Kendrick Lamar Talks Spiritual, 'Urgent' New Album

"'To Pimp a Butterfly' was addressing the problem," rapper said in new interview. "I'm in a space now where I'm not addressing the problem anymore"

Kendrick Lamar detailed the spiritual, "urgent" direction of his upcoming fourth LP in a new interview. Chelsea Lauren/Rex

By Ryan Reed

5 hours ago

Kendrick Lamar teased the spiritual, "urgent" direction of his upcoming fourth LP, the follow-up to 2015's acclaimed To Pimp a Butterfly, in an interview with The New York Times style magazine T.

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"I think now, how wayward things have gone within the past few months, my focus is ultimately going back to my community and the other communities around the world where they're doing the groundwork," he said. "To Pimp a Butterfly was addressing the problem. I'm in a space now where I'm not addressing the problem anymore. We're in a time where we exclude one major component out of this whole thing called life: God. Nobody speaks on it because it's almost in conflict with what's going on in the world when you talk about politics and government and the system."

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The publication visited Lamar during a studio session in Santa Monica, California. While the inventive Compton rapper was hesitant to detail his latest musical direction, he spoke in cryptic analogies about his lyrical mindset. In particular, he focused on the idea of being a father one day and how he would handle watching his daughter mature over the years

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"One day, I may have a little girl," he said. "She's gonna grow up. She's gonna be a child I adore – I'm gonna always love her, but she's gonna reach that one point where she's gonna start experiencing things. And she's gonna say things or do things that you may not condone, but it's the reality of it, and you know she was always gonna get to that place. And it's disturbing. But you have to accept it. You have to accept it, and you have to have your own solutions to figure out how to handle the action and take action for it.

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"When I say 'the little girl,' it’s the analogy of accepting the moment when she grows up," he continued. "We love women; we enjoy their company. At one point in time, I may have a little girl who grows up and tells me about her engagements with a male figure – things that most men don't want to hear. Learning to accept it, and not run away from it, that’s how I want this album to feel."

Last year, Lamar issued the compilation untitled unmastered, featuring eight unfinished demos from the Butterfly sessions. Despite its work-in-progress billing, the LP debuted at Number One on the Billboard charts.

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RJOrion said:

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Why, i'm starting to get into his music, but it gets a little difficult for me to understand his lyrics. I'm not a native english speaker.

214 said:

RJOrion said:

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Why, i'm starting to get into his music, but it gets a little difficult for me to understand his lyrics. I'm not a native english speaker.

i dont know...i may just be so-called "hating", but something about his voice unnerves me...it has a robotic, cartoonish texture to it...he's definitely got the technical and lyrical skill...i just cant get past his voice...same with Anderson.Paak...

RJOrion said:

214 said:

Why, i'm starting to get into his music, but it gets a little difficult for me to understand his lyrics. I'm not a native english speaker.

i dont know...i may just be so-called "hating", but something about his voice unnerves me...it has a robotic, cartoonish texture to it...he's definitely got the technical and lyrical skill...i just cant get past his voice...same with Anderson.Paak...

It's his voice, whatyou don't like, it's ok.

Noooo, don't go god Kendrick, I can cope with a smattering but don't fuck it up with the mumbo jumbo nonsense. God's not going to stop cops shooting black people. God's not going to start redistributing wealth. You need to start looking for a real solution.

RicoN said:

Noooo, don't go god Kendrick, I can cope with a smattering but don't fuck it up with the mumbo jumbo nonsense. God's not going to stop cops shooting black people. God's not going to start redistributing wealth. You need to start looking for a real solution.

No one is going to redistrubing wealth.

laurarichardson said:

RicoN said:

Noooo, don't go god Kendrick, I can cope with a smattering but don't fuck it up with the mumbo jumbo nonsense. God's not going to stop cops shooting black people. God's not going to start redistributing wealth. You need to start looking for a real solution.

No one is going to redistrubing wealth.

There at least is the possibility that there will be someone born one day that will (and all that idealistic stuff).

It it absolutely impossible that a god that doesn't exist will.

i.e.: back the people not imaginary things

[Edited 3/3/17 6:16am]

RicoN said:

MotownSubdivision said:

RicoN said:

There at least is the possibility that there will be someone born one day that will (and all that idealistic stuff).

It it absolutely impossible that a god that doesn't exist will.

i.e.: back the people not imaginary things

[Edited 3/3/17 6:16am]

If you say so...

doesn't matter whether I say so or not, doesn't matter if I was never born, god doesn't exist and will never resolve any problem.

RicoN said:

Can people at least wait until Kendrick drops his next album before folks start covering their ears at just the invokation of the word "God"?

RicoN said:

laurarichardson said:

MotownSubdivision said:

I believe in kendrick lamar visionary skills when it comes to putting together an album. This will be a pivitol move he clearly going the artistic root than more of the commercial way. I wonder how this will turn out considering chance and coloring book. I just hope this doesnt turn out preachy and conscious rapper mess. I hope he makes some hot songs though sometimes kendrick conceptual ideas can take away from his pop songcraft.

RJOrion said:

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I like Kendrick Lamar but yes he is overrated.

mjscarousal said:

RJOrion said:

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I like Kendrick Lamar but yes he is overrated.

Y'all trippin'.

When you consider who his contemporaries are, you must re-think this notion of him being
overrated. But I agree that his rapping voice is not too aurally pleasant.

Dasein said:

mjscarousal said:

I like Kendrick Lamar but yes he is overrated.

Y'all trippin'.

When you consider who his contemporaries are, you must re-think this notion of him being
overrated. But I agree that his rapping voice is not too aurally pleasant.

Just because he is better than his contemporaries doesn't mean he is not overrated.

mjscarousal said:

Dasein said:

Y'all trippin'.

When you consider who his contemporaries are, you must re-think this notion of him being
overrated. But I agree that his rapping voice is not too aurally pleasant.

Just because he is better than his contemporaries doesn't mean he is not overrated.

. . . so if you understand what could be the poor quality of contemporary emcees in the face of
Kendrick Lamar, maybe you could understand why critics and the media are more effusive with
their praise for him. Hence me asking you to "re-think this notion of him being overrated".

A "B average" student in a school filled with "D minus" students is going to be treated as if she
was an "A plus" student sometimes. Besides, when people say someone is overrated, typically it
doesn't really mean they can insightfully make any appeal to artistic standards someone is not up-
holding and can justify rating them at all. What they really mean to say is that they like that
particular someone's work, but not as much as the media does. In other words: there is no rating
system for judging Lamar's talent/work that you're appealing to outside of taste.

RJOrion said:

hausofmoi7 said:

Let me repost this comment.

bashraka said:

Can people at least wait until Kendrick drops his next album before folks start covering their ears at just the invokation of the word "God"?

[Edited 3/7/17 23:46pm]