Kendrick Lamar whose full name is Kendrick Lamar Duckworth was born in Compton, California USA. He came to the scene as a rapper and songwriter. Now an internationally acclaimed artist, Lamar began his career as a teenage sensation with the name K-dot. In a time when mixed tapes were slowly becoming a thing of the past, Lamar was able to get the attention of a well-known record company, eventually teaming up with other high brass artists such as Schoolboy Q and Jay Rock. Lamar would grow the range of his rap music as he induced funk, soul and jazz beats in his repertoire. By the time Lamar released his third album To Pimp a Butterfly, he had already made the grade, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Music despite his tune not being classical nor jazz.
As a further testament to his success, Kendrick Lamar was given the unique task of making 14-song soundtrack to the film Black Panther that starred the late American actor Chadwick Boseman. As further testament to Kendrick Lamar’s success, the number of awards he has bagged speaks of his greatness. These include Grammys, American Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards and many more. Lamar has made many all-time lists including those of in Time and Rolling Stone. Record deals, businesses, and other ventures continue to rain down upon the young rap superstar, Kendrick Lamar.
1. “Live your life, live it right. Be different, do different things.”
2. “I have a greater purpose. God put something in my heart to get across and that’s what I’m going to focus on, using my voice as an instrument and doing what needs to be done.”
3. “Groups break up because they never got across what they wanted to do personally, and they have creative differences, and egos start to clash.”
4. “I think that I finally reached the pinnacle. Finding myself as an individual.”
5. “I could never right my wrongs unless I write it down for real.”
6. “Black and brown pride has been taught in my household for a long time.”
7. “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.”
8. “I’m a person of my own opinions, that’s how I was raised. I speak what I feel. A lot of people feel the same way but they’re scared to talk. They’re really scared of the truth; they only want half of the truth. I’ve been living like that forever in fear but I know what to say and how to say it now. I ain’t scared of myself.”
9. “Love is not just a verb. It’s you looking in the mirror.”
10. “My folks didn’t graduate from high school or nothing like that, so we always had to struggle in the family and I come from a big family.”
11. “I don’t talk about these things if I haven’t lived them, and I’ve hurt people in my life. It’s something I still have to think about when I sleep at night. The message I’m sending to myself—I can’t change the world until I change myself first.”
12. “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.”
13. “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.”
14. “My mom always told me, ‘How long are you gonna play the victim?’ I can say I’m mad and I hate everything, but nothing really changes until I change myself.”
15. “Don’t wait until it’s too late, you might not get another chance.”
16. “I’d rather not live like there isn’t a God, then die and find out there really is. Think about it.”
17. “Temptation is just the feeling that you’re the most independent person on planet earth. That’s something that we all go through as a kid. Now, this lifestyle that I’m in, the same thing exists! But it’s ten times worse, because everything is at my disposal. When you’re in the limelight, you can get anything you want.”
18. “Tupac, Biggie, Jay. Your usual suspects. These were the people that played in my household.”
19. “We’re in the last days, man. I truly, in my heart, believe that. It’s written. I could go on with biblical situations and things my grandma told me. But it’s about being at peace with myself and making good with the people around me.”
20. “We all get distracted, the question is, would you bounce back or bounce backwards?”
21. “If I speak the good into existence, that instant my dreams will unlock, money will flow like water, I’ll just wait at the dock.”
22. “Everybody looking at you crazy, what you gon’ do? Lift up your head and keep moving, or let the paranoia haunt you?”
23. “The opposite of love? Vice. Temptation. The negative influences that we have. The bad energy that comes around us and makes us do certain things. To me, it’s always a war between the two.”
24. “My rights, my wrongs, I write ‘til I’m right with God.”
25. “People have to go through trials and tribulations to get where they are. Do your thing, continue to rock it, because obviously, God wants you here.”
26. “The best thing is to always keep honest people around, because when you have a bunch of yes men around that know that you’re making a mistake but let you go on with it, that’s when it ruins your mind state as an artist.”
27. “What separated me from all my homeboys is the fact that I didn’t get caught inside the reality. I was always dreaming about doing something else or going somewhere else.”
28. “You can’t change where you are from. You can’t take a person out of their zone and expect them to be somebody else now that they are in the record industry. It’s gonna take years. Years of travelling. Years of meeting people. Years of seeing the world.”
29. “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.”
30. “Forgiving is easy. Trusting again, not so much.”
31. “I had to come from something that was negative and positive, but the majority of it is a negative place.”
32. “Cooking in a laboratory, hoping I can tell a story that the whole world can feel like the ones that came before me, knowing that I’m misunderstood.”
33. “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.”
34. “Tough times don’t last, but tough people do.”
35. “Whatever pressure I feel all comes from me from within. I always was that person who was hard on myself and challenged myself no matter what I was doing, whether it was passing third grade or playing basketball.”
36. “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.”
37. “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.”
38. “The majority of my interactions with police were not good. There were a few good ones who were actually protecting the community. They never met me in their life, but since I’m a kid in basketball shorts and a white T-shirt, they wanna slam me on the hood of the car.”
39. “So, the next time you feel like the world’s about to end, I hope you studied, because he’s testing your faith again.”
40. “Tell me how I stay positive when they never see the good in me.”
41. “Take advantage. Do your best. Don’t stress. You were granted everything inside this planet. Anything you imagine, you possess.”
42. “I’ve got an extra-specific story about Dr. Dre. I saw him when I was 9 years old in Compton with him and Tupac. They were shooting the second ‘California Love’ video. My pops had seen him and ran back to the house and got me, put me on his neck, and we stood there watching Dre and Pac in a Bentley.”
43. “God to me is love. It’s the ruler of all things, whether it’s with a person or with music or with your TV. I feel like it’s this energy. God is energy, love is energy.”
44. “We hurt people that love us, love people that hurt us.”
45. “When I talk to kids, I’m really listening. When I do that, we have a little bit of a bigger connection than me being Kendrick Lamar and you being a student. It’s almost like we’re friends. Because a friend listens.”
46. “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.”
47. “Kids don’t see hate in their eyes. They see the world, and live in it to the best of their abilities. And that’s where love comes from for me.”
48. “I’m trying to learn something new. I’m trying to surround myself with people that inspire me, or at least inquire about similar desires.”
49. “We’re all human at the end of the day, making mistakes. But learning from them is key.”
50. “Look inside my soul and you can find gold, maybe get rich. Look inside of your shoulder and you can find out it never exists.”
51. “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.”
52. “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.”
53. “Being able to tell one from start to finish, and making that puzzle come together at the end. That’s art for me.”
54. “A 24 year old millionaire. Don’t read the contract ‘less a mill in there.”
55. “I am a sinner who’s probably gonna sin again. Lord forgive me!”
56. “I walk alone with a cross and a diamond stone. I’m a diamond inside the rough, that’s too mighty for maricons.”
57. “Life will put many red lights in front of you, but sometimes, we must push on the gas and trust God.”
58. “We’re all put on this earth to walk in His image, the Master.”
59. “You can’t have people listen to you unless you come to their world and then bring them to yours.”
60. “One for the money, two for the show, three for No Limit and the rest for Def Row.”
61. “My word will never be as strong as God’s word. All I am is just a vessel, doing His work.”
62. “I cut off my ears before I hear your advice and vice versa.”
63. “It’s a great, great experience to finally get the reception that you know you rightfully deserve.”
64. “Just let me be me. That’s the only way I know how to hold it down.”
65. “It’s the beauty in her, but when the makeup occurs, I don’t see it, all I see is a blur.”
66. “I think my vice would be outdoing myself.”
67. “Maybe because I’m a dreamer and sleep is the cousin of death.”
68. “People are gonna be their own individuals and have their own worlds, and I can’t knock it.”
69. “The Universe’s energy doesn’t lie.”
70. “I don’t want to be something that just comes and goes.”
