Hip-Hop’s golden child, Kendrick Lamar, graces the latest issue of Complex magazine.
Sitting behind a lonely typewriter, amid a pool of crumpled up drafts, K. Dot looks stern as he mulls over outdoing his landmark classic, good kid, m.A.A.d.
Dancing between creating something better than his debut album and challenging himself –– despite the outcome –– is what TDE’s ringleader grapples with today.
“If I keep focusing on, ‘I need to make something better than good kid,’ it’s going to be just that,” says Kendrick. “That’s not challenging yourself. I don’t want to become that person reflecting on what has been done. What I’m doing now is the question. I’m only as good as my last word, my last hook, my last bridge.”
He definitely has a lot more stories to chronicle, and divine intervention is playing a role in what his next body of work will sound like.
“I got a greater purpose,” he says. “God put something in my heart to get across and that’s what I’m going to focus on, using my voice as an instrument and doing what needs to be done.”
This feature appears in the August/September issue of Complex magazine. Peep the full cover below, and more of his spread on the follow pages.
—
Photos: Complex
