The gospel according to Kendrick.
It’s been a busy year for Kendrick Lamar. With DAMN still in rotation, the Compton kid managed to release a shoe with Nike, take home a few GRAMMYs, went on tour with his TDE crew, masterminded the Black Panther soundtrack, and appeared on a few choice songs. Oh, and did I mention he won a Pulitzer Prize?!
The man is making moves. And today, he’s graced the cover of Vanity Fair—using the cover story to discuss the Pulitzer, his writing process, his thoughts on Kanye, respect for Eminem, coming out of Compton, and plenty more.
A few quotes are available below, but the entire piece is really worth the read.
On winning the Pulitzer Prize…
“It was one of those things I heard about in school,” he says, “but I never thought I’d be a part of it. [When I heard I got it], I thought, to be recognized in an academic world… whoa, this thing really can take me above and beyond. It’s one of those things that should have happened with hip-hop a long time ago. It took a long time for people to embrace us—people outside of our community, our culture—to see this not just as vocal lyrics, but to see that this is really pain, this is really hurt, this is really true stories of our lives on wax. And now, for it to get the recognition that it deserves as a true art form, that’s not only great for myself, but it makes me feel good about hip-hop in general. Writers like Tupac, Jay Z, Rakim, Eminem, Q-Tip, Big Daddy Kane, Snoop . . . It lets me know that people are actually listening further than I expected. When I looked up at that man on the podium today, I just had countless pictures in my mind of my mother putting me in suits to go to school. Suit and tie, from the dollar store, from thrift shops, when I was a kid.”
On his writing process…
“ ‘Execution’ is my favorite word,” he says. “I spend 80 percent of my time thinking about how I’m going to execute, and that might be a whole year of constantly jotting down ideas, figuring out how I’m going to convey these words to a person to connect to it. What is this word that means this, how did it get here and why did it go there and how can I bring it back there? Then, the lyrics are easy.”
On Colin Kaepernick and the NFL…
We talk about the NFL and the national-anthem protests. He says he was a football fan, but now “I’m less enthused. It’s enraging; I think what Kaep [Colin Kaepernick] is doing is honest, and it’s not just his truth, it’s our truth.”
On Kanye West…
I ask him how he feels about Kanye West’s statements about Trump and about slavery and, after a long pause, he says, “He has his own perspective, and he’s on this whole agree to disagree thing, and I would have this conversation with him personally if I want to.”
On Eminem…
I ask him how he delivers so many syllables and words in one line, with no wasted words and juxtapositions like “Halle Berry/Hallelujah” or a play on words like “Demo-crips and Re-blood-licans” or “I got power/poison/pain and joy inside my DNA.” “It comes from my love of hip-hop. Eminem is probably one of the best wordsmiths ever,” Kendrick says. “There’s a whole list of why, but just bending words. . . . The Marshall Mathers LP changed my life.”
On his Compton roots…
Through his music, he’s taken on the role of spokesman for a neighborhood that goes way beyond Compton. I ask him, Why you? “I put that responsibility on myself. I knew from jump that I thought a little bit different, people respected me, and if I let myself down, I’d be letting my guys down. Fast-forward to 2018, I’m in a position where these guys have 10, 15, 20 years in prison, but I can go in there—and I do—and tell them that when they get out, you have a job. And my word stands.”
