Kendrick Lamar 2010 Breakfast Club Interview

The Breakfast Club: Good morning. We got a special guest in the building. Yes, one of the leaders of the new West Coast. Dr. Dre's newest artist. Yes, the leader of the black hippie movement. And he goes by the name of Kendrick Lamar. Yes, sir. What's up, homie?Kendrick Lamar: What up with it, man?The Breakfast Club: You gotta be, I have to say, in the last, I say, three or four years, I have never heard a West Coast rapper on New York radio like that. It has been at least four years when Game's last project.The Breakfast Club: Probably Game.The Breakfast Club: Yeah, Game's been the last one.The Breakfast Club: Absolutely. And how does it feel, homie?Kendrick Lamar: Feels good, man. I feel like I'm at home every time I come out here, man.The Breakfast Club: Yep. You feel like it's been a long battle? You feel like it happened quickly?Kendrick Lamar: Nah, I've been working at this for years, man.The Breakfast Club: I know, because I met you years ago. So I know some people might think it kind of happened overnight, like Kendrick Lamar came out of nowhere, the people that weren't up on you at first, but it really was a long time.Kendrick Lamar: Right, patience.The Breakfast Club: It's not even your first record deal. You signed to Def Jam back in the day.Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, a little bit.The Breakfast Club: Yep, little development deal.Kendrick Lamar: I was a kid, though. I wasn't ready.The Breakfast Club: That was under the Jay-Z regime, too. But it's not even just you. Even like all of the artists over at Tap Dog Entertainment, you guys, it seems like, are all making a big name for yourselves and helping each other out.Kendrick Lamar: Right, yep. That's how it is, because it's family. You know what I mean? I came in there, we was brothers at first before the music. You know what I'm saying? So it's a different type of relationship. We got a special bond with each other where... You know, I eat. We all gotta eat.The Breakfast Club: That's dope. Now, how did you sign to Dr. Dre? How did you meet Dr. Dre? How was that a deal? Were you a writer first? How did you and Dr. Dre connect?Kendrick Lamar: Man, you know what? After years just putting in work, you know, I started doing shows, selling out shows in L.A., came on this side, selling out shows. It just finally caught the attention. You know, I was with Top Dog Entertainment, an independent company for years. And just to grind and putting out tapes. You've seen one of my YouTube videos, Ignorance is Bliss. I was on the road with Tech N9ne at the time with J-Rock.The Breakfast Club: We'll be right back.Kendrick Lamar: So the whole thing was he wanted to get me in the studio and really catch a vibe because, you know, you can see a lot of artists and they might not, you know, have the same type of, you know, feel that you see on, you know, TV or whatnot. And he said the chemistry was there. He wanted to go all the way with it.The Breakfast Club: Was that the first time you met Dre? Before that, did Dre seem like a unicorn to you, like a mythical figure you'd hear about but never see?Kendrick Lamar: Felt like he was under an underground railroad dungeon somewhere, like you'd never see this dude.The Breakfast Club: Yeah. You know, and people have always said that signing to Aftermath and doing deals with them, you know, a lot of people have complained about their projects not ever coming out, but I'm sure you did something to ensure that it's going to happen because you already have the title. You got a hit!Kendrick Lamar: I don't know if it's a hit yet.The Breakfast Club: It's a good record.The Breakfast Club: It's a great record.Kendrick Lamar: It's a great record, but I don't know if it's a hit.The Breakfast Club: And it's perfect for, you know, because he has one of those, he has a core fan base. You know what I mean? He has one of those fan bases that follow him. He goes city to city and he sells out shows whether major radio plays him or not.Kendrick Lamar: Absolutely.The Breakfast Club: Which is more important than anything else.Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, that's the whole question nowadays, man. You got to go out there and do it yourself, you know. And Dre obviously recognized that, you know, we was already developed as a whole team, as a whole unit, where he didn't really have to, you know, put all his hands, you know, as far as the dirty work and getting that buzz up because we already did that.The Breakfast Club: Right. So once we got that up, he just wanted to take it to the next level and we got to move. Does that make people bump heads, though? Because now it's like, you know, I'm sure you have Top Dog and you have Dr. Dre who are kind of molding your career. Do they have to, like, argue about what they think is best for you? Are they in accordance with each other?Kendrick Lamar: Not necessarily argue, but, you know, just have more meetings and make sure the vision is right. You know what I'm saying? Because it will cause confusion. But we try to make sure we're on pace, you know, with anybody we're involved with.The Breakfast Club: Is there a release date for the album yet?Kendrick Lamar: No, not yet.The Breakfast Club: Are you going to drop this year?Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, definitely.The Breakfast Club: I saw that you just shot the video for The Recipe also.Kendrick Lamar: Right, right.The Breakfast Club: You and Dr. Dre. It's like you get him to do stuff that nobody else gets him to do.Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, man, it's big homie.The Breakfast Club: You're a good dude, man.Kendrick Lamar: And, you know, it just feels good because you respect the music.The Breakfast Club: Are you going to have your own headphones?Kendrick Lamar: My own headphones, I wish.The Breakfast Club: Can be a billion dollar company. Look, when you sign, that's the part of the deal. You get a free pair of headphones.The Breakfast Club: Not a pair. I'm talking about...The Breakfast Club: His own pair?The Breakfast Club: Yeah, like your own line. Do you have a side, like he'd be like, all right, let's work on some records with Detox. You'd be like, oh, come on, Dre, come on. You know the Detox ain't coming out. Let's work on Mile.Kendrick Lamar: No, it'd be all good, man.The Breakfast Club: Is he still working on Detox?Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, he working.The Breakfast Club: Okay.Kendrick Lamar: He in there working right now. Yep.The Breakfast Club: Now, the other day there was some controversy when you were being brought out onto stage, right?Kendrick Lamar: Yeah.The Breakfast Club: What happened?Kendrick Lamar: Man, you know, I was back, so I didn't even know all that was going on.The Breakfast Club: Coming to the stage, we got real hip-hop.The Breakfast Club: Oh, it was you.Kendrick Lamar: Right.The Breakfast Club: You started that.The Breakfast Club: Oh, you were the artist he was introducing.The Breakfast Club: Oh, man.The Breakfast Club: Got you, got you, got you.The Breakfast Club: This is all your fault, Kendrick.The Breakfast Club: All your fault. As an artist, how would that make you feel if somebody slighted you like that?Kendrick Lamar: Oh, I'd be hot. You know, she got all the right reason to be hot. I can't take that from her, for sure.The Breakfast Club: Right.Kendrick Lamar: And all the right reason to do what she did. You know, I respect that. And yeah.The Breakfast Club: Yep. Not real. So you wouldn't have performed either?Kendrick Lamar: I'd have been hot. I'd probably still perform though.The Breakfast Club: Okay.Kendrick Lamar: I'd have performed for sure.The Breakfast Club: You think there's a difference between like real hip hop and like not real hip hop?Kendrick Lamar: I mean, people always try to, you know,The Breakfast Club: What the hell is real hip-hop? I'm confused. I don't know what real hip-hop is. I thought Beez in the Trap was real hip-hop. I thought, you know, records that express your soul is real hip-hop.Kendrick Lamar: That's what I was about to say. I guess, you know, if you want to take it down to the essence, anything that really expresses yourself.The Breakfast Club: But this is what I believe. I believe that, like, back in the 90s, those artists that they say are real hip-hop, whether it's the Wu-Tang Clans or N.W.A., whoever, they didn't go in the studio and say, I'm going to make a real hip-hop record. They just made music. They just did what they did. That's it.The Breakfast Club: What about you? Are you doing any type of, like, experimenting outside your realm?Kendrick Lamar: Experimenting? Um...The Breakfast Club: Maybe things that you weren't so comfortable with at first that you never tried before that you're like, well, maybe I'll try this and see how it comes out.Kendrick Lamar: All them records is in the stash box and probably never be heard.The Breakfast Club: Really?Kendrick Lamar: Really, why is that?Kendrick Lamar: Probably because I failed at it and it wasn't hot.The Breakfast Club: Yeah, but how do you know though? You don't know if it's hot unless you release it.Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, true, but you know.The Breakfast Club: I would love to hear some of that. Some of Lil Wayne's biggest records were totally love. I know when we first heard Lollipop, I know we was like, what the hell is this? I had a love. When I first heard I had a love.The Breakfast Club: You didn't like I had a love?Kendrick Lamar: No, I did, but it was completely different. I liked I had a love.The Breakfast Club: Me too.The Breakfast Club: So you might be singing is what you're saying?Kendrick Lamar: Yeah.The Breakfast Club: Probably.The Breakfast Club: Do you feel like, you know, your album has to be successful in order for the black hippie movement to be successful? You know, the Ab Soul and Schoolboy Q. Like, if your album flops, they might not have a lane at all.Kendrick Lamar: No, you know, the thing is, man, what I want to do is, and I always talk to them about it, I don't want them to depend on, you know, just what I'm doing. That's why Schoolboy Q is out doing his own thing, selling out his own shows. Ab Soul, everybody got their own entity, you know what I mean, as far as the camp, because I might need them to lean on, you know what I'm saying?The Breakfast Club: Absolutely.Kendrick Lamar: So, you know, that's how we're working right now.The Breakfast Club: Is it competitive with you guys, like when you do songs together, people go back and redo their verse and all of that?Kendrick Lamar: Definitely. We be talking about each other. You don't want to be in a session with us. We go talk about each other and everything, saying we whack, telling next artists we're whack.The Breakfast Club: Yeah, we say that about each other all the time.Kendrick Lamar: Yeah.The Breakfast Club: You know, remember everybody thought I said Kendrick was whack, but I didn't when Slaughterhouse was up here?Kendrick Lamar: Yeah.The Breakfast Club: You kind of did.The Breakfast Club: No, I did not. I saw him at Angelique's bowling party.Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, you said I look like a star.The Breakfast Club: You said you don't look like a star. You had a problem because you got on corduroys.The Breakfast Club: Because everybody was just like, yo, Kendrick Lamar, Kendrick Lamar.The Breakfast Club: You got on Doc Martens today, I noticed. You got on Doc Martens.The Breakfast Club: He just didn't look like a star, but I never said he was whack. He's dumb nice.The Breakfast Club: No, he gets busy.The Breakfast Club: Do you care about stuff like image and things like that?Kendrick Lamar: I mean, it plays along with the part because that's hip-hop. You know, as far as fashion, you know, you got to go with the rhymes. I feel that's all traditional, so...The Breakfast Club: I like that you do your own thing, though. It ain't like you try to dress like how everybody else dress.Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, man. You know, I feel like, you know, like we're talking about the essence. You know, everybody got to be their own individual. I don't like the fact that people bite off each other. You know, that'll get you shunned out the game from what I used to know.The Breakfast Club: Definitely look like you're about to rob somebody this morning.Kendrick Lamar: Yeah.The Breakfast Club: No, not really.The Breakfast Club: Black hoodie.The Breakfast Club: He got a Doc Martens.Kendrick Lamar: I'm on my Wu-Tang.The Breakfast Club: Why'd you never get jumped into a gang?Kendrick Lamar: Well, I never got jumped into a gang.The Breakfast Club: Well, maybe because all my family members just probably in the gang already, so they probably looked at me like, you probably, you know.Kendrick Lamar: Little nigga, you not gonna come and do this.The Breakfast Club: Was there ever any pressure growing up, like, you know, in Cali, like, oh, I gotta be a blood, I gotta be a crip, I gotta, you know, pick a side?Kendrick Lamar: Nah, it never was no pressure. You know, it's crazy because half of my family's prior rules, half of them is scripts. So I'm like right in between and I'm seeing this whole lifestyle and they looking at me like, and you out playing basketball, you gonna be the NBA one day, don't do what we do. You know, they thought I had skills, so they tried to keep me straight, right? I started doing the music thing and they started saying the same thing, keep doing the music thing. One day you gonna make a way for us.The Breakfast Club: Do you get a lot of family pressure now? Because once people see that you're successful, that's when, like, the family members all need money and they want to work for you and they, like, get me a job. Does that happen to you?Kendrick Lamar: I got a few. The crazy part is it's not the immediate family, like, cousins I grew up with or, you know, people I've seen my whole life. It's the ones that, you know, on the outskirts.The Breakfast Club: Like me, you know, that's my nephew.Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, yeah, yeah.The Breakfast Club: I always say you're going to anywhere, right?Kendrick Lamar: Yep.The Breakfast Club: So you want to smash all your aunties? I know you thought about smashing the aunties.The Breakfast Club: No, he has a girlfriend.The Breakfast Club: You still have a girlfriend, right?Kendrick Lamar: Yeah, he laughing.The Breakfast Club: I know the black hippies get a lot of groupies, so I know you on the road doing your dirt. I know, that has to be tough. Does your girlfriend understand?Kendrick Lamar: I mean, it's not really dirt. I'm just chilling. I don't be messing with the groupies like that.The Breakfast Club: Kendrick's a good guy. He doesn't smoke. He doesn't drink.Kendrick Lamar: I'm chilling, you know.The Breakfast Club: Still, right? You still don't smoke or drink?Kendrick Lamar: No, I can't do that.The Breakfast Club: Right.Kendrick Lamar: I go into this bad disorder, you know, family type, ignorant type thing, so I try to stay away from it.The Breakfast Club: Yeah, let's keep him away from it then.The Breakfast Club: Yeah. That's what...[Video ends]*There may be errors on this page.