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You Can Have The Platinum Album, But When You Still Feel Like You Haven't Quite Found Your Place In The World - It Kind Of Gives A Crazy Offset.

-Kendrick Lamar

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You Can Have The

Kendrick Lamar

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You Can Have The Platinum Album, But When You Still Feel Like You Haven't Quite Found Your Place In The World - It Kind Of Gives A Crazy Offset.

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Groups Break Up Because They Never Got Across What They Wanted To Do Personally, And They Have Creative Differences, And Egos Start To Clash.

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The People Definitely Shape The Two, Put Stamps And Classify Mainstream And Underground Music.

As I've Grown As An Artist, I've Learned That My Mission Statement Is Really Self-expression. I Don't Want Anybody To Classify My Music. I Want Them To Say, "this Is Somebody Who's Recognizing His True Feelings, His True Emotions, Ideas, Thoughts, Opinions, And Views On The World, All On One Record." I Want People To Recognize That And To Take It And Apply It To Their Own Lives. You Know What I'm Saying? The More And More I Get Out And Talk To Different People, I Realize They Appreciate That - Me Being Unapologetic In Whatever Views And Approach I Have.

Everybody Looking At You Crazy, What You Gon' Do? Lift Up Your Head And Keep Moving, Or Let The Paranoia Haunt You?

I Started Doing Music When I Was Thirteen; I Actually Started Writing My First Rhymes.

The Thing About Hip-hop Is They Always Want To Classify You As One Particular Artist, But Hip-hop Is About Going Outside The Box And Expressing Yourself However You Want To.

K. Dot Was A Kid Who Was Trying To Find Himself In Music, Finding Trends, Um, Bending Towards - Ready To Bend Towards What The Industry Was Telling Me To Do And After You Mature At A Certain Time In Your Life, You Come Into Your Own...your Own Niche, Your Own Personality, Not Only As An Artist But As A Person.

I Was Raised Inside The Gang Culture.

The Sky Is Falling, The Wind Is Calling Stand For Something, Or Die In The Morning

What Happened To [michael Brown] Should've Never Happened. Never. But When We Don't Have Respect For Ourselves, How Do We Expect Them To Respect Us? It Starts From Within. Don't Start With Just A Rally, Don't Start From Looting - It Starts From Within.

We All, We All Good People Just Trying To Escape The Negative Influence That Come Around Us And That's The Story Of My Life, You Know? Trying My Best To Get Around The Ills And I Bumped My Head A Few Times But I Think, You Know, Music Is My Savior For Right Now, For Me And My Whole Group.

But What Love Got To Do With It When You Don't Love Yourself ?

Hip-hop Is Not The Problem, Our Reality Is The Problem.

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Eventually You Get To This Point Where You Understand What You Want To Do And Get Across And Sound Like.

If I Can Look At A 6-year-old And Learn From Him, That's Life. That's God For Me, That's Inspiring.

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Being Able To Tell One From Start To Finish, And Making That Puzzle Come Together At The End. That's The Art For Me.

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I Don't Vote. I Don't Do No Voting.

You Really Can't Categorize My Music, It's Human Music.

Am I The Only One Who Measures Time Using Songs? “oh It Only Took Me 4 Songs To Get Here! That’s Not To Long!

Poetic Justice, Poetic Justice.. If I Told You That A Flower Bloom In A Dark Room Would You Trust It. I Mean I Write Poems In These Songs.

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I Knew I Was Blessed With A Gift Of Having Both Parents.

It's A Long Time Coming As Far As The Work That I Put In. Now I Know That I Got The Stamp But What Counts Is What Comes Behind. That's What's Really Important. Upholding That Stamp And Not Only Keeping The Energy My Way But Also Spreading That Energy Out To Other Artists That Are Coming Up On The West Coast.

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I Can't Help The Way You Was Born If You Was Gay.

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I Cut Off My Ears Before I Hear Your Advice And Vice Versa

Found Myself Screaming In A Hotel Room. I Didn't Want To Self-destruct.

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I Don't Even Have Kids. But At Heart, I'm A Kid Myself.

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You Don't Hear No Artists From Compton Showing Vulnerability.

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Great Experiences

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I Like To Let Things Breathe.

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I Stole A Bible, Is That A Sin?

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Teenagers Expressing This On A Daily Basis In The Middle Of The Streets - You Can't Help But Believe We Are In The Mind State Of Taking Our Losses And Changing People's Perceptions Of Us And Our Community. We Are Strong. Our Families Are Tired Of Being Hurt.

A Lot Of Incredible Rap Albums Over The Past Couple Of Decades Have Deserved Album Of The Year. 'to Pimp A Butterfly' Is An Extension Of Those Albums.

My Pops And My Mom Started Playing Marvin Gaye And The Isley Brothers And All These People, But At The Same Time, They Always Had Snoop On Right Behind It In The Same Mix.

As Long As My Music Is Real, It's No Limit To How Many Ears I Can Grab.

At First, I Was Scared To Show Fear Because You Can Never Be Sure How People Will Perceive You. But I Dared Myself To Do That, To Stand Out. Now I'll Talk About Being Beaten Up Or Robbed Or Making A Stupid Decision Because Of A Girl Or Whatever.

That's The Ultimate Thing I Want To Do In Making Music - To Be Able To Inspire Somebody Else.

I Be Off The Slave Ships, Building Pyramids, Writing My Own Hieroglyphs

Once I Looked In The Mirror And Decided This Is Who I Am, And I'm Not Scared Of Who I Am, And I'm Not Scared That I Can't Be Like You, And I'm Good With Just Doing Me, That's When I Found Myself, As A Man.

I Always Thought Money Was Something Just To Make Me Happy. But I’ve Learned That I Feel Better Being Able To Help My Folks, ’cause We Never Had Nothing. So Just To See Them Excited About My Career Is More Of A Blessing Than Me Actually Having It For Myself.

The Best Way To Describe Myself Would Be...unpredictable.

I Felt Like, What Better Way For People To Understand Me By Taking The Initiative In Giving My Real Name, My Name That Moms Taught Me So Y'all Actually Know What's Going On In My Life And My Music.

When You Go On Your Twitter Or Look Down Your Timeline And It's All Great Positivity - I Love That. But At The Same Time, It Can Really Divert You From What Your Purpose Is Or What You're Trying To Do. And I've Seen Artists Get Caught Up In That.

The More People I Meet, The More Cultures I Start To Embrace, The More People I Open Myself Up To - It's A Growing Process I'm Excited About. But It's Also A Challenge For Me, To Be At This Level And Still Be Able To Connect With Somebody Who's Living That Everyday Life. At First It Was Something I Struggled With, Because Everything Was Moving So Fast. I Didn't Know How To Digest It. The Best Thing I Did Was Go Back To The City Of Compton, To Touch The People Who I Grew Up With And Tell Them The Stories Of The People I Met Around The World.

We Hurt People That Love Us, Love People That Hurt Us

I Live This Life At A Pace That Anyone Can Go. Know Your Place, And Dedicate Your Role ...to The Faith That You'll Die Alone

I Wanted The Next Family To Hurt, Because You Made My Family Hurt. Them Emotions Were Still Running In Me... Whether I'm A Rap Star Or Not, If I Still Feel Like That, Then I'm Part Of The Problem Rather Than The Solution.

I Always Felt Like There Was A Certain Standard Of Music That I Had To Do From The Beginning, Even When I Didn't Have The Recognition That I Have Now.

My Mom's One Of 13 Siblings, And They All Got Six Kids, And Till I Was 13 Everybody Was In Compton.

I'm Constantly Thinking.

Constantly Thinking

I Think My Vice Would Be Outdoing Myself.

The One In Front Of The Gun Lives Forever

I Really Focus On What My Fans Will Take From It, People Living Their Day-to-day Lives. At The End Of The Day, The Music Isn't For Me; It's For People Who Are Going Through Their Struggles And Want To Relate To Someone Who Feels The Same Way They Do. I've Got To Go All-in, Expressing Myself, Right There In The Moment.

The Hiiipower Movement Is A Movement That's Going On All Throughout The World Like A Virus. It's About Being On A Higher Level Than The Industry. It's A Movement We Started To Be Above All The Bullshit That's Been Going On.

Colorism Is Not A Good Thing, Especially When You're Black.

Music Was Just Played All Around Me, And I Couldn't Run From It. My Pops, He Never Learned To Sing, But He'd Have His Little Drink On The Side, And He'd Put On The Best Of His Hits - Gangster Rap Or Oldies - And He'd Sing All Day On His Mic Plugged Up To The Wall Set-up. It's A Trip. I've Just Seen That My Whole Life, So I've Always Just Had A Love For Music. By The Time I Was 13, I Really Just Jumped In It. And It's Something I Took On To Have As A Hobby.

I Am From The Inner City, The Ghetto. If I Can Use My Platform To Carry On A Legacy And Talk About Something That's Real, I Have To Do That, Period.

I Had To Come From Something, Come From A Place That Was Negative And Positive But The Majority Of It Is A Negative Place.

Negative And Positive

You Can't Change Where You From. You Can't Take A Person Out Of Their Zone And Expect Them To Be Somebody Else Now That They In The Record Industry. It's Gonna Take Years. Years Of Travelling. Years Of Meeting People. Years Of Seeing The World.

The Worst Part Of Success Is, To Me, Adapting To It. It's Scary.

I See Conflict. But The Conflict Is What Makes It Relatable. I'm Conflicted; You're Conflicted. I'm Not Perfect - Nobody Is. I'm Just Blessed To Be Able To Express My Conflict Through Song.

We All Get Distracted, The Question Is, Would You Bounce Back Or Bounce Backwards?

I Don't Sugarcoat It You'd Die From Diabetes If These Other Niggas Wrote It

I Want You To Recognize That I'm A Proud Monkey...

You Can't Have People Listen To You Unless You Come To Their World And Then Bring Them To Yours.

We All Seem To Stumble, Planning Our Own Demise, Getting The Big Picture, And Making It Wallet-sized.

How Am I Influencing So Many People On This Stage Rather Than Influencing The Ones That I Have Back Home?

The Times That We Are In, It's Something That You Can Only Feel In The Air. You Don't Even Have To Talk About It. You Don't Need The News Or The Internet To Watch It. You Can Walk Outside And Just Feel It.

Every Time I Write These Words They Become A Taboo, Making Sure My Punctuation Curve, Every Letter Here's True, Living My Life In The Margin, And That Metaphor Was Proof.

Consequences From Evil Will Make Your Past Haunt You

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