In December 2013, a picture of Alchemist and Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar in the studio together surfaced on Twitter. The picture, which was posted by NGM Blog, immediately fueled rumors of a collaboration between the two West Coast musicians.

And during an interview posted this week by Vlad TV, Alchemist revealed that he has yet to work with Kendrick. Although the two have not collaborated on a record together, the Los Angeles beatsmith says that while touring in Europe last year he was able to chop it up with K-Dot about working together in the future.

“That was an old picture actually when he came by the lab,” Alchemist said. “That was before his album dropped…It was an old picture and I don’t know, some blog put it up. I didn’t even know people were taking pictures that day. But yeah, it got out there and I guess people just ran with it. You know how the webisphere does. One thing spreads and just goes. And I guess people were excited [about] the idea of us working. I know I am.

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“I’ll tell you this much. I was in Europe at the end of last year touring with [Em] and he was on the shows and we definitely chopped it up,” he added. “Had some time to kick it with him. We talked about doing some work so, we’ll see what happens.”

After speaking on Kendrick, Alchemist took time to speak on the rise of West Coast music and even went on to share his belief that the West Coast is “crushing shit right now.” He credited TDE, Odd Future, Problem, and other West Coasters for revitalizing the music coming out of the left coast.

“West Coast is—I’d say they’re on top right now. I would go out and say that,” Alchemist said. “On all aspects. Cause there’s so many layers in L.A. You got your TDE crew. You got your Odd Future crew. You got Problem. You got Kid Ink. You got Kendrick. You got Dilated. You have Planet Asia. There’s like so many levels. Blu. I mean, we can go on talking forever, but what my point is I think the West is crushing shit right now. And a person like Kendrick—the whole TDE thing is like it’s putting L.A. back in that place where when we were young growing up. It was like a whole melting pot of different talent on different levels.”

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Although Alchemist has been unable to work with Kendrick, the producer did lend his assistance on TDE wordsmith ScHoolboy Q’s upcoming album, Oxymoron. Al didn’t reveal any specifics about his work on Oxymoron, but did reveal that he “did a couple of things on there.”

One confirmed album collaboration between Alchemist and Q is the newly-released Oxymoron single, “Break THe Bank.”Oxymoron is currently slated for release on February 25.

RELATED:Alchemist & Evidence Discuss “Lord Steppington” & Beastie Boys’ Influence

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