Believe it or not, Kendrick Lamar and Rick Rubin had never met until GQ Style brought them together for a conversation at the Def Jam co-founder’s Shangri La studios in Malibu, California.
The two music heads seemed to click effortlessly as they talked about the Compton MC’s creative processes, lyrical influences and the success of To Pimp a Butterfly. After the conversation, they jumped into the studio.
In the 49-minute sitdown, the good kid credits Eminem for his lyricism when Rubin says that Lamar’s emphasis on lyrics seems like a throwback in an era where “so much of hip-hop today is about vibe and swag and personality, and less about words.”
“I got my clarity just studying Eminem when I was a kid,” the 29-year-old rapper says. “How I got in the studio was all just curiosity. I had a love for the music, but it was curiosity. The day I heard The Marshall Mathers LP, I was just like, ‘How does that work? What is he doing? How is he putting his words together like that? What’s the track under that? An ad-lib? What is that?’ And then, ‘Why don’t you go in the studio and see?’ So I do that. Then it became, ‘How’s his words cutting through the beat like that? What is he doing that I’m not doing, now that I’m into it?’ His time is impeccable. When he wants to fall off the beat, it’s impeccable. These are things that, through experience and time, I had to learn.”
King Kendrick has been vocal about his appreciation for the Detroit legend before, calling him a “genius.” Slim Shady gave props to the newcomer in 2014, saying, “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 just announced his ninth studio album and unleashed the eight-minute saga “Campaign Speech” yesterday (October 19), much to the excitement of the Stans.
Lamar has begun to create his own diehard fanbase, especially with the anthemic “Alright,” which earned him two of his five Grammys at this year’s awards. He reveals to Rubin that he sat on Pharrell’s beat for six months before committing to the message he wanted to convey on the track.
“[B]etween my guy Sam Taylor and Pharrell, they would always be like, ‘Did you do it? When you gonna do it?'” he says. “I knew it was a great record — I just was trying to find the space to approach it. I mean, the beat sounds fun, but there’s something else inside of them chords that Pharrell put down that feels like — it can be more of a statement rather than a tune. So with Pharrell and Sam asking me — Am I gonna rock on it? When I’m gonna rock on it? — it put the pressure on me to challenge myself. To actually think and focus on something that could be a staple in hip-hop. And eventually, I came across it. Eventually, I found the right words. You know, it was a lot going on, and still, to this day, it’s a lot going on. And I wanted to approach it as more uplifting — but aggressive. Not playing the victim, but still having that ‘We strong,’ you know?”
Watch the full interview via GQ Style below.
King kendrick the king of hiphop been running the game since 25 he still runing the game now 29 much luv
Weird? Go to VladTV and every pro-black, white person hating @sshole swears that Em ain’t sh*t. Go figure!
VladTV are a joke, they just feed off racial tension to push a backwards narrative that would be racist if it was in any other genre. Hip-Hop went multi-cultural a long time ago as it should, VladTV need to accept that fact and get the fuck over it.
Cosign. What happened to that website? In a matter of a year it went from Hip Hop articles to a venomous, race-baiting pile of sh*t for clicks. Vlad’s got those idiots in the palm of his hands.
I swear I’ve always thought this when I listened to Kendrick. Especially on certain cuts of TPABF. This confirms what I’ve been thinking… Kendrick may be the next GOAT when it comes to hip-hop. And I am by no means a Kendrick Stan, but I respect the heck out of his lyricism. He’s sharp, quick and direct. A sleeping giant if you ask me. I think he has a MMLP, Blueprint, Ready to Die, All Eyez on Me, etc… in him still. A pure classic. I would say GKMC is his classic but he has too much potential to not have something better than both his first 2 major releases. Don’t know why but I’ve always felt like that. Kudos to Kendrick for now meeting Rick Rubin. Hopefully they’ll make some dope records together.
This GOAT word gets tossed around like a Donald Trump pinata in a quinceanera.
1st off, Great!! Legend meets legend! **Sheds tattoed tear
2nd off I’m a huge Kendrick stan (***fan) but I wouldn’t call him a GOAT just yet with Lil B & Riff Raff around.
3rd off on a serious note, if the ohh soo GOATish man of HipHop is SOOO “great!” Why hasn’t he dropped a record regarding the relevance of our political climate.
**Listens to campaign speech, only to fall victim to another Recovery sounding, punchline overloaded 7 minute scheme
Ohh yea and the couple jabs at Trump…
he did do white amerikkka though
That mans body of work … don’t even make him eligible for a goat… it’s ok, but nothing super great.. he has one flow & is boring… the goats are LL, nas, jay, big, PAC, slick rick, krs, g rap, scarface and others that have a great body of work and years in… no shade at Kendrick… but no goat… not even close
Legends Rakim, LL, Cube, Nas, Jay, D, X & Em, Scarface… To name a few!
The only people hating on Eminem’s skills are the pro-black everything crowd. Every time i hear Kendrick I hear a little bit of Eminem, I knew for a fact that Eminem is a big influence on him and I actually hear it in his songs. This just proves it. I dont bump Eminem’s music like that and neither did I with K.Dot but I appreciate greatness when I hear it. Fuck all you non-rapping mumbing imbecile rappers.
Real recognize real. J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar are prime examples of rappers who studied a sublime rapper called Eminem and became very dope artists too. Eminem did the same too. That’s just the way it is to attain greatness.