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- [00:00]
Torre
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- [00:18]
State Farm Representative
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- [00:52]
Kendrick Lamar
But I'm so passionate about it, I can sometimes cut the whole world off to write a a a a verse that is perfect to me or damn near perfect.
- [01:03]
Torre
He's one of the greatest MCs of all time, certainly the greatest of his era. And he acquired his immense skill precisely because he was and is obsessed with hip hop. He worked and practiced and grinded and wrote and put in the sweat equity to become an unbelievable talent. He didn't pop out the womb, Ryman. He constructed his talent through years of work and his obsession with hip hop and with getting better as an emcee. And that is why we're all obsessed with his music now. Kendrick Lamar on Torre Show.
- [01:47]
Interviewer
I want.
- [01:48]
Torre
This to be a place where I talk to successful people to find out what makes them successful. I want to kind of look into your mind and see what your key tactics are and hear what your best attitudes are and understand your perspective on what you've mastered. I was so excited to be able to interview Kendrick and we cover a lot of ground in this conversation. What was it like being with Obama in the Oval Office? How do you practice emceeing? What are his favorite words? What's his best verse ever? What's his greatest record ever?
- [02:18]
Kendrick Lamar
All right. I say that's one of my greatest wrecks because it gave these kids an actual voice and an actual practice to go out here and make a difference.
- [02:28]
Torre
He talks about how we actually get to being all right, politically speaking and the impact of seeing dead bodies when you're a kid and the impact of the increasing racism in Trump's America.
- [02:41]
Kendrick Lamar
You know, it's something that me and you already knew that was there, but now it's televised, you know, on, you know, major, major platforms. And it just built another fire in me.
- [02:53]
Torre
This interview was conducted backstage at the Barclays center in Brooklyn hours before a hot Kendrick show. It was originally done for the COVID Of ID magazine. But I had to get you guys the whole interview. I had to hook you up. It's that good. I'm proud to present Kendrick Lamar on torre show.
- [03:21]
Interviewer
You know, if I was talking to Steph Curry, I could be like, you know, so you're the best.
- [03:26]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah.
- [03:26]
Interviewer
And how did you get there? You know, you did your shots, you did your running, your nutrition, whatever. What is it for you? Like, what are the. What are the elements that lead to someone becoming the best rapper of their era?
- [03:40]
Kendrick Lamar
I think first you guys just genuinely have like an obsessive love for music.
- [03:47]
Interviewer
Yeah.
- [03:47]
Kendrick Lamar
Period. And that started at a young age for me, four years old. Just always been in the house party environment and I just, you know, just had a love for music. Hip hop from oldies. And that transferred over to me actually writing music. And now I'm listening to people that, you know. You know, actually inspired me. Jay Z, Nas, Biggie, Snoop. And now I have an obsessive passion for writing, you know, so along with being a student of the game, I have an obsessive passion for practicing. And all that has to come together is one. You just have to be obsessed with what you want to do. Same with that.
- [04:29]
Interviewer
How do you practice?
- [04:30]
Kendrick Lamar
Practice being in that studio writing terrible verses, writing terrible hooks. If your homeboys and your friends and people that you trust telling you that's garbage and, you know, growing thick skin, you know, getting back in there and doing it all over again, that's practice, felon.
- [04:48]
Interviewer
So, yeah, I mean, if you write, everything you write is not dope.
- [04:52]
Kendrick Lamar
Oh, yeah.
- [04:53]
Interviewer
I mean, even if you're a great writer, a bunch of the stuff you write is whack.
- [04:56]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah.
- [04:57]
Interviewer
But most people don't have somebody around and be like, yes.
- [05:00]
Kendrick Lamar
And then you eventually grow an ability to know when something is too far fetching. You. You don't have to have someone else listen to it to tell you if it's good or not. You already know that's not good. I can challenge myself to take that to the next level.
- [05:19]
Interviewer
Yeah. Is there anything, I mean, like with Steph or whoever, you would break down the parts of your shot? Okay, today we're gonna practice follow through, practice picking up off the dribble.
- [05:31]
Kendrick Lamar
Right.
- [05:32]
Interviewer
Just. So how do you break what you do down into smaller pieces?
- [05:36]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah, yeah, I did a lot of that in the early stages of me being in the studio and just even learning the equipment, pro tools, and how the mic worked and how to use my voice to inflict certain type of emotions. This all became a time when 16 all the way to 23, me going in the studio and say, okay, today I want to see how this sound. When I do a verse that actually feels like aggression. Okay, today I want to see how this hook feel. I want to see what this bridge feel like. You know, all these was like baby steps for me. And like you said, eventually, you know, some were trash and some got great, but it became a process of me just trying different things and experimenting.
- [06:22]
Interviewer
You like the sound of your voice on wax?
- [06:24]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah.
- [06:25]
Interviewer
Really?
- [06:25]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah.
- [06:26]
Interviewer
Most MCs say no.
- [06:27]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah, yeah. You know, that's the thing that actually drove me to recording a lot. When I heard my voice play back, it definitely didn't sound like how I thought I sounded, that's for sure. But it was just like magic to me. Like, damn, this device just captured what I just said, how I felt when I said it. And I was addicted to it. I wanted to keep doing it.
- [06:50]
Interviewer
But let's talk about alright for a minute, right? Cause how do we get to alright.
- [06:55]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah.
- [06:56]
Interviewer
You know what I mean? Like, we need more political power, we need more justice.
- [07:00]
Torre
How do we get.
- [07:01]
Interviewer
How do we as a side get to that?
- [07:03]
Kendrick Lamar
How do we get to that unifying and knowing what we're capable of? I think a lot of times, you know, it always starts. I always go back to the communities, simple as that. Because I see these kids growing up without a father. So they don't have this confidence, they don't have this moral past, you know, of knowing that they're better than the environment that they're in. So getting to our right is just installing confidence in them, you know, to let them know that I come from where you come from, and you can ultimately make a change not just from what you seeing around you, but from what's here, what's right here in the mind. You changed that whole thing around and that's where the concept comes about.
- [07:42]
Interviewer
Take me back to meeting Obama in the Oval.
- [07:47]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah.
- [07:47]
Interviewer
I mean, that must be incredible.
- [07:50]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah.
- [07:51]
Interviewer
And he's like, I know you, I like you.
- [07:54]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah. Like, that's incredible. Yeah, it's incredible from a standpoint where I just go back to the earliest memories of my grandmother, you know, speaking about the idea of a black man being in office, that's what blows me up. You know, she's passed away when I was 13, 14 years old. Being in there and talking to him and, you know, seeing the type of intelligence that he has and the influence that he have, you know, not only on me, but my community, it just always takes me back to the idea and reflecting on how far, you know, we have came with this idea and how far we can go further.
- [08:37]
Interviewer
You know, how far we can go.
- [08:39]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah. With him even being out, you know, that was just the idea. Him being in office just sparks the idea of that, you know, us as a culture, as a people, we can do anything that we want to do. And we have the smarts and the brains and the intelligence that's been there since day one to do it.
- [08:57]
Interviewer
I mean, your music is clearly coming from. I want to impact people.
- [09:01]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah.
- [09:02]
Interviewer
And a lot of times when we make art meant to impact people, it's. You lose some of the artfulness of the music.
- [09:10]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah.
- [09:10]
Interviewer
Because he's trying to make a message, be it a painting or a song or what have.
- [09:14]
Kendrick Lamar
Right.
- [09:14]
Interviewer
So how do you maintain that balance of. You have a point. I have a message. But we still don't get funky.
- [09:22]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah. Great question. Music plays two ways in my head. It plays as a. Well, hip hop plays two ways. Plays as a sport, a contact sport, and it also plays as something that you can connect to songwriting. This contact sport comes from me growing up and listening to battles like Nas and Jay Z and listening to the aggression of pop. That's the sport for me. I would never be able to shake that ability to have that competitive nature. That's where it can get funky. That's where I can say whatever I want, however I want, whenever I want. Expressing myself and, you know, just having fun. Then the other side, showing the duality of that. Showing something that people can actually relate to, you know, and connect with. And I think both of them plays together very well because it just shows. This is not just a rapper trying to sell you lyrics. This is just me being a human. This is showing all the reflections of who I am. You know, I have that competitive nature, and I also have the compassion, you know, to talk about something that's real.
- [10:39]
Interviewer
Is the music for black people?
- [10:40]
Kendrick Lamar
Is it for black people? Yeah, it's for the world. Music's for the world. What do you mean when you say black people?
- [10:46]
Interviewer
I mean, when I'm doing my thing, I'm like, who is the audience?
- [10:50]
Kendrick Lamar
Oh, okay.
- [10:51]
Interviewer
It's for black people. You know what I mean? If white people want to come along and read my shit, great. But black people, my first audience. Is that how you see your work?
- [11:00]
Kendrick Lamar
When I make Good Kid Mad City, I definitely would say that, yes. Because I was making that just for my community. I was making it for the dudes around the corner. So when I went overseas in London and I Hear these kids that, you know, these white kids that have no idea of the block that I'm talking about, and they singing it, but they can also relate to it in some form of fashion because they have their own personal struggles. Then I seen that the idea of starting this concept for my community, it reached further because people pour their own ideas of what the songs mean to them. But ultimately, that initial standpoint comes from me making songs for my community.
- [11:44]
Interviewer
So, okay, so when you make songs for your community and your art seems to come from. I am rooted in my community even as I get bigger and bigger.
- [11:53]
Kendrick Lamar
Right.
- [11:54]
Interviewer
So when you see all the white fans, are you saying, what are they getting out of it or.
- [12:00]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah, that's what I was saying in the beginning, this 2012, you know, I'm new to traveling and all this stuff. I've never even been out of Compton, let alone the US you know. So I'm looking at them, you know, seeing these lyrics, and I'm saying, yeah, what do you get out of it? What are you feeling? And I just so happen to have. Talk to the fans, you know, after the shows or at meet and greets, and ask them why this inspired you. They look at me, look at the story of Good Kid, Mad City, or any of my songs as a kid trying to escape his environment however he can, and they apply it to themselves. One kid was abusive, drug abuse, and he was trying to escape that. Another kid was being bullied. He was trying to escape this. So they was pulling different things from their own personal lives into the music. And that's when I knew it was relating further than just my story.
- [12:59]
Interviewer
There's lots of different ways that people are oppressed.
- [13:01]
Kendrick Lamar
Exactly.
- [13:01]
Interviewer
And they can come into your music via their own way. Even if they are white, they can still find exactly that road in.
- [13:09]
Kendrick Lamar
Yep.
- [13:11]
Interviewer
Talk about. Can you talk about some of the. Some of the books that you've read recently or years ago that had a big impact?
- [13:21]
Kendrick Lamar
The biggest impact from the jump? It was always. Well, I said this before my teacher Mr. Ange Brun's book. To me, it's Malcolm X book.
- [13:30]
Interviewer
Autobiography.
- [13:31]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah, autobiography. I think initially, this was the first idea that even inspired how I was going to approach my music from the simple back of starting it, from the idea of wanting to better myself, but being, you know, in this mind state of, you know, my reality. The same way Malcolm was, you know, he wasn't always Malcolm X. You know, he had to come from somewhere. He had to come from tribulation and struggle. These were the ideas that Rooted my approach to music because while I'm writing these raps, I'm still in the midst of it. I'm still in the midst of Detroit Red, you know? Yeah, yeah. 16, 17 years old and I'm looking around, but I also knew it was a sense of responsibility that I had in me that eventually would be rooted some way somehow. And that book, you know, always carried throughout my music. Simple as that.
- [14:34]
Interviewer
So now, because there was what, four different Malcolms.
- [14:38]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah.
- [14:38]
Interviewer
Right. So now that you're here, because you said when you were writing you felt the connection to Detroit Red.
- [14:44]
Kendrick Lamar
Right.
- [14:44]
Interviewer
So who do you, which Malcolm do you feel you are closest to now?
- [14:50]
Kendrick Lamar
Both. It had to be both.
- [14:53]
Interviewer
Well, the Red, the X, the El.
- [14:57]
Kendrick Lamar
Hajj had to be ready. Red and X. Red and X. Because it was a coming of age, you know, between them two time periods. And I feel like I'm right in the cuffs of that, you know, I'm 30 years old, you know, this is me finally recognizing my full potential, you know, as someone who not only motivates themselves but, you know, can be a leader for those that's around them who don't have a voice.
- [15:24]
Interviewer
Yeah, yeah, I mean, you're definitely a leader. And people are like needing the music. Like, you know, like if you took a four year break, I think they would lose their minds.
- [15:35]
Kendrick Lamar
Right.
- [15:36]
Interviewer
I mean, it's an opportunity and a heavy responsibility, right?
- [15:40]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah, definitely. It's definitely a responsibility. You know, just a simple fact, you know, I'm still a human being. You know, I'm still a person, I still have family, I still have my own personal problems. But at the end of the day, I gotta figure out how to be as, you know, as much as I would like to be selfish, you know, and take on these personal things, I have to give to the world, you know, I think that's my responsibility, you know, my mistakes, the knowledge that I have, the wisdom that I have, you know, this is, this is, it's not just a job or entertainment for me. This is a lifestyle. This is, you know, what I have to offer to the world because when I'm gone, I can rest peacefully. Know that I contribute to the evolution of this right here. The mind, you know, influencer.
- [16:36]
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- [17:36]
State Farm Representative
It's a word that gets tossed around a lot these days. There is a woman who went the distance who broke ground as the first true influencer by living a remarkable life. Her name, Elizabeth Taylor. I'm Katy Perry. This is the story of the original influencer. This is Elizabeth the first.
- [18:00]
Interviewer
Elizabeth the first.
- [18:02]
State Farm Representative
The podcast, wherever you listen, you remind.
- [18:07]
Interviewer
Me of like Chuck D used to talk about, you know, we want to create, you know, like a thousand gold brains, not the gold chains. And Pac talked about the same thing about I'm going to inspire the mind that will change the world. And maybe he was talking about you and he didn't, he didn't know, he didn't know you then. But he's talking about, but you think about that.
- [18:32]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Man, I sit and I look at these kids, man, I look at where I was at and the ideas that I had and the ideas that I didn't know, you know, and the people I would meet, you know, like yourself or a random person in Belgium or Germany, and the knowledge I would gain, I would never expect that. And all these, you know, different aspects immediately open up what's up here, you know, and not knowing that as a 13 year old kid, 14 year old kid, that amazes me. And that just gives me more fire to sit up there and you know, give my words to these teenagers out here because, you know, they look for it, they want it, you know, they just don't have the person to trust, you know, to give it to them. So installing that trust is first for me.
- [19:27]
Interviewer
I mean, you talk about words as a lyricist, you know, like the language is your keyboard. Right. So what are some of your favorite words?
- [19:36]
Kendrick Lamar
Some of my favorite words? That's a great question. Perspective and why Perspective, that's, that's one of my favorite words recently, these last two years to understand that is to have compassion for the next person. Because your story and the things you say and the things you believe in may not move the next Person, whether for personal reasons, morally, or just simple, you know, from what they've been through, you have to understand their perspective in order to have that compassion. It's simple. And that's the number one favorite word. My other favorite word would be discipline. Discipline. I love that word because it shows who you really are. You know, there's so many vices in the world, especially being in the entertainment business. You know, you're exposed to so much at any given time, so whatever you need, it's right there in your face. But how much discipline you have when the camera's off, you know, when the lights off, that inspires me, you know, how to restrain that, and that shows who you really are.
- [20:55]
Interviewer
And you sound like you have a lot of restraint.
- [20:58]
Kendrick Lamar
I had to gain that.
- [21:00]
Interviewer
You're still working through that.
- [21:01]
Kendrick Lamar
I had to earn that. Yeah. Had to earn that. And that right there is the hardest thing that's known to man for me personally. And I look around and I see, you know, other personalities and characters. It's the hardest thing, that discipline, no matter what it is, you know, to be drinking, it could be eating candy, it could be obesity. You know, to restrain that and to pull back from that and to control yourself, that is ultimate.
- [21:28]
Interviewer
That is the ultimate power to control yourself. Yeah, it's very hard.
- [21:33]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah, it's definitely.
- [21:35]
Interviewer
I mean, it seems like you're on top of it. Like other MCs, you know, are, you know, photograph of them doing something they shouldn't have done here. You know, they got to make a song about, you know, I'm sorry I did this over here, what have you. And it seems like, you know, Kendrick is in his lane. He's in. If you don't see him on stage, he's. He's in the studio, right? And he's not. He's. You're not gonna hear, you know, the reports of he, you know, yeah, did this in a club or that, you know, is that. Is that accurate?
- [22:05]
Kendrick Lamar
Well, that's easy for me. The idea of being a success celebrity, that's easy for me. You know, I know where I come from, where I'm rooted, and just my personality in general, that's ultimately not who I am. You're not going to find me in them type of arenas to even bother that idea. So a more personal level for me, something that a discipline I will have to control is the idea of learning how to balance the time between my family that care about me and love me, and the ultimate chase of spreading this message and spreading these words. I could be in the studio all day and turn the phone off, you know, and completely zone out, because I feel like this is what I was chosen to do, and I can't let anyone get in between that. So learning how to balance that with people that care for me is my struggle, you know, and that's been 100% honest. Because I never get the love that my mother has given me through someone else or even through music. I have to understand that. But I'm so passionate about it. I can sometimes cut the whole world off to write a verse that is perfect to me or damn near perfect to get that word across.
- [23:42]
Interviewer
What's the perfect verse that you wrote?
- [23:44]
Kendrick Lamar
A perfect verse? I wouldn't even say perfect because I'm still chasing that. The day I write a perfect verse is the day that I completely drained all my energy in what I do creatively. It would have to be something recent, so I would do something like on the damn album song called Fear, first, second, and third verse is probably one of the best verses I've written.
- [24:15]
Interviewer
Fear.
- [24:16]
Kendrick Lamar
Fear. Yeah. It's completely honest. It's everything that I fear from the time I was seven years old on the first verse. Second verse, I was 17. And everything I feared when I was 27. Yeah. These verses are completely honest with myself and a growth, you know, in becoming a man. Yeah.
- [24:37]
Interviewer
Let me get you to respond to something that has been lobbed at me in my work. There's a bunch of essays on the net. Black women saying black women don't are absent in Kendrick's music. You know, not saying misogynist like we heard before other MCs, but just. He does not. We don't exist in his stories. What is your response to them saying.
- [25:00]
Kendrick Lamar
That don't exist in the stories? That's a trip.
- [25:03]
Interviewer
I mean, is it a fair critique or.
- [25:06]
Kendrick Lamar
No, that's not a fair critique.
- [25:08]
Interviewer
Okay.
- [25:08]
Kendrick Lamar
At all.
- [25:09]
Interviewer
Okay.
- [25:09]
Kendrick Lamar
In fact. In fact, to even answer the question, I would need to know exactly where, you know, the disgruntled part, you know, come from. You know, I actually don't really understand the question to even answer, you know, just the simple fact that I come, you know, from where I come from. All I know is black women. To be 100 real with you. Yeah. Okay.
- [25:33]
Interviewer
I mean, you know, it's one of those things as. I mean, maybe you need a woman to further the conversation because I'm. I'm blind to. I didn't. You know, I listen to music. I'm like. I didn't know that you would.
- [25:45]
Kendrick Lamar
I would. I would definitely Need a woman to break that down to me because, you know, I made. I've made some pretty connecting songs, you know, about women and black women in particular. Even early off of my career, I remember a record called keisha song.
- [26:06]
Interviewer
Yeah.
- [26:06]
Kendrick Lamar
Section 80. Yeah. I mean, I would have to sit down and talk to a woman.
- [26:12]
Interviewer
Can you. Can you talk about your meditation practice?
- [26:15]
Kendrick Lamar
Meditation practice? I need 30 minutes a day of just reflecting on the moment. When you. In this business, everything is. Years go by so quick, man, because you're working and you're also planning for more work within the next six months to a year. So for me, I have to just sit down and reflect on what's going on for at least 30 minutes.
- [26:39]
Interviewer
Do you always do it in the morning, in the afternoon, at a certain time, or just whenever you can get it in morning?
- [26:44]
Kendrick Lamar
I gotta get up early. I gotta get up early. I gotta be up early. If I go to the studio and be up all night before I lay down, I gotta reflect.
- [26:54]
Interviewer
What time do you normally get up, man?
- [26:56]
Kendrick Lamar
I be in this. I mean, to be real with you, it's not even the act of getting up because I might be in the Studio 6 in the morning, you know, and take a four hour nap and get back up and start the day again.
- [27:11]
Interviewer
I mean, you know, growing up where you grew up, you saw people get murdered. Mm, I never saw anything like that. Most people never saw anything like that. What does that do? What does it do to you?
- [27:23]
Kendrick Lamar
What it did to me, it completely was chipping at my confidence, that's for sure.
- [27:31]
Interviewer
Chipping at your confidence?
- [27:32]
Kendrick Lamar
Chipping at the confidence.
- [27:33]
Interviewer
What do you mean?
- [27:37]
Kendrick Lamar
This is the thing that I remember about being in school, and this is something I always try to remember when I go to schools and I talk to these kids. You have these successful people, you know, that come around you and tell you what's good and what's bad in the world and how you end up dead or in prison and things like that. But from our perspective, it didn't really mean shit to us, you know, because, you know, you telling us all these positive things, but when we walk outside this door and we see somebody's head get blown off, that shit just, whatever you just said just went out the window. And it just chips away at the confidence and it makes you feel belittled, you know, in the world, the more violence exposed to a kid, it just chips away at it. Or it can make you, you know, but for the most part, the kids that I was around, it broke them. It broke them to Indulge in it. It broke them to say, fuck everything. I'm gonna do what I gotta do to survive. And before I let it chip away at me 100%, I was making my transition to music.
- [28:43]
Interviewer
Mm.
- [28:43]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah.
- [28:44]
Interviewer
Mm. Not everybody has that avenue available to them. No, just in general. How do we, because you, you said you were on a track to death or prison. How do we as a community, as a society, how do we get fewer black men going to prison?
- [29:04]
Kendrick Lamar
How do we get fuel black. Installing that confidence again. Installing the confidence. That's it. And I always say this, it starts with the kids. I mean, our generation is already in our ways. All we can do is focus on the next generation. You know, don't look at these kids and say, go play on the playground, you know, like we, we was taught, Go eat some ice cream, go sit them down and make them, you know, understand what's going on in the world right now and how they have, you know, all these abilities and accessible, you know, avenues to be great rather than to fall victim and, you know, what's around them. We didn't have that.
- [29:44]
Interviewer
But if you feel you're great, you have that confidence.
- [29:46]
Kendrick Lamar
Right?
- [29:47]
Interviewer
But still, I can't get a job, right? I can't get, you know, this, that, and the police stay over here, as opposed to the nice neighborhood where the kids smoke weed out in public, no problem. So, you know, I mean, there's systemic things that have to be combated as well.
- [30:06]
Kendrick Lamar
Exactly. And from my perspective, and speaking on a personal level, this is where the people, these rappers that come from these communities and these celebrities and people with money that come from these backgrounds, this where we have to be in place. And this is what I'm doing. You offering these jobs, you putting YMCAs inside your community and you giving jobs to these cats that, you know, don't want to be hired, that can't be hired anywhere else. You make the opportunities and that's what I'm doing. Personally, I can't, I can't sit. I got too many homeboys that, you know, they have on their third felony, I mean, two felonies and can't get a job. So I have to take the initiative and do for them, you know, and knowing I'm sure enough and believe that them opportunities will spread because once I put the power in their hands, they can put it in the next and they can put it next. I think the concept and idea is so far fetched that people can't believe that it can change that way. But it has to start with One. Yeah.
- [31:07]
Interviewer
Can you say, just to finish the thought, like, how many people who you've hired, who. Just a number who may not have other opportunities, who you've given them opportunities?
- [31:17]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah, Several. Dozens.
- [31:20]
Interviewer
Several dozen.
- [31:21]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah. Definitely from the idea. Well, for me personally, everything starts from the youth. You know, we have this. This thing going on inside the city where it's a youth center that we build in, and these cats are already working and already on the ground rounds inside of parks, you know, and making honest pay, and they're feeling good about themselves because they know they're doing something to further the next generation. This is the confidence. You know, they're not just making money and making a living now. It's installing something that they can be proud of.
- [31:56]
Interviewer
You know, I mean, Compton is changing a lot. Yeah, y'all got hot young mayor. You got the money that Dre put in the community. You know, V enos and Serena are contributing. You're contributing, you know, and all of y'all and more are role models for folks.
- [32:13]
Kendrick Lamar
Right.
- [32:13]
Interviewer
Can you talk about how you see Compton changing from the seeds that people are already been putting down?
- [32:20]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah. More opportunities. More opportunities. They see that people actually care. You know, I didn't have. We didn't have the. My generation to have these opportunities for someone from their community to be vocal and be present. You know, there's a lot of people that are scared of their own people. You know, the gang culture is still there, but you can't be scared. You got to be there. You have to, because it shows confidence, not only yourself, but those that's around you, that's in the neighborhood to say, okay, he still come back and touch us and provide opportunities. We're with him. You know, people want a reason to hate you. Don't give them that reason. Don't give them that reason. And what's going on now is just a transformation of us not being scared of where we come from. And that idea is going to get passed on.
- [33:13]
Interviewer
I mean, that's the heartbreaking thing to me when I see us scared of us.
- [33:18]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah.
- [33:18]
Interviewer
You know, but we are partly culpable for our problems, are we not?
- [33:24]
Kendrick Lamar
Yes.
- [33:25]
Interviewer
In what ways?
- [33:26]
Kendrick Lamar
In what ways? We look in our communities and we see what's going on. You know, we know that selling drugs are bad. We know that the gang violence is bad. We know that these concepts, when our ideas, you know, we know they stem back way before our time. But within knowing this, we have to also put in practice that we know this, you know, and these are the ideas that I Instilled to my homeboys the time when I came back from Africa. We know what's going on around here, but we continue to do it, you know, it's just as amount, much amount of struggle, even more going on back in Africa. They have no opportunity.
- [34:16]
Interviewer
Right.
- [34:17]
Kendrick Lamar
We have opportunities while we still moving the same way we move, you know, so it's about being. Taking responsibility, you know, in what we're going through and recognizing it first.
- [34:30]
Interviewer
I know when I went to Africa, blew my mind changed me. First time you went to Africa, how did it change, man?
- [34:38]
Kendrick Lamar
I knew I wasn't tripping because everybody in the team, when we was getting back on that bus, we were like this feel weird going back, right? Going back.
- [34:47]
Interviewer
I want to leave.
- [34:48]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah. It was just a weird feeling, man, and just. It was just one of them things, man, where you just. I mean, I'm sure, you know, it's hard to explain a person that's never been, but it's just a feeling, man, of a nurture, you know, and it just changed my whole process of my whole concept about where I'm from. I was only thinking about Compton, you know, in our small little corners. But the world is just so much more bigger than that.
- [35:15]
Interviewer
I mean, for a lot of MCs, going from, you know, the block to the world changes their music.
- [35:23]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah.
- [35:24]
Interviewer
Have you seen it? Change your music.
- [35:26]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah. Definitely going back to that word perspective. I'm not only talking about, you know, my own personal problems, coming to community, coming up in the community, but now I can reflect on this person, that person from here, from there, and make it to where it feels. Still feels intimate. You know, I found out a way to still make that connection, even if it's not even my story. Yeah.
- [35:50]
Interviewer
Talk about perspective. I mean, just back to the Oval Office.
- [35:56]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah.
- [35:56]
Interviewer
Is it a head trip to go from the guy there was like, I am a fan of yours.
- [36:02]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah.
- [36:03]
Interviewer
To the next guy. Like, you are the part of the problem in America.
- [36:07]
Kendrick Lamar
Right. It's a complete mind. Fuck, man. It is a complete mind. And if you don't have the mental stability of knowing who you are and what you're capable of, you're gonna immediately be brainwashed by the idea again of you are part of the problem. You know, talking to Obama and the craziest thing.
- [36:36]
FDA Representative
This is the sound of your ride home with dad after he caught you vaping. Awkward, isn't it? Most vapes contain seriously addictive levels of nicotine and disappointment. Know the real cost of vapes brought to you by the FDA?
- [37:02]
Kendrick Lamar
My dad works in B2B marketing. He came by my school for career day and said he was a big roas man. Then he told everyone how much he.
- [37:10]
Marc Jacobs Representative
Loved calculating his return on ad spend.
- [37:14]
Kendrick Lamar
My friends still laugh at me to this day.
- [37:16]
FDA Representative
Not everyone gets B2B, but with LinkedIn you'll be able to reach people who do. Get a hundred dollar credit on your next ad campaign. Go to LinkedIn.com campaign to claim your credit. That's LinkedIn.com campaign. Terms and conditions apply. LinkedIn. The place to be to be, he.
- [37:32]
Kendrick Lamar
Said, was wow, how did we both get here?
- [37:36]
Interviewer
He said that to you?
- [37:37]
Kendrick Lamar
Yes. Blew my mind away. Blew my mind away because, you know, we look at people, you know, so, you know, superior, you know, And I kept just the ultimate response, respect to him. And he's sitting up here dealing with all these different issues and work and at the same time he has to reflect on wow and look around the same way I'm looking around. That blew me away.
- [38:02]
Interviewer
What else did. What else did he say to you? What else did y'all.
- [38:05]
Kendrick Lamar
The main thing that always sticks with me as well is the work that has to be done when he's outside of the office, when he's, you know, his term is up. And that made me understand the idea of it. Don't start and end here because we have a black president in office. There's so much more work to do. And he understood that. He told me he understood that it's so much more work to do. This is the idea, same way he's talking about pac. This is the idea that sparked the idea of us getting out here as a community and knowing that we have the power to have our own voice and to make our own change. And when he told me that, it just gave me, you know, confirmation again that it doesn't stop. We have to keep pushing, you know, we can't just celebrate because he's right here. We had to celebrate him while he's gone.
- [39:03]
Interviewer
What I mean, from that conversation, what did you say that stands out in your memory that made him laugh or reflect or what have you?
- [39:14]
Kendrick Lamar
I guess, man, really going back to what he said to me and just basically replying, yeah, you're right. How did we get here? I think I cursed too. How the fuck did we get here?
- [39:25]
Interviewer
You said that?
- [39:25]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah, because, I mean, it's just a surreal moment, man, when you have two black individuals and, you know, knowledgeable individuals, but also come from, you know, these backgrounds where they said we had never touched, you know, grounds inside, you know, these Floors and these walls. I think I also was about to perform Mad City and then kill my vibe. And these records like that and these had curse words and things like that. And I'm looking in the crowd and, you know, I'm not saying the curse words, but the people are, you know, and just to know that hip hop, you know, is in this building and me being able to explain to that, you know, him how much I'm appreciated, you know, of being a part of being hip hop, being a part of it, you know.
- [40:21]
Interviewer
Do you think about.
- [40:24]
Kendrick Lamar
You?
- [40:25]
Interviewer
You kind. You're a little. In terms of hip hop, you're a little late to the party.
- [40:29]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah.
- [40:31]
Interviewer
There was a period when they were making a lot more money and were more famous. There was a period more artistically and. Yeah, right, right.
- [40:39]
Kendrick Lamar
And we right here.
- [40:40]
Interviewer
And you think about that.
- [40:42]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah, you know how I think about it? Because my mom's remind me all the.
- [40:45]
Interviewer
Time, she say.
- [40:50]
Kendrick Lamar
Nigga, don't you remember? Matter of fact, you don't remember. But nigga, it was a time where they thought hip hop rap. She said all the time they thought it was a trend.
- [41:01]
Interviewer
Right.
- [41:02]
Kendrick Lamar
I couldn't believe that.
- [41:03]
Interviewer
Right. Oh, no.
- [41:04]
Kendrick Lamar
She tells me this all. I still can't believe that.
- [41:06]
Interviewer
Oh, I had that argument with my parents until Quincy Jones album came out.
- [41:11]
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah.
- [41:12]
Interviewer
Back on the block. And then they were like, well, if Quincy's into it.
- [41:15]
Kendrick Lamar
Exactly. Right. I couldn't believe that. She was like, yeah, it supposed to last for a year. I was like, you serious? Yeah. She said, do your research. Lasted for a year. And look at me right now, carrying on the legacy and the culture. You know, being in this building right here, right now, it's mind boggling to know that people didn't appreciate the art form of poetry and motion and expressing themselves and having a gateway to express themselves other than putting a gun in the hand.
- [41:44]
Interviewer
But even after that, you know, we had Pac Big, you know, J Eminem, you know, the culture is rising. You know, the after them, you know, the more money is being made and then, you know, the record business stops making so much money. You know, I mean, you don't really have an artistic peer.
- [42:01]
Kendrick Lamar
Right.
- [42:01]
Interviewer
Any other period you have will be Kendrick and Jay or Kendrick and whoever, but you kind of stand alone.
- [42:08]
Kendrick Lamar
Well, I appreciate that, no doubt.
- [42:10]
Interviewer
But I mean, I get to the point of like, you know, if you had been born, you should have been born earlier at this level of ability.
- [42:18]
Kendrick Lamar
Well, I always say this, man, the best way to describe the art form and, you know, the blessing and the practice that I put in is me being a complete hybrid of those that I've studied and those that inspired me. Being a hybrid of that, you know, being a hybrid of Snoop, being a hybrid of Dre, PAC, Public Enemy, KRS1, Rakim, even to now, you know, Jay, Kanye, you know, these are people I was still fairly a team listening to.
- [42:54]
Interviewer
You know, the last thing, just add to that list, who not in hip hop is in that list.
- [43:02]
Kendrick Lamar
Not in hip hop. What you mean?
- [43:03]
Interviewer
Oh, writers, Other non hip hop musicians, easily.
- [43:09]
Kendrick Lamar
Michael, Quincy, Prince. Who inspired me inside the household? Marvin Gaye, Ashley, Brothers, Luther.
- [43:23]
Interviewer
And who not in music beside Malcolm.
- [43:26]
Kendrick Lamar
Because we already talked about Muhammad Ali. All these people are parallel because they have this. I've watched, you know, documentaries and I've watched. They have the same eye. Their passion is obsessive. You know, when you talk about Muhammad Ali, when you talk about Michael Jordan, these people, I see the same thing that I feel when I watch them, you know, in art form. And I understand it. It's something that I can't really explain on paper. It's just a feeling. You can look at a person to see how much passion and drive he has for what he do and what he loves. And everybody that I named is parallel to that.
- [44:11]
Torre
One day, years from now, there'll be many other rappers talking to many other podcasters about their cultural heroes, and they'll.
- [44:18]
Interviewer
Be talking about Kendrick.
- [44:21]
Torre
Thank you, Kendrick, for your time and thanks for the music and thank you for listening. I hope you got a lot out of this conversation. I'm on Twitter at Toray and on Instagram @torreshow. Please stop by and say hi. And if you like the show, please subscribe, rate and review and tell a friend. Help me spread the word about the show. Toray Shows written by me, Torre, and produced by Chris Colbert and Matt Ford in association with Cadence 13 Studios. We are beaming to you from the amazing borough of Brooklyn, baddest place in the world. We'll be back next Wednesday with more knowledge from successful folks because the man ain't shut us down yet. Join us next Wednesday when my guest will be the incomparable Black Thought from the mighty Roots crew. He's got a lot to say about millennial rappers.
- [45:07]
Black Thought
One thing that the millennial rapper is doing, and this isn't across the board, every millennial rapper doesn't do this, but lots of them have abandoned words. There are people who are vocalists who go into the booth and don't use any words. No audible words. You know what I mean? It's just mumbling.
- [45:35]
Torre
That's next Wednesday on Torre Show Sh.