Kendrick Lamar has opened up about the creation of his latest album ‘GNX’ and his recent Grammy success in a new interview with Apple Music.
The rapper, who is set to headline this year’s Super Bowl halftime show on 9th February, spoke with hosts Ebro Darden and Nadeska Alexis about his recent Grammy victories, where his Drake diss track ‘Not Like Us’ earned five awards, marking the most celebrated rap song in the ceremony’s history.
‘I was just thinking about the culture, really,’ Lamar says of the track. ‘It’s always there for me first. When people talk about rap, the conversations I hear, they think it’s just rap and not an actual art form. So when you put records like that at the forefront, it reminds people that this is more than just something that came 50 years ago.’
Speaking about his approach to hip-hop, Lamar explains: ‘My intent, from day one, was to always keep the nature of [Hip Hop] as a sport. I don’t care how motherfuckers look at it as far as a collaborative effort. That’s cool, too, but I love when artists grit their teeth.’
The rapper discusses the inspiration behind ‘GNX’, which features tracks ‘Squabble Up’, ‘TV Off’ and ‘Hey Now’. ‘I always had that DNA,’ he says. ‘You heard that DNA a little bit on ‘Good Kid, m.A.A.d City’ but I wanted to tell my story first. Fast forward to ‘GNX’, I just felt it was a perfect time because not only was the energy lost, but it was an energy that was bubbling inside of me as well.’
Reflecting on the contrast between ‘GNX’ and his 2022 album ‘Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers’, Lamar adds: ‘It was a great transition from ‘Mr. Morale’ because that was my most intimate album. I wanted to go inside of my own psyche and my own personal withdrawals and see how it connects with the public and see who could relate. So this time around, I think it was necessary to come out of that cocoon and feel like, ‘I can spread my wins and show every state of who I am.”
SZA is set to appear as a special guest during Lamar’s Super Bowl performance.
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