Kendrick Lamar Quotes

“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.”

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

“I've been called a recluse. There's definitely truth in that. I like to spend time alone.”

“Every time I write these words they become a taboo,Making sure my punctuation curve, every letter here's true,Living my life in the margin, and that metaphor was proof.”

“When everybody looks at our generation of kids, they always call us the misfits - you know, like we just don't give a damn.”

“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.”

“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.”

“I'm constantly thinking.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“From the moment I started writing raps, I was always aware of the pressure. I always wanted to live up to how huge Snoop got, how huge Dre got, how huge Pac got. I was always aware.”

“Being able to tell one from start to finish, and making that puzzle come together at the end. That's the art for me.”

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

“I want you to recognize that I'm a proud monkey...”

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

“I live this life at a pace that anyone can go.Know your place, and dedicate your role...To the faith that you'll die alone”

“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.”

“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.”

“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”

“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.”

“Build your own pyramids, write your own hieroglyphs.”

“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.”

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

“In all my days of schooling, from preschool all the way up to 12th grade, there was not one white person in my class. Literally zero.”