Every artist has a particular starting point in their musical career and in Hip Hop that point usually begins with the release of a mixtape. During his interview with VEVO Lift, Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar spoke on the impact his mixtapes have had in his career and even commented on being inspired to drop a mixtape thanks to 50 Cent’s projects.

“Mixtapes for me is really the start of my career,” Kendrick revealed. “And this goes all the way back to when I was 16 and I was at my homeboy Dave’s garage. We was looking at what 50 Cent was doing and seeing that no money was behind these tapes and they was just getting buzz where they was from. Not only New York, but it came all the way to the West Coast. We wanted to follow that recipe, ‘Let’s do it too. Let’s put 12 tracks on a CD and burn ‘em up and pass ‘em in the city and see what it do.’ It wasn’t no super big scale, but it was the start.”

Later in the interview, the rapper again reiterated his goal to help other artists as well with the release of his debut album good kid, m.A.A.d. city.

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“The name of my new album is good kid, m.A.A.d. city. I really wanted to reflect on where I come from,” said Kendrick. “If I’m gonna be at the forefront of this whole movement I want to expose other talent cause I think that’s what’s gonna help take us to the next level and not be so selfish and keep these people in these neighborhoods…I always wanna bring that out to the table and be able to get a collective of art. Not only my life, but other people lives and other people’s experiences.”

Kendrick’s good kid, m.A.A.d. city album is currently set for an October 22 release date.

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