Kendrick Lamar has revealed what inspired his epic 2024, which saw him defeat Drake with a blitzkrieg of diss songs and drop his sixth (and arguably hardest) album GNX.
On Thursday (February 6), the Compton rap star sat down for a rare interview with Apple Music’s Ebro Darden and Nadeska Alexis ahead of his Super Bowl halftime show this weekend.
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Though he didn’t mention Drizzy by name, he did say that his ferocious output last year was driven by a desire to inject some “grit” back into the rap game, as well as his love of battle rap.
“My intent, from day one, was to always keep the nature of [Hip Hop] as a sport. I don’t care how muthafuckas look at it as far as a collaborative effort. That’s cool, too, but I love when artists grit their teeth,” he said.
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“I still watch battle raps, I still watch Smack/URL, from Murda Mook to [Loaded] Lux to Tay Roc to my bro Daylyt. This has always been the core definition of who I am. I don’t think it was a thing for this year; I think it was just a continuation [of what I’ve been doing].”
He added: “What I will say about this year, it was more from a space where I think a lot of people were putting rap to the back and you didn’t see that grit, you didn’t see that bite anymore.”
Elaborating on the inspiration behind GNX, which features a slew of combative hits like “Squabble Up,” “TV Off” and “Hey Now,” Kendrick said: “My [inspirations] were like DJ Quik and [Dr.] Dre, so I always had that DNA. You heard that DNA a little bit on good kid, m.A.A.d city, but I wanted to tell my story first.
“Fast forward to GNX, I just felt it was a perfect time because not only was the energy lost, but it was an energy that was bubbling inside of me as well.
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“I wanted to go back to the forefront of just the bite and the grit of rap. Just all raps and hard-ass beats. That’s the basics for me. I thought about what I used to like when I was a kid: hard raps and good beats that’s smacking.”
The pgLang co-founder also described his pivot from Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers to GNX as a “necessary” one.
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“It was a great transition from Mr. Morale because that was my most intimate album. I wanted to go inside of my own psyche and my own personal withdrawals and see how it connects with the public and see who could relate,” he shared.
“So this time around, I think it was necessary to come out of that cocoon and feel like, ‘I can spread my wins and show every state of who I am.'”
Later in the chat, Kendrick opened up about his recent success at the Grammys, where he took home five awards — including Record of the Year and Song of the Year — for his hit Drake diss “Not Like Us.”
“I was just thinking about the culture,” he said when asked about his reaction to his historic trophy haul. “It’s always that for me — I’m not even bullshitting. When people talk about rap, the conversations I hear, they think it’s just rap and not an actual artform.
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“So when you put records like [‘Not Like Us’] at the forefront, it reminds people that — they forget that this has even been going for 50 years and kinda belittle it,” he said. “So I love to see that it gets that type of recognition for straight raps, from awards to the Billboard [charts], all that.
“‘Cause this is truly just as big as an artform and a genre as any other genre. And I feel accomplished being able to do that.”
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Super Bowl LIX goes down this Sunday (February 9) in New Orleans, and will see the reigning champions Kansas City Chiefs face off against the Philadelphia Eagles.
After previously performing at the big game alongside Dr. Dre in 2022, Kendrick will become the first solo rapper to headline the halftime show.
