Kendrick Lamar Quotes

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

If I told you that a flower bloomed in a dark room, would you trust it?

Don't you know your imperfections is a wonderful blessing, from heaven is where you got it from

You don't hear no artists from Compton showing vulnerability.

How am I influencing so many people on this stage rather than influencing the ones that I have back home?

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.

I'm listening to a lot of oldies.A lot of Al Green, Marvin Gaye. Luther Vandross... they were some of my icons.

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.

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.

The times that we are in, it's something that you can only feel in the air. You don't even have to talk about it. You don't need the news or the Internet to watch it. You can walk outside and just feel it.

I don't sugarcoat it you'd die from diabetes if these other niggas wrote it

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'm Machiavelli's offspring, I'm the king of New York, king of the coast, one hand, I juggle them both.

Colorism is not a good thing, especially when you're Black.

I like to let things breathe.

People gonna be they own individuals and have they own worlds and I can't knock it.

I learned, when I look in the mirror and tell my story, that I should be myself and not peep whatever everybody is doing.

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.

I can say is if anyone gets a chance to work with [Dr.]Dre, it's a moment you will always take with you throughout your career. And as of right now, the Compton album is the only thing to talk about.

A lot of incredible rap albums over the past couple of decades have deserved Album of the Year. 'To Pimp a Butterfly' is an extension of those albums.

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.

There's kids out there that have so much life to live. That's a beautiful thing.

We're all human at the end of the day, making mistakes. But learn from them is the key.

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.

The limit is the sky, and I live on cloud. And I recognize my nemesis gon try, to put a finish in my shine. But pussy we'll hurt you, life in the power circle.

I sit and talk to kids all day, because I feel like they carry the most wisdom.

I don't talk about these things if I haven't lived them, and I've hurt people in my life. It's something I still have to think about when I sleep at night.

I'm African American / I'm African / I'm black as the moon.

Build your own pyramids, write your own hieroglyphs.

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.

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.

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!

We hurt people that love us, love people that hurt us

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.

Hip-hop is not the problem, our reality is the problem.

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.

Eventually you get to this point where you understand what you want to do and get across and sound like.

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.

Being where you from is a strong genetic. You can't run from it.

My pops and my mom started playing Marvin Gaye and the Isley Brothers and all these people, but at the same time, they always had Snoop on right behind it in the same mix.

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.

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.

I'm constantly thinking.

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.

I see conflict. But the conflict is what makes it relatable. I'm conflicted; you're conflicted. I'm not perfect - nobody is. I'm just blessed to be able to express my conflict through song.

[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."

Toronto's one of my favourite places. If I were to move anywhere out of California, it would be Toronto. Definitely.

The one in front of the gun lives forever