Kendrick Lamar Speaks On Avoiding Rap Beefs

Kendrick Lamar had a good 2012; he dropped his official debut album, and also did a couple of features here and there that helped solidify his critical acclaim status. But one thing he has tried to avoid is rap beefs. Even when Shyne called his Good Kid, M.A.A.D City album "trash", he kept mum on the issue. Now, he has come forward to speak on his take on rap beefs.






"I mean it’s the entertainment business, you can never forget that, so I don’t knock other people’s strategies to keep themselves relevant, I just comprehend that the music comes first and always speaks first, no matter what you do," he said. "You can say the most outlandish thing but if you drop a record the next day and it’s trash now you’re just a popular person. I don’t just wanna be a popular person, I want my music to always live because that’s what’s gonna drive your legacy. You can be the most popular person on the planet. There’s a lot of artists that are way more popular than Kendrick Lamar, but when it’s time for their album to drop and that week is up or that year is up and the reception from that album is not as critically strong as good kid, m.A.A.d city, it shows…I just let the music speak. I don’t get into all the crazy shenanigans of the business. I let the music speak and at the end of the day that always stands."




This kind of mentality is cool, and was actually what gave Rick Ross a win when he beefed with 50 Cent. 50 was doing the whole cartoon ish, and making funny videos, and recording spending time with Ross's baby mama. Ross just went ahead and dropped that hot album, Deeper Than Rap, and people just overlooked all the gimmick 50 was working with.


But, I would like to comment on the last part of Kendrick's interview above, when he said- 

There’s a lot of artists that are way more popular than Kendrick Lamar, but when it’s time for their album to drop and that week is up or that year is up and the reception from that album is not as critically strong as good kid, m.A.A.d city.

I think his reference to the commercial success of his GKMC album over other rap albums is a sneak diss at other rappers (Meek Mill, Rick Ross, Wiz Khalifa...) that dropped albums this year, and it kinda shows that he is almost working in their footsteps...the footsteps of people that believe too much in album sales. I know he was overwhelmed by the success of his album, but I am thinking maybe the success is getting in his head a lil too much. He needs to just let the fans do all the talking.