Zane Lowe talks to Kendrick Lamar about DAMN., Longevity & Being Influenced by JAY Z
Zane Lowe sat down and talked to K. Dot for an insightful 45-minute interview.
ON JAY Z
“My boy Dave will tell you, I was in his garage and all my ad-libs sounded like Jay Z. My words, my flow. With Jay Z, I wanted to have the conversational type of wordplay and aspect of things. He just felt like he was natural and he was fluent with it.”
ON TUPAC
No matter how many times I come into my own Kendrick Lamar, which I felt I’ve done over the years, I will always have that sense of reaching a certain standard as far as empathy and compassion towards a record the same way Pac approached music. It will always be in the back of my head to never forget that. No matter how big the hit record gets, no matter how big the album gets always have that compassion. And that’s why his memory and his legacy in my music will never leave.
ON BEING THE GREATEST
(On being the greatest rapper alive:) “I got to. I’m so passionate about hip hop, man. I love it to a point that I can’t even describe it. And when I heard these artists say they are the best coming up, I said, I’m not doing it to have a good song or one good rap or a good hook or a good bridge. I want to keep doing it every time. Period. And to do it every time, you have to challenge yourself, and confirm to yourself, not anybody else, that you are the best. No can take that away from me. That’s my drive and that’s my hunger that I will always have.”
DAMN. VS. To Pimp a Butterfly
“To Pimp a Butterfly would be the idea of the thought of changing the world and how we worked and approached things. DAMN. would be the idea I can’t change the world until I change myself. So when you listen to records like ‘PRIDE.,’ ‘HUMBLE.,’ ‘LUST.,’ ‘LOVE.,’ these are all just human emotions and me looking in the mirror and coming to grips with them. Thinking of the idea of the word itself and combine them in two records. I would hope the listener can take heed and grab something from both of them two ideas and carry out their day to the best potential of themselves they see.”
ON THE ELECTION
“I have a lot of records [about the election]. Just off of pure frustration. Just off the simple wow-factor of what’s going on. What happens is, I have these records, and there are certain things in these songs that I may pull pieces from to make sure that it’s covered.
ON DAMN. NOT BEING ABOUT TRUMP
“I wanted more self-evaluation and discipline because — what’s going on now — we’re not focusing on him [Trump]. What’s going on now: we focusing on self.”
[HNHH]
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