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Kendrick Lamar Covers ‘Billboard,’ Talks New Album

blame it on Meka February 4, 2016
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With the GRAMMY Awards around the corner, Kendrick Lamar will be the focal point of the magazine’s Volume 128, Issue 4. In the rather lengthy interview, written by scribe Jody Rosen, the piece covers how his style of music – rooted in the Internet – has become the cultural norm in the mainstream world, his hops for the awards ceremony on February 15th, and a bit of insight into his next project…

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Some choice quotes:

On new music:

“I’m getting together with them [Thundercat, Martin, Sounwave, Flying Lotus and others] all the time – but it’s not for my sessions,” he says. “I might just go in and sit and just vibe.” But does Lamar know where he’s headed on his next album? “As far as content, what I want to get across, I have an idea,” he says. “But even that’s still premature. Once I get back in that studio, things evolve into other things.”

On the GRAMMYs:

Lamar is an amiable guy with a quick smile, but he’s at his most effusive onstage and in the recording booth. Out of the spotlight, in the company of strangers, he can be diffident; glad-handing isn’t his thing. But surreal times call for extreme measures, which is why Lamar devoted several weeks on either side of the new year to an industry charm offensive. He taped a concert for the venerable PBS live-music broadcast Austin City Limits and made the rounds to NPR, The New York Times and other press outlets. In short, Lamar has undertaken an old-fashioned Grammy lobbying campaign. He makes no bones about his desire to run the table at the awards. “I want to win them all,” he says.

Read the entire article here, and check the behind-the-scenes of the photo shoot below.