2022 has been a huge year for Kendrick Lamar, and though he's worn his crown of thorns like a champion, in a recent interview with W Magazine, the father of two opened up about some of the struggles he endured while piecing together his long-awaited fifth studio album, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.
"It’s stuff that I’ve written that’s just now seeing daylight because I wasn’t secure with myself in order to do it... It was really about not being insecure [or] tormented by opinions," the California native told reporter Briana Younger during their chat in Toronto.
He continued, "When I did this, it was kind of the marker and the growth of everything I’ve always wanted to say. I think that was really my purpose of writing my way out of things that I was feeling, from the time I was nine years old, all the way up to 35."
As they spoke, K-Dot also told the journalist about his rapid growth as a person, saying, "I’m not even the same person I was yesterday, that's what keeps me creative."
"I have so much discipline as far as repetition — I don’t give a f*ck if it’s a thousand push-ups or pull-ups or whatever, but it’s always that extra 5 percent I’m like, What am I on today? What’s going to be the evolution for myself today?" he shared.
According to Lamar, his past projects have brought him material prizes such as Grammys and a Pulitzer, but with Mr. Morale, the rapper is celebrating "the reward for humanity" that his music was able to give back to the culture.
Elsewhere, the "Money Trees" hitmaker discussed his own private life, admitting that his tendency to keep himself and those closest to him sheltered from the public made getting so raw and vulnerable on his album that much more difficult.
"It was tough for me," Kung-Fu Kenny admitted. "I had to reap whatever consequences came behind that, and also be compassionate and show empathy if they were hurt by it," he added of his decision to keep his project hidden from the ears of even friends and family before it dropped, as some of these songs might not have been released if the thoughts and opinions of others got into his head.
You can read Kendrick Lamar's full W Magazine profile here, and tap back in with HNHH later for more hip-hop news updates.
[Via]