Kendrick Lamar, who is profiled by The New York Times, explains why he’s a competitive emcee.
“If my edge is dull, my sword is dull, and I don’t want to fight another guy whose sword is dull,” Lamar says. “If you’ve got two steel swords going back and forth hitting each other, what’s gonna happen? Both of them are going to get sharper…Everybody that’s in the industry has lost their edge. There’s really no aggression. You gotta say things particular, and everything is so soft.”
Eminem, who also speaks on the matter in the piece, also addresses Kendrick Lamar’s competitive nature.
“There’s a certain hunger that you can sense about Kendrick,” Eminem says. “He raps to be the best rapper in the world. He competitive-raps. That’s one of the things that’s going to drive his career. He’s going to be around for a long time.”
Eminem addressed Kendrick Lamar in November 2013.
“I completely respect what Kendrick does and the fact that he’s in the same camp, that he’s on Aftermath, only made sense to [have him on The Marshall Mathers LP 2],” Eminem said at the time. “He came to Detroit, we kicked it for a few minutes, you know, and I felt the vibe of what he’s like and everything, and you know, he’s a super cool and super humble dude. When we did that record, I think that was actually a week or two before he did the verse to ‘Control.'”
Kendrick Lamar Details Kanye West’s Yeezus Tour Experience
The New York Times piece follows Kendrick Lamar while the rapper performed in Kanye West’s Yeezus Tour experience, a tour run West reportedly requested personally.
“It’s a different kind of thrill when an actual artist asks you, when Kanye asks you,” he says. “Now I know he’s really interested in what I do.”
While Lamar was appreciative of West’s request, TDE’s President, Punch, says the label initially didn’t want Kendrick Lamar on the Yeezus Tour.
“Believe it or not, we were actually trying not to do the tour,” Punch says. “We wanted Kendrick to be recording that whole time.”
West “wasn’t taking no for an answer,” Punch says. West got Lamar a studio bus and gave him a co-starring role on the tour.
“Kanye said he didn’t want to make it seem like we were just the opener,” Lamar says. “It was dope to have the actual headliner of the show want my show to be just as good as his.”
In January 2014, Lamar spoke about learning from West.
“Kanye taught me to never to downplay your ideas,” Kendrick Lamar said at the time. “I learned to always stay as creative as possible and never have any boundaries. Those things that people called ‘rants’ on-stage are real conversations that we had behind closed doors — about business and how when you get to a certain level people won’t want to see you break through because they only see you as a rapper.”
While Lamar has discussed learning from West in the past, as mentioned above, The New York Times piece provides additional insight regarding the dynamics between West and Lamar while they were on tour together.
“It’s tempting to imagine that tour partnerships between an established star and an up-and-comer result in lots of communal bonding,” the article says. “And of course sometimes they do. Bono has become famous for taking young bands out on the road with U2 and dispensing his so-called Bono Talk, a sermon on how to avoid the pitfalls of fame. Lamar knew people wanted to think this was happening between him and West, and he obliged within reason, dutifully explaining to journalists how much he was learning from West or telling an employee of his label who asked if they had been hanging out, ‘We haven’t really got an off day yet to chill out, but that’s the plan.’ But a mentor-mentee relationship wasn’t what was expected or desired, and it certainly was not what was happening.”
RELATED: Eminem Says Rappers Can’t Get Mad At Kendrick Lamar’s “Control” Verse
real respects real
So DX just made a headline out of a quote from November 2013.
K Dot visited chicago once and the mobs caused him to get scared and fly back home.
You gotta love how this hating ass nigga has to make up a story that never happened to justify his hate.
Papoose killed kendrick
In his dreams.
lamar should be dropping an album soon, before nobody remebers his name!
hopefully next Kendrick/Eminem collabo is a RAP collabo and not some bullshit ass country bumpkin beat, but some bullshit flows..it was a good topic lyrics were on point for Kendrick but that song sucked ass..easily ems worst career song.
he already is
hahaahahahaha
the gaot recognizes the baby goat
kdot reminds me of Tupac
your an idiot
DUCKWORTH reminds me of the kid who died from getting left in a locker overnight
Did you just described your life in school?
“DUCKWORTH reminds me of the kid who died from getting left in a locker overnight”
LMAO!!!
I liked MMLP and SSLP but the rest of his music is corny. Also white kids love sucking Em’s dick so that’s also annoying.
like all the blackies hang on every new retarded rappers dick
kenny licks balls
the homegirl lamar is the most overrated ever
the only things worse than kendrick lamar are hiphop blogers
Your clickbait ain’t working today, lol
I see you jumping around
I see the Young Money troll below is desperate for attention.
This big eared f4g! His time is up dog, the dude is a disappointment, fa66ot only survived cuz of f4gs and white people thinking dude is somehow “deep.” dull sword, dull blade, this mark defines overhyped to a t. schoolbitch fucking eats dick, souls bum ass is in for the biggest flop EVER(sorrounding a “hot” label” these clowns ALL suck dick! Fucking shit is WEAK!!! Looking for the day they all fall off the map, stop embarassing the Best Coast! Fuck these marks, fuck feminems gimmick pop rapper ass, fuck hopsins emo h0m0 ass, gimmick obnoxious white boy in black skin bitch! Any fa66ot on here talking bout this bitch the next Pac, your momma done fuckef up when she didn’t swallow your hoe-ass! Haha outies
You need to get a life outside of hating and trolling.
kdot is the best of the last 5 years
heard gkmc yesterday, I now understand why this album is on every “best albums of all time” list
sorry fam, but gkmc was just okay. already 3 maybe 4 other projects that have dropped since that are better
Name them.
kendrick is slowly making it into my top 10 of all time
kendrick gave me faith in hip hop again… agree with Em
Kendrick is one of the most gifted hip hop artists I have heard since Nas in 1994, this guy will go far
he’s definitely here to stay, best rapper right now
the goat recognizes the baby goat
hes bringing real hip hop back, thank yo kdot
What do you consider “Hip Hop” and “real” ?
You dont know shit about Hip Hop, or KRS One.
kdot >>>>>>>>>>> my favorite rapper
kdot is already the best
foh
See, kids. This is why you should say no to drugs.
Of Course Eminem is going to say something nice about him… Kendrick is signed to Dr. Dre!
Kendrick Lamar can only fool the MTV/BET brainwashewd kids into thinkng he’s nice on the Mic. LMAO ya’ll havent heard Real Hip Hop
You obviously didn’t listen to his music if you made that stupid observation.
Anon nah, that happens if you listen to dope shit for decades and then you see some mediocre rapper pretending to be the best, they already SET THE BAR TOO HIGH FOR THESE NEW RAPPERS. In the same game where shit gets worse and worse by the year, where masses not so long ago claimed Lil Wayne to be the best. Hype & fad.
And you know people are gonna get upset when the media (which never lies, right?) gon keep callin him the best ten times a day, hypin him even more.
No, that’s the mentality of a old stuck-in-the-past bum who won’t give music that isn’t from the 90s a chance. The same morons who claim hip-hop is dead when it’s still alive and well, you just need to look outside of radio/TV. Kendrick actually has substance in his music. Just because the media is covering him doesn’t make him bad. Listen to the music.It’s not all hype.
you sound stupid Kendrick is nice on the mic..that the best story telling ive heard sincde a young nas..foh lame.
Yeah, since. Thanks for proving my point.
What point?
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best artist of the 2010s
Eminem should learn from kendrick, hes already a goat
tha fuck?
I don’t think he’s all that great. Yea he good but no GOAT yet. Artist of the decade? Sure he could get that. Hasn’t put out enought music to be a GOAT yet.
SMH Eminem takes probably the one L from me, “Piping kendrick Lamar inconsistency of a rapper up” only to say what he said because he’s signed to Dr Dre.smh
You really are a moron.