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Kendrick Lamar Covers Rolling Stone As ‘The Greatest Rapper Alive’

blame it on Meka August 9, 2017

Rolling Stone definitely went there with their latest issue.

With Kendrick Lamar on the cover for their 1294th issue, the magazine crowns him “The Greatest Rapper Alive,” a play on the term Lil Wayne introduced in 2004.

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“And Lamar landed there without compromise,” the issue starts, “after releasing three classic albums in a row.” Naming him “the best rapper of his generation,” Brian Hiatt sat down with Kung Fu Kenny for the issue’s lead story.

Some choice quotes:

You’ve said you were one of the only ones among your friends with a dad around – and at the end of the new album you suggest that may have saved your life. How so?

It taught me how to deal with [pauses] … emotions. Better than a lot of my peers. When you see kids doing things that the world calls harmful or a threat, it’s because they don’t know how to deal with their emotions. When you have a father in your life, you do something, he’ll look at you and say, “What the fuck is you doing?” Putting you in your place. Making you feel this small. That was a privilege for me. My peers, their mothers and grandmothers may have taught them the love and the care, but they couldn’t teach them that.

Other than a few lyrics, you’ve been quiet about Donald Trump. Why?

I mean, it’s like beating a dead horse. We already know what it is. Are we gonna keep talking about it or are we gonna take action? You just get to a point where you’re tired of talking about it. It weighs you down and it drains your energy when you’re speaking about something or someone that’s completely ridiculous. So, on and off the album, I took it upon myself to take action in my own community. On the record, I made an action to not speak about what’s going on in the world or the places they put us in. Speak on self; reflection of self first. That’s where the initial change will start from.

On “ELEMENT.” you make that funny distinction between “black artists and wack artists.” What, to you, defines a wack artist?

I love that question. How would I define a wack artist? A wack artist uses other people’s music for their approval. We’re talking about someone that is scared to make their own voice, chases somebody else’s success and their thing, but runs away from their own thing. That’s what keeps the game watered-down. Everybody’s not going to be able to be a Kendrick Lamar. I’m not telling you to rap like me. Be you. Simple as that. I watch a lot of good artists go down like that because you’re so focused on what numbers this guy has done, and it dampers your own creativity. Which ultimately dampers the listener, because at the end of the day, it’s not for us. It’s for the person driving to their 9-to-5 that don’t feel like they wanna go to work that morning.

Is it ever OK for a rapper to have a ghostwriter? You’ve obviously written verses for Dr. Dre yourself.

It depends on what arena you’re putting yourself in. I called myself the best rapper. I cannot call myself the best rapper if I have a ghostwriter. If you’re saying you’re a different type of artist and you don’t really care about the art form of being the best rapper, then so be it. Make great music. But the title, it won’t be there.

The entire sit-down can be read here.

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