Kendrick Lamar Says It’s Deeper Than Rap: “When You Conquer One Thing, You Want To Move On To The Next”

West Coast rapper Kendrick Lamar recently talked about his relationship with Aftermath Records boss Dr. Dre and why he sees his career going further than music-making.

According to K. Dot, he keeps in contact with the Doc as he continues to enjoy the success of his Beats By Dre headphones empire.

What happened in your first meeting with Dre? I was very excited, I wasn’t nervous at all. I was more excited, ’cause I knew that this was my shot, everything that l’ve worked for, everything I’ve built up to came down to that moment. What happened in that moment? That moment I recorded my first song with Dre, which was Compton, which is the last song on my album. Do you speak to him on a daily basis? Yeah I talk to him. And what’s he up to at the moment? At the moment he’s just working his Beats by Dre. Doing a lot of promo and press for that, getting buried in life right now. (I-D Vice)

Lamar also spoke on making his career go way beyond the music industry.

Can you see yourself moving to projects outside of music like he does with Beats? Yeah definitely. You know when you conquer one thing, you want to move on to the next and be able to challenge yourself? He inspired me to want to do that, once l get the years behind me, of being exceptionally great at music. (I-D Vice)

Recently, G-Unit head 50 Cent said the decline in music sales over the last decade has forced hip-hop artists to seek alternative ways to make bank.

“With the music culture, you were a sellout to be a part of doing business with a major corporation,” he said. “You were considered a crossover from hard-core hip-hop. Now technology has changed how people consume music. Because music companies aren’t making as much as they were from CD sales, they’re not providing the marketing dollars. Now you see the biggest artists in a car commercial with their new song.” (CNBC)

Last week, Kendrick spoke out on coming up short at the annual Grammy Awards to fellow hip-hop artist Macklemore.

“It’s well deserved; he did what he did, man,” Kendrick said. “He went out there and hustled and grinded. Everything happens for a reason; the universe comes back around, that’s how it go.” While Kendrick may have grounds to feel snubbed, he’s hardly the first rapper to come up empty; hip-hop legends such as Snoop Dogg and Nas have been snubbed numerous times. “I definitely feel like they should always have more of the culture up in there, for sure, because we definitely stand out just like any other genre,” Kendrick said when asked if he thought the Grammys undervalued hip-hop (XXL Mag)

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