Fresh off his performance at the Hangout Festival in Alabama, Kendrick Lamar sat down with MTV to share his thoughts on Kanye West’s premiere of “New Slaves” (that was projected on 66 buildings across the world on Friday night) and his upcoming album Yeezus (check the artwork here).
On the premiere: It sounded crazy. That whole marketing scheme is crazy. It’s very inspiring. After a while you get to a point in hip-hop where certain tactics get watered down. How much music can you release on the Internet to get it hot? How many singles can you put out? How many videos can you possibly do?
On the album: That’s crazy, I want to hear that. That’s that creative Kanye genius stuff out the box … whatever way is his way of being creative and getting his message across through that album, that’s the culture. I can’t wait to hear it.
Black Entertainment Television have just announced the nominations for this year’s BET Awards ’13 and Drake leads the pack with 12 nominations. Drizzy’s nominated five times in the “Video of the Year” category for “Started From the Bottom,” “HYFR (Hell Ya Fuckin’ Right),” as well as his collabos for Kendrick Lamar’s “Poetic Justice,” 2 Chainz “No Lie,” and A$AP Rocky’s “Fuckin’ Problems.” Kendrick Lamar and 2 Chainz are both tied for eight nominations with A$AP Rocky snatching up five.
The BET Awards 2013 takes place at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles on June 30. Hit the jump for the complete list of nominees.
In the second episode of J. Cole’s Born Sinner series (check ep.1 w/ his moms here), Kendrick Lamar speaks intimately of his upbringing, advice he’s received from Jason Estrada and Erykah Badu, the temptations that come when the spotlight is shown and more. Take a listen after the jump and get ready for Born Sinner on June 25th.
The latest single off Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d city gets the visual treatment. Be sure to watch until the end as it also include a bonus preview of an new ScHoolboy Q joint.
Or, Larry Fisherman sits down with the Rosenthals to answer questions from fans, including “dropping out of school to become a rapper, and whether or not you could judge a girl off her ringtone.”
Kendrick Lamar showed love to the students at Mount Pleasant High School in Providence, Rhode Island by becoming the principal for the day through the Get Schooled Celebrity Principals for the Day program. Not only just taking pictures with the students, Kendrick stresses the importance of education to be something better.
“Without education you don’t have anything,” said Kendrick, who was a 4.0 student at Centennial High School in L.A. and was the first in his family to graduate from high school. “My teachers were great positive influences in my life. My middle school English teacher was probably the reason I became a rapper. He used to encourage me to write poetry and would challenge me, which helped me improve my vocabulary and made me enjoy writing.”
Splash tosses us a tagless version of Bridget Kelly’s Kendirck Lamar-assisted “Street Dreamin’” off Funk Flex’s mixtape. SHAKE UPDATE: Ms. Kelly also decided to take Luke James’s “I.O.U.” and put her own twist on it. Take a listen after the jump.
In the new issue of Interview Magazine, Erykah Badu conducted a Q&A with Kendrick Lamar in which he gets K. Dot reavealed his top 10 favorite rappers (in no particular order: Jay-Z, Nas, 2Pac, Snoop Dogg, B.I.G., Eminem, André 3000, Rakim, Kurupt, DMX). Kendrick also revealed an odd tour rider which includes: Fruity Pebbles, baked chicken, a bottle of Hennessy, and Polo socks. Head over to Interview’s website to read the full interview.
Sitting down with Karmaloop Founder Greg Selkoe, Kendrick Lamar and Steve Aoki speak on their Verge Campus Tour, possible collaborations, The Lonely Island and more. Live footage from the tour is also sprinkled throughout.
This weekend Downtown Records is throwing their annual Downtown Festival in New York City. And with scheduled performances from Black Hippy (Kendrick Lamar, ScHoolboy Q, Ab-Soul & Jay Rock), Purity Ring, Ryan Hemsworth, Ratking, Kilo Kish and plenty others, the DopeHouse and our friends at Rocksmith are giving y’all a chance to win some tickets. All you’ve gotta do is follow the directions on the flyer above and we’ll pick two winners at random by tomorrow. Good luck.
