Kendrick Lamar has discussed what it was like first meeting his mentor and musical hero Dr Dre.
Lamar recently released his critically-acclaimed album ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’ and appeared on BBC Radio 1 on Thursday night (June 11) to speak to Annie Mac. In the interview, the rapper discussed his track ‘Compton’ from 2012’s ‘good Kid, m.A.A.d city’ album, revealing that it was the first song he ever worked on with Dre.
SEE MORE: Kendrick Lamar’s 10 Best Lyrics
“It came to a point where I had to really snap out of fan mode and become a professional because after we were introduced, he said he liked my music and I said that I’m a fan of his work,” Lamar told Mac. “Then he said, ‘Okay, now write to this, write a full song to this’. Right after I said ‘Man, Dr. Dre, you’re the greatest’ and he was like, ‘Yeah man, you’re good too, you could be something… alright now write to this beat’. And that beat ended up being the first song I did with him and ended up on my album called ‘Compton’.”
Watch the full interview below.
Meanwhile, Kendrick Lamar has spoken about the roots behind ‘King Kunta in a video interview with NME. Watch here.
The rapper said: “I always stand in the root of where I’m from.” Discussing the track’s creation, Lamar name checked various sources of inspiration. First explaining that he was “paying homage” to “the creator”, fellow Compton rapper Mausberg – who was shot in 2000, and his DJ Quik produced track ‘Get Nekkid.’
“Suga Free played a big part in my community coming up, in Compton,” Lamar continued. “I’m sure he studied James Brown to get that cadence, just the way I studied James Brown to hear it in both of them.”
Describing the track as a whole, Lamar explained that it was, “the story of struggle and standing up for what you believe in. No matter how many barriers you gotta break down, no matter how many escape routes you gotta run to tell the truth. That’s what I think we all can relate to.”
“Just being the most confident in the things that I wrote and the ideas that I have,” he continued. “Going back to the essence of being a true lyricist at heart.”
Kendrick Lamar will appear live in the UK this summer with festival dates at Wireless and Reading & Leeds confirmed.