Anderson.Paak's moment under the sun is here for the taking. In his latest sit-down exposé with Billboard Magazine, Anderson added himself to the growing list of hip-hop practitioners who credit "family life" with setting them straight. As Carl Lamarre noted in his op-ed piece, Paak is an "anamoly" to which there are very few comparables.
The early part of the interview, Carl and Anderson chopped it up about Oxnard, and how it successfully draws the curtain on Paak's childhood, the setting by which hthe whole project is based. Carl Lamarre prodded him for anecdotal information, and to some extent it worked - Anderson .Paak admitting that much of his creative process stems from a melting pot of ideas that really take shape once they've been vetted by his mentor. "I had so many different versions of the album before I got it to Dre. And I was just playing with it and hearing it with all the different songs," he openly stated."
But the second half of the interview is where Anderson .Paak really shares his "overarching inspiration" with Lamarre. For Anderson, Fatherhood isn't only the measuring stick for him as an artist, but his raison d'etre on this planet.
"Just as an overall human, just as a person," he answered in response to whether fatherhood shaped him as an artist? "It just saved my life, just not living for self alone and having something bigger than yourself to live for. People don't really understand the concept until they understand it."
If you haven't listened to Oxnard, go and get your hands on a copy, while the getting is good.