Quotes by Kendrick Lamar - Page 4

And I'm not sure why I'm infatuated with death, My imagination is surely an aggravation of threats... Maybe cause I'm a dreamer, and sleep is the cousin of death, Really stuck in the scheme of wondering when I'mma rest.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Cousin
Rap
Sleep
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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.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Men
Artist
Bunch
Honest
Honest People
Mistake
Ruins
State
Yes
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I wanted the next family to hurt, because you made my family hurt. Them emotions were still running in me... Whether I'm a rap star or not, if I still feel like that, then I'm part of the problem rather than the solution.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Running
Hurt
Stars
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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.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Bottles
Littles
Negative
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The HiiiPower Movement is a movement that's going on all throughout the world like a virus. It's about being on a higher level than the industry. It's a movement we started to be above all the bullshit that's been going on.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Bullshit
Movement
Viruses
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Brother Kendrick Lamar: he's not a rapper, he's a writer, he's an author. And if you read between the lines, we'll learn how to love one another. But you can't do that, I said you can't do that, without loving yourself first.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Brother
Loving Yourself
Rapper
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When I look at comedy, it's all self-expression. I apply that same method to my music. I came up listening to N.W.A and Snoop. Like them, it's in me to express how I feel. You might like it or you might not, but I take that stand.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Comedy
Listening
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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.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Acknowledge
Artist
Flaws
Hardest
Hardest Thing
Relate
Mirror Look People
Anybody
Open
Fears
Look
Imperfections
Put
Mirror
The Hardest Thing
Themselves
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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.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Bible
Grandma
Days
Last
Making
Truly
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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.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Excitement
Me Look Way
Michael
Dr
Dre
Look Me Looking
Jackson
Jay
Joint
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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.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
People
Records
Years
Copy Quote
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.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Girl
Beaten
People
Perceive
Scared
Stupid
Dared
Robbed
Copy Quote
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.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Artist
Caught
Positivity
Purpose
Trying
Love Time Great
Artists
Divert
Same Time
Timeline
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What happened to [Michael Brown] should've never happened. Never. But when we don't have respect for ourselves, how do we expect them to respect us? It starts from within. Don't start with just a rally, don't start from looting - it starts from within.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Brown
Happened
Should
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[Drizzy] reached out to me through Chase N Cashe, they're brothers, they're one. Chase N Cashe made the connection, played some of my music and he [Drake] got up on it, got interested in the music and just reached out and said "You know what, let's work."
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Brother
Connections
Made
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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.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Hurt
Strong
Teenager
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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.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Blessing
Money Myself Always
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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.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Blessing
Careers
Feel Better
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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.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Kids
Cities
Growing Up
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If my edge is dull, my sword is dull, and I don't want to fight another guy whose sword is dull. If you've got two steel swords going back and forth hitting each other, what's gonna happen? Both of them are going to get sharper. Everybody that's in the industry has lost their edge.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Dull
Guy
Hitting
Industry
Lost
Steel
Fight
Each
Edge
Forth
Gonna
Happen
Sharper
Sword
Whose
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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.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Brown
Track
All Day
Energies
James
Mumble
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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.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Bay Area
Daddy
Exposed
Fairly
Bay
Crowd
Hip
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We all, we all good people just trying to escape the negative influence that come around us and that's the story of my life, you know? Trying my best to get around the ills and I bumped my head a few times but I think, you know, music is my savior for right now, for me and my whole group.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
People
Thinking
Trying
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[Drizzy] ,it was dope. A great experience, especially with the topic he was talking about and to be... organic.I'm glad that it worked out the way it did where I got to tell my story, tell his story at the same time... and actually have it make sense as far as the whole concept of the album.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Albums
Dope
Talking
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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.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
California
House
Pops
Ran
Shooting
Video
Years
Love Me Back
Neck
Dr
Dre
Stood
Tupac
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Sometimes you have the trends that's not that cool. You may have certain artists portraying these trends and don't really have that lifestyle, and then it gives off the wrong thing. And it becomes kinda corny after awhile. It's really about keeping hip-hop original and pushing away the corniness in it.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Artist
Corny
Giving
Hip Hop
Lifestyle
Portraying
Pushing
Trends
Artists
Awhile
Original
Wrong Thing
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It's a long time coming as far as the work that I put in. Now I know that I got the stamp but what counts is what comes behind. That's what's really important. Upholding that stamp and not only keeping the energy my way but also spreading that energy out to other artists that are coming up on the West Coast.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Artist
Important
Long
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K. Dot was a kid who was trying to find himself in music, finding trends, um, bending towards - ready to bend towards what the industry was telling me to do and after you mature at a certain time in your life, you come into your own...your own niche, your own personality, not only as an artist but as a person.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Kids
Artist
Personality
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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.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Focus
People
Struggle
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You grow up inside these neighborhoods and these communities, and you have friends, friends that you love, friends that you grew up with since elementary. And you have their trust, and you have their loyalty. So it brings influence. So no matter how much of a leader I thought I was, I was always under the influence, period.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Loyalty
Community
Growing Up
Leader
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The majority of my interactions with police were not good. There were a few good ones who were actually protecting the community. But then you have ones from the Valley. 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. Sixteen years old.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Basketball
Hood
Majority
Police
Shorts
Sixteen
Slam
Life Good Car
Wanna
Life Car Good
Good Ones
Interactions
Met
Protecting
Valley
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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.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Independent
Lifestyle
Planet Earth
Temptation
Disposal
Exists
Planet
Same Thing
Worse
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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.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Certain
Feels
Household
Inspire
Oldies
Sound
Type
Good Music Me
Played
Inspires
Mix
Terms
Takes
Tones
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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.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Forever
Half
People
Copy Quote
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.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Kitchen
People
Song
Copy Quote
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.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Art
Dream
Perspective
Copy Quote
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.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Missing
People
Support
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The more I started going through my own things in life, my faith got put to the test, and I had to believe that God is real in my heart, my lord and savior Jesus Christ, and I can't run from that. I'll always put that in my music or it just wouldn't be right. People can take it or leave it, I really don't care, because it's for me to put it on records. And I will continue to put more of a spiritual nature in my music.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Jesus
Running
Spiritual
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I'm usually homeboys with the same ni**as I'm rhyming wit/But this is hip-hop and them ni**as should know what time it is/And that goes for Jermaine Cole, Big KRIT, Wale/Pusha T, Meek Millz, A$AP Rocky, Drake/Big Sean, Jay Electron', Tyler, Mac Miller/I got love for you all but I'm tryna murder you ni**as/Tryna make sure your core fans never heard of you ni**as/They dont wanna hear not one more noun or verb from you ni**as
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Hip Hop
Nouns
Verbs
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Music was just played all around me, and I couldn't run from it. My pops, he never learned to sing, but he'd have his little drink on the side, and he'd put on the best of his hits - gangster rap or oldies - and he'd sing all day on his mic plugged up to the wall set-up. It's a trip. I've just seen that my whole life, so I've always just had a love for music. By the time I was 13, I really just jumped in it. And it's something I took on to have as a hobby.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Running
Rap
Wall
Copy Quote
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.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Challenges
Moving
People
Copy Quote
As I've grown as an artist, I've learned that my mission statement is really self-expression. I don't want anybody to classify my music. I want them to say, "This is somebody who's recognizing his true feelings, his true emotions, ideas, thoughts, opinions, and views on the world, all on one record." I want people to recognize that and to take it and apply it to their own lives. You know what I'm saying? The more and more I get out and talk to different people, I realize they appreciate that - me being unapologetic in whatever views and approach I have.
Kendrick Lamar / Recording Artist
Appreciate
Artist
People
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Kendrick Lamar Quotes - Page 4

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