Kendrick Lamar Quotes

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.

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.

My mind is living on cloud 9 and this 9 is never on vacation.

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.

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.

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.

If I'm gonna tell a real story, I'm gonna start with my name.

I had to come from something, come from a place that was negative and positive but the majority of it is a negative place.

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.

My grandma always said, "Where there's a will, there's a way." I think it's just naturally in our DNA to be able to survive. We was always taught that: to survive. When you talking about slavery, it's to survive.

My whole thing is to inspire, to better people, to better myself forever in this thing that we call rap, this thing that we call hip hop.

The best way to describe myself would be...unpredictable.

I'd rather not live like there isn't a God Then die and find out there really is Think about it

I can be calm and reflective from time to time and other times I can have a burst of energy, that's just me.

Found myself screaming in a hotel room. I didn't want to self-destruct.

I am a sinner....who's probably gonna sin again...Lord forgive me!

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.

Life Will Put Many Red Lights In Front Of You, But Sometimes We Must Push On The Gas And Trust God

My lyrics say I have morals, I have confidence, I have weaknesses, I have strong points, that I am a human being.

You can't have people listen to you unless you come to their world and then bring them to yours.

Consequences from evil will make your past haunt you

We look so much on color that we forget about the soul.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I aint a drinker Im a thinker, call it what you want

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.

Groups break up because they never got across what they wanted to do personally, and they have creative differences, and egos start to clash.

The worst part of success is, to me, adapting to it. It's scary.

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.

But what love got to do with it when you don't love yourself ?

Color don't tell if people Black. It's the soul.

Although the butterfly and the caterpillar are completely different, they are one and the same.

I started doing music when I was thirteen; I actually started writing my first rhymes.

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.

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.

I don't vote. I don't do no voting.

From what I remember, I remember always being a big fan of Kardinal Offishall. He just had that different flow and different flavor. He put himself on the record and that's the type of energy that we love.

I was raised inside the gang culture.

I cut off my ears before i hear your advice and vice versa

[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.

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.

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.

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.

If I can look at a 6-year-old and learn from him, that's life. That's God for me, that's inspiring.

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.

My rights, my wrongs, I write ‘til I’m right with God.