Kendrick Lamar Offers Insight Into His Next Album in New Interview

Kendrick Lamar has revealed details about his next album. In a new interview with T: The New York Times Style Magazine, which took place in a recording suite, Kendrick discussed what’s been on his mind, as he works on the follow-up to 2015’s masterful To Pimp a Butterfly. “I think now, how wayward things have gone within the past few months, my focus is ultimately going back to my community and the other communities around the world where they’re doing the groundwork,” he said. “To Pimp a Butterfly was addressing the problem. I’m in a space now where I’m not addressing the problem anymore.” He added, “We’re in a time where we exclude one major component out of this whole thing called life: God.”

Later in the interview, Kendrick offered some insight into his writing process. After the interviewer told him that he has a newborn daughter, Kendrick responded:

One day, I may have a little girl. And it’s a girl in particular—funny you said that. She’s gonna grow up. She’s gonna be a child I adore, I’m gonna always love her, but she’s gonna reach that one point where she’s gonna start experiencing things. And she’s gonna say things or do things that you may not condone, but it’s the reality of it and you know she was always gonna get to that place. And it’s disturbing. But you have to accept it. You have to accept it and you have to have your own solutions to figure out how to handle the action and take action for it.

When I say “the little girl,” it’s the analogy of accepting the moment when she grows up. We love women, we enjoy their company. At one point in time I may have a little girl who grows up and tells me about her engagements with a male figure—things that most men don’t want to hear. Learning to accept it, and not run away from it, that’s how I want this album to feel.

Check out the full interview here. Last year, Kendrick put out untitled unmastered.—a collection of tracks he worked on while recording TPAB. Next month, he headlines Coachella 2017.

Revisit our Overtones column “Word Is Bond: Black Hippy and the Power of Repetition.”

Watch Kendrick Lamar at Pitchfork Music Festival 2012:

via Matthew Strauss