Kendrick Lamar
Tupac, Biggie, Jay. Your usual suspects. These were the people that was played in my household.
I don't vote. I don't do no voting.
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.
Black and brown pride have been taught in my household for a long time.
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.
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.
Temptation is just the feeling that you're the most independent person on planet Earth. That you know everything. 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 10 times worse, because everything is at my disposal. When you're in the limelight, you can get anything you want.
I'm putting out this free music, constantly putting it out.
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.
Groups break up because they never got across what they wanted to do personally, and they have creative differences, and egos start to clash.
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.
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.
You don't hear no artists from Compton showing vulnerability.
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.
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.
You can have the platinum album. But, you know, when you still feel like you haven't quite found your place in the world, it kind of gives a crazy offset.
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.
My passion is bringing storylines around and constructing a full body of work rather than just a 16-bar verse.
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.
When I went back to my old high school, all these kids looking at me like I'm the real big homie, the same way I look at Jay Z, Nas, or Dr. Dre. You would've thought Michael Jackson walked through that joint off the excitement that they had.
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.
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.
I've got an extra-specific story about Dr. Dre. I saw him when I was 9 years old in Compton - 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.
My mom's one of 13 siblings, and they all got six kids, and till I was 13 everybody was in Compton.
I don't really believe in the type of pressure that people are wanting to put on the type of music that I make.
Build your own pyramids, write your own hieroglyphs.Collection: Writing
We hurt people that love us, love people that hurt usCollection: Hurt
If I told you that a flower bloomed in a dark room, would you trust it?Collection: Rap
So next time you feel like your world is about to end, I hope you studied because He's testing your faith again.Collection: World
Look inside my soul and you can find gold and maybe get rich. Look inside of your soul and you can find out it never exists.Collection: Rap
I was a black sheep, but now I'm just a goatCollection: Sheep
Life Will Put Many Red Lights In Front Of You, But Sometimes We Must Push On The Gas And Trust GodCollection: Rap
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. Y'all may be scared; I'm not scared.Collection: People
We're all human at the end of the day, making mistakes. But learn from them is the key.Collection: Mistake
We all get distracted, the question is, would you bounce back or bounce backwards?Collection: Backwards
We look so much on color that we forget about the soul.Collection: Color
My mind is living on cloud 9 and this 9 is never on vacation.Collection: Vacation
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.Collection: Men
Although the butterfly and the caterpillar are completely different, they are one and the same.Collection: Butterfly
The one in front of the gun lives foreverCollection: Gun
Just let me be me, That's the only way I know.Collection: Way
You can't have people listen to you unless you come to their world and then bring them to yours.Collection: People
My rights, my wrongs, I write ‘til I’m right with God.Collection: Writing
The message I'm sending to myself - I can't change the world until I change myself first.Collection: World
I am a sinner....who's probably gonna sin again...Lord forgive me!Collection: Forgive Me