Overly Dedicated // Kendrick Lamar

Chapter 19 - Barbed Wire

                                                                       Barbed Wire

Have you ever felt like you finally got life? you finally got right? No longer a black sheep. living off your dreams like Christina uh-Milian in the front seat of a convertible, eloping to get married what a feeling of overcoming the odds, It's like you just hit the lottery, my God there must be a God, cause golly, you done made it through the fight while squabbling, Ali, now your lifestyle's looking up and you escaped the crooked cops and you ain't have to kill a nigga just to make a couple bucks and she ain't have to go and fuck on everybody for a dollar making good decisions, got an independent business mind and both of y'all are steady grinding, doing it the legal way just tryna make a decent pay on every second of the day but they won't give you the credit, disses out they mouth you must have joined the Illuminati just to ball out.

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INTERVIEWER

After Kendrick finished  his story I asked him a few questions..

That was a great story.

Thank you.

So do you still hang out with the same guys?

Yeah , I hang with them whenever I'm back in compton.

Do you still talk to Cubana?

yeah we still talk but not like we used to, she was reunited with her mother after Tony had died.

Do you feel like you've grown alot , from that moment to now?

Definitely, now I'm taking my career seriously and  doing alot of shows

really? what happens at one of your live shows?

Craziness. A lot of energy, a lot of energy from myself and the crowd.

How do you feel in front of a crowd?

I feel at peace, you know. It’s a way to express yourself, a way to vent, put all your emotions out on that stage.

Where was your first ever gig?

My first ever was at a hole in the wall place, in a small city, in a small club in Los Angeles.

What happened?

I was probably terrible.. But it was a growing experience, a growing process, and you know, you never forget those moments.

Who was the first person to tell you that you were good at music?

The first person to tell me was probably this guy named Dave Free, he’s my manager now, since I was like tenth grade...yeah.

How did he discover you?

Through a mutual friend, it was all in high school, rapping and stuff. And then a mutual friend told him about me and we decided to start doing music and we’ve been doing it ever since.

How did he help you to develop your sound?

He really just allowed me to experience different things in music, and listen to different people, he got a broad playlist in music everybody from west coast, to the east coast. And basically we just started developing there.

You said in an interview before that your mum told you that whatever you do, you just gotta do it really, really well. What does she make of your success now?

Oh yeah, she loves it. She sees that I took heed in what she was saying because you have people that’s calling me the best at what I do, and you know l pride myself in that. She always said that whatever u do make sure that ur the best at it.

What kind of a son where you when you were younger?

I was a good son, respectful, I never disrespected my mother, I never disrespected my father intentionally. Probably some of the things I did, outside of the house were a little bit outlandish, but as far as verbal disrespect or inner presence disrespect, never, so, I was a good son.

What are your earliest memories of their music?

A lot of oldies, gangster rap was played in my household, which really inspired my sound today from new melodic driven, aggressive type feel.

What happened in your first meeting with Dre?

I was very excited, I wasn’t nervous at all. I was more excited, 'cause I knew that this was my shot, everything that l've worked for, everything I’ve built up to came down to that moment.

What happened in that moment?

That moment I recorded my first song with Dre, which was Compton, which is the last song on my album.

Are you creative in other ways outside of the music?

Yeah. I'm very hands on with the whole visual and concepts beyond the music.

So where does success lie?

Success lies in challenging myself, thats where l get my success.

And how will you ever be fulfilled?

Probably when l see that my music has touched more people than l can possibly imagine, and that point in time will come.

What do your lyrics say about you as a person?

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

What are the morals that you live by?

Treat others the way you want to be treated. That’s the number one, that’s something that my mother always told me. That’s the one piece of advice I would give everybody and the world would be a better place.

Okay Kendrick Lamar one more question , Do you feel like you've made it past all the barbed wires?

There's just one more left.