After appearing on the cover of XXL magazine and writing his feature story himself, Kendrick Lamar has nabbed another magazine cover, this time with Billboard.
The rap superstar has only dropped one single, and very little details on his upcoming album, but he's still got a ton of buzz behind him. The buzz grew after he performed an untitled song on "The Colbert Report" the other week (which, according to this Billboard story may not even make the final cut for the LP). During his interview with Billboard, K. Dot touches on his girlfriend since high school, growing up in Compton, not drinking or smoking, Iggy Azalea, and more.
Check out a few excerpts below, and head here to read the full story.
On his girlfriend:
"I wouldn't even call her my girl," he says. "That's my best friend. I don't even like the term that society has put in the world as far as being a companion -- she's somebody I can tell my fears to."
On being sober:
"Teenagers don't get it -- we selfish. Go drink, go smoke, go get f---ed up," he remembers. "Why did I do these things? Because I was brought up around it? It damn sure was in the household. I said, 'I know what happens to my family and certain friends when they get drunk and they smoke. They get out of their minds, they get violent. And that's in my blood.' I have little sips on special occasions, but getting all the way out of my mind may not be a good idea."
On Iggy Azalea:
"She's doing her thing," he says. "Let her. People have to go through trials and tribulations to get where they at. Do your thing, continue to rock it, because obviously God wants you here."
On "i" (Love Myself):
"That's hard to say every time you wake up in the morning," says Lamar, who wrote the lyric to lift himself up during a period of self-doubt. He leans forward conspiratorially. "That's a psychological trick I wanted to play on myself. Now that I put this song in the atmosphere, what's going to happen? I have to perform it every night for the next three years when we go on tour. Every time I'm in a weird mood or something goes on at home that I can't handle, I've got to perform it anyway."
