Strip away the Givenchy shirts, the Dr. Dre affiliations, and the standout album good kid m.A.A.d city, and you have the undeniable truth: Kendrick Lamar is as talented as they come.
While you’ll never hear much about the teeter-totter rapper popping bottles in the club, one part of the Black Hippie Crew has managed to reawaken lyrical hip-hop in the age of catchy hooks and Auto-Tune.
Kdot’s talent and admirable style is being celebrated with a new feature in BULLET Magazine.
The rapper, whose panache exudes simple, yet pricey, was outfitted in only the greatest with names like Balenciaga, Alexander Wang, Lynn Ban earrings and most notably, that killer vintage Versace boxing belt for the win.
Fashion aside, Kendrick served up some gems in the interview, wherein he talks about the rap game and how he escaped his hometown Compton’s gangs. Naturally, he also paid some homage to Jay-Z.
Kendrick is our number one with a BULLETT for sure.
Check out some excerpts from the interview below.
On the moment he realized he was actually a rapper:
“Dre’s there. Snoop is in the room. Beautiful women are in the room. Homeboys are in the room, and everyone’s just mingling, man. It’s one of those moments when you’re like, I’m really a rapper now. Shit like that trips you out. Even just walking onto your tour bus and seeing a full-blown studio in there, you’re like, Damn, I’m really doing this shit.”
On Jay-Z’s work:
“I salute people like Jay-Z,” he says. “How many tours has he been on? How many verses has he put down? How many interviews? How many radio shows? People forget that. They can’t fathom how a dude from the Marcy Projects is sitting next to Barack Obama, so they make up all types of crazy shit and forget the facts: This nigga dedicated every single day of his life to this, and what he has wasn’t just given to him. It’s no mistake he’s at where he’s at.”
On what influences his flow:
When a kid starts to rap, he’s basically mimicking his favorite rapper,” Lamar says. “I thought Jay was tight, I thought Pac was tight, also Em and Snoop. Who wouldn’t want to pen their raps after Jay-Z? But as you gain more of a passion for the music, it eventually manifests into your own unique voice.”
On escaping Compton’s gang life:
“You’re always around it. It’s easy to get swallowed by it, because it grabs your attention at such a young age—just the thrill of it. Even cats in the studio were affiliated, so even if I wanted to, I couldn’t turn my back to it. More than anything, it became a question of, What am I going to dedicate myself to? The escape was mental. It’s not necessarily about going to New York or Atlanta. It’s saying, You won’t trap me. I can do something positive with myself.”
Bonus points to Kendrick for this on the spot freestyle:
