Kendrick Lamar Quotes
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From the moment I started writing raps, I was always aware of the pressure. I always wanted to live up to how huge Snoop got, how huge Dre got, how huge Pac got. I was always aware.
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People are used to music that justifies street culture but something that's not touched on is why these kids act the way they act, live the way they live.
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Me, as a person, I grow. I'm like a chameleon. You know? That is a gift and a curse for me. But more so a gift, because it never puts me in a box.
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My whole thing is to inspire, to better people, to better myself forever in this thing that we call rap, this thing that we call hip hop.
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I think my vice would be outdoing myself.
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Being acknowledged for your work is always a great accomplishment, whether it's people in my city, kids in the street, all the way up to the Grammys.
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Tupac, Biggie, Jay. Your usual suspects. These were the people that was played in my household.
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I think that's why I put my energy into making music. That's how I get my thoughts out, instead of being crazy all the time.
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I'm putting out this free music, constantly putting it out.
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I'm only as good as my last word, my last hook, my last bridge.
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Sonnymoon and Quadrants are a couple of bands that really inspire me in terms of the melodics of things and certain tones and just what feels good. It takes me back to the type of music that I grew up on in my household. We played a lot of gangsta rap, but we also played a lot of oldies, and I think that mix is part of what inspires my sound.
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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.
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I don't want to be something that just comes and goes.
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The way people look at me these days - that's the same way I looked at President Obama before I met him. We tend to forget that people who've attained a certain position are human.
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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.
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I don't really believe in the type of pressure that people are wanting to put on the type of music that I make.
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This is the thing about hip-hop music and where people get it most misconstrued: It's all hip-hop. You can't say that just what I do is hip-hop, because hip-hop is all energies. James Brown can get on the track and mumble all day. But guess what? You felt his soul on those records.
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My parents were fairly young in the city of Compton. So the things that they played - you know, that was the hip crowd. So I was being exposed to all these ideas, from Big Daddy Kane to Eazy-E to the Bay Area - Too Short, E-40 - you know, back to Marvin Gaye and the Isley Brothers.
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The hardest thing for - not only an artist but for anybody to do is look themselves in the mirror and acknowledge, you know, their own flaws and fears and imperfections and put them out there in the open for people to relate to it.
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I'm selfish.
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Before finding music, I didn't have too many aspirations. I wanted to hang out, make a little money from whatever I had to do.
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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.
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If my edge is dull, my sword is dull, and I don't want to fight another guy whose sword is dull. If you've got two steel swords going back and forth hitting each other, what's gonna happen? Both of them are going to get sharper. Everybody that's in the industry has lost their edge.
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My folks ain't graduated from high school or nothing like that, so we always had to struggle in the family - and I come from a big family.