Kendrick Lamar scrambled his way out of Compton, California, and onto the music scene at the age of 16 with a series of mixtapes that eventually led to his 2012 major-label debut album, good kid, m.A.A.d city (and nine Grammy nominations, including two 2015 nods for his recent single "i"). The 27-year-old has since become one of the most prominent voices in hip-hop and, increasingly, its conscience and poet laureate—an important role in the era of #blacklivesmatter.
In the lead-up to his much-anticipated second album, expected to drop this year, he talks to Glamour about how to avoid bad energy and stay grounded.
Do believe in your potential
"Anybody who has ever known or is in the street today—they don't want to be a part of that lifestyle. Some entertainers glorify it…but when you're six years old and someone's selling drugs outside your house, it's different; you know you shouldn't be like them even if you want to be like them. The thing that made me unique from my homeboys growing up in the 'hood is that I was a dreamer. I was influenced by people who had good hearts and said, You have a little more potential than to do what we did.' "
Don't forget where home is
"When I started out, I was really trying to impress the homies, because if your own neighborhood don't back you, how do you think New York is going to back you? How do you think overseas is going to back you? Their approval helped me out at the end of the day."
Do avoid the drama
"When I'm recording, I've got to have the energy around. I've got to see people enjoying themselves and enjoying life. The energy is everything. You don't want a negative person to walk into the room and feed their energy onto you."
Don't chase other people's expectations
"One time, when I was shopping my demo to labels, they kept telling me to follow this or that trend on the radio. My mentor Top Dawg, who signed me when I was 16, and Punch [president of Top Dawg Entertainment] said, Maybe it's time to stop following what the labels want you to do, because obviously it's not working; we're not signed yet.' That moment kind of defined what music I wanted to make. To me, music is really about people—who they are, not what we see on the exterior."
—As told to Jacob Brown