and came out with a few bangers and it was so motherfucking crazy. We felt like... We should continue making these motherfucking records and see what they turn into at the end of the day, you know what I mean? Who knows? I mean, it might be a full project, it might be just some good-ass songs thrown out, but, nevertheless, it's good music.
Interviewer: I got you. This is a track that J. Cole produced, or is it a different track?
Kendrick Lamar: It's one he produced. There's some shit me and J. Cole working on right here.
Interviewer: Got it. Do you have any idea when you think you might leak that?
Kendrick Lamar: Probably like the next couple weeks.
Interviewer: Do you have a title for that song?
Kendrick Lamar: Not yet. I'm leaning towards a few titles depending on how this third verse come out with the concept I had going for it. Depending on if the third verse come out crazy like I hear it in my head then I'm going to lean. I'll probably leak the title before I throw the music out.
Interviewer: Uh, can you leak us a concept?
Kendrick Lamar: Nah, I want my shit to be a motherfuckin' bang when motherfuckers get it, you know what I mean? But it's a dope concept. It's crazy. J. Cole did his shit on that motherfucker too.
Interviewer: J. Cole is definitely one of the most buzzed artists last year and he's had a hard time putting out his album. You have to deal with the label and find that radio single and you know all that stuff. You run into complications. Have you talked to him about that at all or have you guys talked about the process of putting out albums?
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah sometimes but we don't like to really get into the political side of it because if you think too much on that end of the business, you're going to fuck your whole creative process up. I mean, because I know myself, I was at one point where I was just searching for a motherfucking single because that's what the industry confines you to when you're hearing these songs on the radio. You figure like, shit, you can't drop an album without it.
But once you get trapped in that world, it'll fuck your whole... You hold mental up on recording, you know what I mean, because you're searching, steady searching. And when you're searching, you're basically patterning yourself after what's ever on the radio. So it's not your unique sound. You're just going for somebody else's shit. And if it don't work at the end of the day, you fuck twice because you're doing something that wasn't true to you. So we never really try to go on that type of level as far as the business side. We just focus on the music, really.
Interviewer: Don't like sell freshman cover 2011. Everybody's buzzing. Everybody wants to know who's going to be on it. If I had to take my guess, I'd say you're probably going to be on there. If you were to pick the freshman 2011, who would be on there?
Kendrick Lamar: Who would be on there? I like Diggy Simmons. I like Vito. Dom Kennedy. Saha Prince. Big Krik, Yellow Wolf. How many is that, seven? Yellow Wolf. I'm missing a few people. Did I say Vidal? Mac Miller. Mac Miller. There's eight. Need two more. Myself, of course. And somebody else. Damn. Shit, that's all I can think of right now. Nine, that's some dope shit. Schoolboy Q. Schoolboy Q, yup. That's ten.
Interviewer: That's what's up. We're at the end of the year. Everybody's talking about top albums of the year. What would you put up there?
Kendrick Lamar: Top albums of the year, Rick Ross, Kid Cudi. Top albums of the year. That's what I'm bumping right now. Rick Ross and Kid Cudi. I'm really loving their albums. I don't know, I just get this energy when I listen to it. It's an energy where his sound and the city of Compton, it kind of clash, it kind of meshes together for some reason because it's like a rebel sound.
And that's some shit that people don't understand, I mean, being where I'm from. It's like some rebel shit. Well, we go do what we want to do, and you're going to have to respect it, you know what I mean, because it's us. And that's the type of expression I think Cudi is putting out to the world, you know what I mean? And I really fuck with it because it's him, and he ain't trying to compromise for nobody, you know what I mean?
Interviewer: Have you ever met Cudi?
Kendrick Lamar: No.
Interviewer: You and Cudi on the track would be kind of crazy.
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah.
Interviewer: Do you think that there's anything the fans don't know about you?
Kendrick Lamar: The fans don't know about me? I don't think they really understand the story all the way. How more in depth the story really is of my life of growing up in the city. You know what I mean? As far as they know, as far as I put out there, I'm just the good kid. In the mad city. You know what I mean? I put out the positive out there, but they don't know the negatives I had to go through yet. You know what I'm saying? I've been in that city. I'm still in it. You know what I mean? 23 years.
I told them I went to school and I got straight A's. You know what I mean? Elementary, middle school, and high school. You know what I mean? I told them I ate cereal and watched cartoons in the morning. But I didn't tell them that I was out there in the streets with the homies. You know what I mean? peer pressure like every other kid I mean not really peer pressure but these the whole niggas you fuck with I mean you growing up with them you're going to hang with them and you're going to get into shit at the end of the day they don't know that side yet and that's another another element that I put in my next project where I really go in depth of how to survive being a young black male trying to survive and escape the the influences of growing up in Compton which I feel nobody's never really talked about they just said what we did and that was it no reasons why you're nothing you know what I mean so—
Interviewer: Just the death part. I saw that on one of your mixtapes. You said you make human music. Human music. What does that mean?
Kendrick Lamar: Shit where you wake up in the morning, you got something on your mind, and you go in the studio and lay that shit down. Shit that everybody can relate to. I mean, no matter if I got a fucking million dollars, I'm still going to talk about some shit like I'm broke. You know what I mean? Because I'll remember being back in that state of mind. And that's why I feel music need to go back to, you know what I mean? Shit's been so restricted because motherfuckers always talking about ice and glamour and shit all the time. I mean, that's cool. I like to talk about that shit too. And hopefully one day I have some, you know what I mean? But at the end of the day, everybody's not rich.
Everybody can't ball out like that. Nobody want to hear that shit all the time. You got motherfuckers out here that's struggling on welfare every motherfucking month trying to make ends meet. Section 8. You know what I mean? That's how we grew up anyway. And that's the shit I want to talk about. You know what I mean? I want to have fun. Sometimes you got to have balance. You can't just be fucking down all day. But that's human music. You know what I mean? Whether it's love, hate, pain, death, life, all that shit. I'm mixing all that shit in when I come in the studio.
Interviewer: Do you feel like there's a lot of human music out there right now?
Kendrick Lamar: It's starting to swindle back when you think about artists such as Kid Cudi, J. Cole. I like Wale. I like the shit he be putting down. Even Currency and Wiz Khalifa. They have fun. I think that's... That's human music as well, because they're not so braggadocious. They just like, shit, we like to fucking party and smoke weed all day. That's our life. That's our lifestyle, and motherfuckers can relate to that, especially the college kids. That's life to them, you know?
Interviewer: Crazy. It's like the Kendrick Lamar EP, OD on steroids to the next level.
Kendrick Lamar: I think this next one—I don't know if I, well I'm working on an album but I'm also working on another tape but these next two is gonna really certify, let motherfuckers know who Kendrick Lamar really is and get a complete feel, you know what I mean? I got so much fucking material, man. I think it'll probably be my first official album, but I got so much material where I can make it a tape and I still have the joints ready for my album and you would still get the same just do, you know what I mean?
Interviewer: How do you see that album or that tape being different from the EP and the OD?
Kendrick Lamar: Just more of me. I got a lot of shit to talk about. That's what a lot of people don't understand. I can't stop talking about the shit that you heard already, you know what I mean, on the next level. I hold some of the shit back that I want to talk about to, you know what I mean, space everything out, you know what I mean? So it's just me times three, times four, another album, times five, times six. I'm just keep putting that shit out.
Interviewer: Describe what Compton's like now. You mentioned earlier it's kind of like a little bit of a rebel mentality. Is it... Give us a... A picture of what Compton is now if you were a youth or a teenager or a young adult growing up and how it maybe differs from that generation and that time.
Kendrick Lamar: I would say Compton now is, as far as the gang culture, is way, way more, more of a, of a, how can I say this? I want to say trend. I would say something that's in you to do to be a part of a gang. Super heavy. I mean, I think it's worse because back then you be in a mind state of a 16 year old and you get into the mentality of being from your hood or your block, right? 16. But now I got little cousins that's nine years old that's ragging or flagging. You dig what I'm saying? Where—
It's really fucking it up even more because ain't nobody schooling the youth no more. You know what I mean? Because all the cousins, all the older cousins, they locked up now. Of course the Pops is gone, but now the Cousins is gone, you know what I mean, at a young tender age. So it's really getting to a real, real sad point, you know what I mean? But we still have our fun moments where we have our youth centers and all that, which is some positive shit to help the city, but it needs to be more, you know?
And that's the type of shit that people don't understand. This is bigger than music for me. You know what I mean? I done seen the city. I done had uncles pass and cousins pass in the city, you know what I mean? I'm trying to take it to the next level where motherfuckers can at least embrace each other and not sweat over the motherfucking colors, because at the end of the day, we just fucking up ourselves anyway. You know what I mean? It's too much motherfucking pain. I done went through too much motherfucking pain losing people to even keep glorifying that shit, you know what I mean? I mean, that element is always in me, but at the end of the day, we all know it ain't right.
Interviewer: Do you think that with the music that you make and some other artists that it's a lot easier to kind of open up and express yourself in terms of like talking about the pain or like talking about things that back in the day it was all about glorifying certain things or having that mentality of like, you know, like you're invincible.
Kendrick Lamar: Right.
Interviewer: It seems nowadays younger artists kind of feel more able to talk about some real shit that everyone experiences and like the actual feelings, which is kind of like a, you know, in hip hop for so long that wasn't, it was kind of like faux pas.
Kendrick Lamar: Right.
Interviewer: So do you think that's a little bit more of a lane that artists have nowadays an option when it comes to their music and creating their music?
Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, it is. It is an option, but we all got to go back to when Tupac was doing it, you know what I mean? That's who really started this shit, and we lost that shit. When he passed, everything got jiggy. That's when I started writing because DMX, first album, when he came out, because there was a void that was missing. I need to hear some real shit that motherfuckers that I can relate to, that we've been around our whole lives, you know what I mean? I think it just got back to that element of the game where people want to hear the real stuff they can relate to, you know what I mean? So it's definitely a must. I wouldn't mind hearing not everybody can do it, but the few that can keep pushing that shit out, you know what I mean? So it's love.
Interviewer: Any last topics or any last things that you want to talk about or anything that we missed?
Kendrick Lamar: Y'all covered basically everything. Go get that motherfucking Kendrick Lamar OD. It's on iTunes right now. It peaked at number five on iTunes. So much respect to y'all for supporting good music. Man, the Kendrick Lamar EP, that motherfucker's still out for free. Go get that. If you want to catch up, you might be late. Go hop back on the good music, man. I got that motherfucker out, and it's free. Kendrick Lamar EP, Kendrick Lamar OD. Purchased that for $5.99. I mean, it's good fucking music. Go cop that bitch.
Shout out to everybody just supporting the whole movement, you know what I mean? Top Dog Entertainment, HiiiPower, the crew. All the people, man, just good music. J. Cole, Wale, Kid Cudi, Ross, everybody that's supporting real music. I mean, I'm all for it. The whole L.A. circuit that's finna crash through the motherfucking market. Dom Kennedy, Lady G, Bad Luck, Problem, Mike Stroh, Black Hippie. You know what I mean? That's my crew. Schoolboy, Q-App, Soul, J-Rock, we out here. Much respect.
Event Date: December 23, 2010
