Kendrick Lamar
I'm listening to a lot of oldies.A lot of Al Green, Marvin Gaye. Luther Vandross... they were some of my icons.Collection: Icons
I was raised inside the gang culture.Collection: Culture
The moment I made that decision to get in the studio and actually work and study the culture of hip-hop, then everything just started to open up and blossom for me.Collection: Hip Hop
There's a lot of other artists doing things outside of that depth that I enjoy - that music that I can actually have fun to, and not be in depth and think about, then I appreciate that.Collection: Fun
I think all Geminis are kids at heart. And that's why they're able to simplify some of the most complex things and connect with people. It's having that kid spirit.Collection: Heart
I went to South Africa - Durban, Cape Town, Johannesburg - and those were definitely the "I've arrived" shows. Outside of the money, the success, the accolades ... This is a place that we, in urban communities, never dream of. We never dream of Africa. Like, "Damn, this is the motherland." You feel it as soon as you touch down. That moment changed my whole perspective on how to convey my art.Collection: Dream
You can have the platinum album, but when you still feel like you haven't quite found your place in the world - it kind of gives a crazy offset.Collection: Crazy
Teenagers expressing this on a daily basis in the middle of the streets - you can't help but believe we are in the mind state of taking our losses and changing people's perceptions of us and our community. We are strong. Our families are tired of being hurt.Collection: Strong
Hip-hop and being a pro athlete go hand in hand. When they come together, it's a win, not just for your business brand but also for culture.Collection: Athlete
The more people I meet, the more cultures I start to embrace, the more people I open myself up to - it's a growing process I'm excited about. But it's also a challenge for me, to be at this level and still be able to connect with somebody who's living that everyday life. At first it was something I struggled with, because everything was moving so fast. I didn't know how to digest it. The best thing I did was go back to the city of Compton, to touch the people who I grew up with and tell them the stories of the people I met around the world.Collection: Moving
I really focus on what my fans will take from it, people living their day-to-day lives. At the end of the day, the music isn't for me; it's for people who are going through their struggles and want to relate to someone who feels the same way they do. I've got to go all-in, expressing myself, right there in the moment.Collection: Struggle
I am from the inner city, the ghetto. If I can use my platform to carry on a legacy and talk about something that's real, I have to do that, period.Collection: Real
Toronto's one of my favourite places. If I were to move anywhere out of California, it would be Toronto. Definitely.Collection: Moving
There are so many people pulling at me at one time - some want the business, some want my love, some just want my support, just to be there or to acknowledge them the same way I used to. To be able to figure that out is an ongoing process, because there's always another show, another album, another moment that I don't want to miss. But I'm pacing myself. I hope the powers that be keep me on a straight course.Collection: People
[ Drizzy] is a good dude , he's been looked out and reached out, and I admire the talent.Collection: Talent
How am I influencing so many people on this stage rather than influencing the ones that I have back home?Collection: Home
I felt like, what better way for people to understand me by taking the initiative in giving my real name, my name that moms taught me so y'all actually know what's going on in my life and my music.Collection: Mom
The people definitely shape the two, put stamps and classify mainstream and underground music.Collection: Two
Got in the studio at sixteen, [and] that's when I felt like I wanted to make this a career. I had a passion for it.Collection: Passion
I went back and studied the game, was a student of the game and worked on my craft and dedicated myself, you know? A lot of my music revolves around me growing up in Compton. I want to tell a different story that's never been told before, of a good kid in a mad city.Collection: Growing Up
Everybody has their own way of hearing songs. My fans are usually pretty on point. Sometimes they go all the way to the bottom of it. It's fascinating to me how far an idea can go. I wrote most of my first album in my mom's kitchen, and now I can go around the world and hear people recite those lyrics, and understand the story, even though they're not from the same area I grew up in.Collection: Song
The best way to describe myself would be...unpredictable.Collection: Would Be
Don't you know your imperfections is a wonderful blessing, from heaven is where you got it fromCollection: Rap
But what love got to do with it when you don't love yourself ?Collection: Love You
It's the beauty in her, But when the makeup occur, I don't see it, All i see is a blurCollection: Rap
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.Collection: Dream
Color don't tell if people Black. It's the soul.Collection: Color
I'm standing on a field full of landmines doing the moonwalk hoping i blow up in timeCollection: Rap
I cut off my ears before i hear your advice and vice versaCollection: Rap
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.Collection: Love Is
Consequences from evil will make your past haunt youCollection: Rap
The Universe energy doesn't lie.Collection: Lying
I'd rather not live like there isn't a God Then die and find out there really is Think about itCollection: Rap
Kids don't see hate in their eyes. They see the world, and living in it to the best of their abilities. And that's where love comes from for me.Collection: Hate
Poetic justice, poetic justice.. if I told you that a flower bloom in a dark room would you trust it. I mean I write poems in these songs.Collection: Song
No matter how much good things are going on around you, you still have them little negative things that just wanna come out in front. But you bottle them in because you have so many other great things, but they still there.Collection: Negative
I be off the slave ships, building pyramids, writing my own hieroglyphsCollection: Writing
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 been a war between the two.Collection: War
I sit and talk to kids all day, because I feel like they carry the most wisdom.Collection: Kids
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.Collection: Basketball
I aint a drinker Im a thinker, call it what you wantCollection: Want
I stole a Bible, is that a sin?Collection: Sin
Believe in God, it's only one God. F*** all that religion s***. Believe in one God, and do right. Try your best to do right, we ain't perfect. Just do that and everything will be straight.Collection: Believe
If I can look at a 6-year-old and learn from him, that's life. That's God for me, that's inspiring.Collection: Years
Am I the only one who measures time using songs? “Oh it only took me 4 songs to get here! that’s not to long!Collection: Song
A dollar might turn to a million and we all rich that's just how i feelCollection: Rap
You can't change where you from. You can't take a person out of their zone and expect them to be somebody else now that they in the record industry. It's gonna take years. Years of travelling. Years of meeting people. Years of seeing the world.Collection: Years