Kendrick Lamar Reveals His Favorite Rap Music of 2015
And it’s not himself.
Many publications, including HYPETRAK, considered Kendrick Lamar‘s To Pimp A Butterfly to be the year’s best album. However, when New York Times asked K-Dot what his favorite rap music of 2015 is, the Compton rapper replied with an answer most people might not expect. He says that Future and Drake both “smashed” and that he doesn’t stick to a particular style of rap; all he needs is to feel a type of “energy” or “soul” in the record to consider it authentic. Read a few highlights below and check out the full interview here.
What was your favorite rap music of this year?
Of course Future killed it. He smashed. Drake smashed. Future’s work ethic was crazy, his energy. This is the thing about hip-hop music and where people get it most misconstrued: It’s all hip-hop. You can’t say that just what I do is hip-hop, because hip-hop is all energies. James Brown can get on the track and mumble all day. But guess what: You felt his soul on those records.
So you don’t buy this separation between “real hip-hop” and party records?
No, I don’t. If it makes you feel good, and it makes you move — I don’t know these guys personally. I don’t know what makes them move on a personal level. I can’t knock it. It feels good when I listen to it, when I’m in that vibe. You feel it. You can get the highest level of that — you can get Future — or you can get the watered-down version, somebody else trying to be that. That’s the bad [expletive].
