Kendrick Lamar Admits He Cried While Recording This Song: ‘That Was Deep For Me’

Kendrick Lamar got candid in a new conversation with SZA, admitting he was moved to tears while recording 2022’s “Mother I Sober.”

Chatting with his former TDE labelmate for his Harpers Bazaar cover story published on Monday (October 21), K. Dot was asked about the last time he cried.

“I would say the last time I cried was probably on Mr. Morale [& The Big Steppers] on the ‘Mother I Sober’ record. That shit was deep for me,” he revealed.

The intensely personal song finds Lamar detailing his trauma from his mother being sexually abused when he was a child and the deep guilt he struggles with for having cheated on his fiancée, Whitney Alford.

“Mother cried, put they hands on her, it was family ties,” he raps on the track. “I heard it all, I should’ve grabbed a gun, but I was only five/ I still feel it weighin’ on my heart, my first tough decision/ In the shadows clingin’ to my soul as my only critic.”

Kendrick also revealed while talking to SZA that the first time he allowed himself to cry was on stage with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg in 2011.

“The first time I allowed it to happen is documented, actually, onstage [in 2011] when Dre and Snoop and the whole West Coast was out,” he said. “They was like, ‘This is the torch that we were handing off.’ Dre passed me the torch, and a burst of energy just came out and I had to let it flow.”

He continued: “My tears is all on the internet. And now I look back and I love that moment. I love that that happened. Because it showed me in real time expressing myself and seeing all the work that I put forth actually come to life in that moment.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Kendrick Lamar broke down his definition of “not like us,” the dismissive refrain from his hit Drake diss song that has dominated most of 2024.

“[The song] is the energy of who I am, the type of man I represent. Now, if you identify with the man that I represent,” Kendrick explained.

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“This man has morals, he has values, he believes in something, he stands on something. He’s not pandering. He’s a man who can recognize his mistakes and not be afraid to share the mistakes and can dig deep down into fear-based ideologies or experiences to be able to express them without feeling like he’s less of a man.”

He added: “If I’m thinking of ‘Not Like Us,’ I’m thinking of me and whoever identifies with that.”

SZA then asked Kendrick how he makes such combative songs considering he is not an angry person.

“I don’t believe I’m an angry person. But I do believe in love and war, and I believe they both need to exist,” he explained.