Here are a few wise words from TDE’s Kendrick Lamar from Complex’s February/March 2012 Issue.
GET A GOOD TEAM.
To be successful in the game, you gotta have the mind-set that you can’t do it alone. You can’t go anywhere without a team. Top Dawg Entertainment allows me to be in a creative space. When you’re focusing on business and music, you’re gonna give less attention to one or the other. You have to be 100% focused on the music.
When I was born, I came home from the hospital in an ’87 Buick Regal while my pops was bumping Big Daddy Kane.
EARN RESPECT.
You’re gonna get respect from veterans when you’re respected. I was mad at artists in L.A. because they were mad at the O.G.’s for not screaming their names. When they were so concerned with that, they weren’t making the best music. You know what I was doing? I was in the lab creating motherfucking masterpieces.
KEEP YOUR CIRCLE SMALL.
I don’t roll with a lot of people. This industry has a lot of motherfuckers who try to put a sore thumb in your congregation. You can’t trust half of the cats you’re rolling with. I watch artists roll with 15 cats for no reason. You’re just wasting money and causing problems. People I roll with, they been here since day one.
STUDY YOUR HISTORY.
My pops put me on to rap. When I was born, I came home from the hospital in an ’87 Buick Regal while my pops was bumping Big Daddy Kane. He would say, “This is Rakim. You get your whole style from Rakim!” Or, “Go listen to Biz Markie!” Sometimes I sit back and listen to hip-hop with him to see where my hip-hop roots come from.
After years of sweeping the issue under the rug and hoping no one would notice, the FDA has now finally admitted that chicken meat sold in the USA contains arsenic
Here’s a new track from Tha Dogg Pound Gang called “Make it Hot” featuring big Snoop Dogg! This record will be on Tha Dogg Pound’s upcoming album Alumni as well as the D.P.G.C’OLOGY mixtape.
Rick Ross talks about meeting and working with Dr. Dre… I’m interested in hearing what these two cook up.
It was amazing, my brother. We had the opportunity to just first and foremost touch base like bosses. We went out, we had dinner, we just discussed ideas and that led to the studio. The advice he gave me, it’s already affected the way I’ve been in the studio for the last week. So let’s just say he’s full of knowledge and he’s a solid guy. Most definitely that’s maybe my biggest hip-hop influence in the game. A lot of times when you sit back and you watchin’ greatness in motion, when I think back to [N.W.A's] Straight Outta Compton or [Snoop Dogg's] Doggystyle and I think about the smallest things from the skits to the way the records ended to having the opportunity to ask him about certain things about those classic albums. To just hear the time that was put into it, and the format, it was really priceless knowledge. For him to acknowledge Maybach Music and what I’m doin’ as an artist and a CEO, that was just real inspirational.
Here’s another video from The Chef’s recently released Unexpected Victory… We missed Rae at the Wu show in L.A., but it’s good he is continuing to stay relevant and put out quality material!
Prodigy links up with Bad Boy’s French Montana for the Havoc produced track “I’m From The Trap” from P’s upcoming H.N.I.C. 3. Is it just me, or is this better than anything off of Black Cocaine?
Toronto based jazz trio BADBADNOTGOOD have been doing live covers of hip hop tracks for sometime. They recently linked up with Tyler The Creator to perform his track “Orange Juice”, which originally featured the currently MIA Earl Sweatshirt. Dope!
Bronx born and Money Earnin Mount Vernon raised Pete Rock is an DJ, a Rapper, and a Producer. Pete rose to fame and gained his first audience in the World of Rap by working with DJ Marley Marl at WBLS in NYC doing the “In Control…” show and the “Future Flavas” show……at the tender age of 17. He was regarded as the man “puttin in work” because of his use of double copies of each record on each song he spun, a rarity at a time when most DJ’s might have done it every third or fourth…….probably his Jamaican heritage at work.
He was half of the critically acclaimed group Pete Rock & CL Smooth.
He began producing in the early 1990s working with such groups as Run DMC, Public Enemy, Biggie and Nas.
