Over the past couple of years or so, Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar has occasionally rattled off the names of the artists he’s been inspired by throughout his career and the name that seems to be brought up the most is none other than the late Tupac Shakur.
During his On The Record segment with Rhapsody, Kendrick spoke on how he’s been influenced by Tupac and the rapper’s Me Against The World record “Dear Mama.”
“The record I’m gonna talk about today is ‘Dear Mama’ by Tupac. The reason why this record inspired me, me being an artist today I can really go back and appreciate the value of vulnerability and being able to express yourself and not being scared to express yourself,” Kendrick revealed. “Tupac was one of them people that did that. Letting people into his world, talking about his mother, saying even though she was a crack fiend she was always a black queen in his eyes. And that’s something that I learned to appreciate in my music.”
On top of speaking on the way in which “Dear Mama” has played a part in his music, the good kid, m.A.A.d city rapper also spoke on how the song affected his relationship with his own mother.
AD LOADING...
“Being that real and being able to talk about things like that. And even appreciate my mother that much more,” said Kendrick in a video posted on XXLMag.com. “My mother’s a beautiful person. She made some mistakes in her life, but that never changed the way I looked at her. [Never] changed the fact that she gave me birth and bringing me into this world. Me looking back at that I salute Tupac.”
RELATED: Kendrick Lamar Recalls Having A Vision Of Tupac Shakur In His Sleep
