Into the mind of K Dot
Kendrick Lamar wrote a very personal letter in the latest issue of XXL, talking about many different subjects, but most of all, how he feels about life right now.
During his cover story, he talked about how nervous he was about releasing good kid m.A.A.d city, what it’s like to feel like a leader in rap and a role model to kids (it’s the reason he made “i”), a talk he had with Lauryn Hill about success and why he doesn’t play music for people while he’s creating it. He doesn’t even listen to the radio or let other types of music influence him.
Interestingly, he also talked about the infamous GRAMMY snub last year,
“I thought I was going to win Best Rap Album at the Grammys. I put a lot of work in on my album and the biggest thing for me is knowing that it was basically an underground album. It didn’t have big No. 1 records on it and there wasn’t really any commercial hits. It was great songs and I think the message behind it reached as many listeners and believers as a super mainstream album. So for me, when you’re saying, “rap,” that would be my definition of something that deserved an accolade. Yep.”
The best part of the piece was the end of it, when he started talking about his next album and how he feels that nervousness surrounding his next record, compared to his major label debut. He said he’s tried to master the art of writing for so long and he now feels like he’s going to give fans concept albums from here on out. He also got very personal when he explained how much of a recluse he is, now that he’s seen people around him change and how fame has made everything different. He says he finds more peace in his tour bus than his hometown anymore.
“I found out a lot about myself in these past two years. It’s scary. I know more about myself now than any other point of my life. I believe in this theory that when you get success and you get fame and money, it makes you be you times ten. I was a pretty shy and to myself type of person as a kid. And now 15 years later I’m in front of people every day, tens of thousands of people. So that makes me more of a recluse. That makes me not come outside of my world on the outskirts of L.A. and bounce around different places and things like that.”
What’s crazy to me is that I feel the same energy now that I felt before my first album. I know there’s lot of pressure for me on this new album but it don’t necessarily scare me. It’s almost confirmation, like, go in there and challenge yourself just the same way you challenged yourself the fi rst time. Because I remember going to radio stations and them telling me this: “Dr. Dre had Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, Eminem, you seen what Eminem did, right? Yeah, uh huh. Kendrick Lamar, he from the West Coast, and Compton, too. Dre from Compton, you see the legacy he left. Yeah, so I hope that album is good. Matter fact, you got the weight on your shoulders right now.”
Read the entire piece over at XXL.
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