The album that inspired Kendrick Lamar to become a rapper: “Raw and realness”
Kendrick Lamar may be West Coast through and through, but an East Coast rapper inspired him to make hip-hop his career. K. Dot has spoken in depth about his influence from Tupac Shakur, Jay-Z and Lil Wayne; still, an album from another rapper, released in 1998, laid down the foundation for Kendrick’s early days.
DMX’s It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot was released in May of that year and sold 251,000 copies in its first week, achieving number one on the Billboard 200 chart. It was stacked with records like ‘Damien’, ‘Stop Being Greedy’, ‘How’s It Goin’ Down’, and of course, the biggest of them all, ‘Ruff Ryders Anthem’.
During an interview with Complex, Kendrick revealed he wrote his first lyrics to beats from DMX’s classic album. As a school kid, he was inspired to start rapping, and he even told DMX that during an encounter in 2012.
“That’s the first album that got me writing,” he explained. “I wrote my first lyrics to that album actually, about 13-14. I was going into eighth grade, seventh grade going into eighth grade maybe. I just got inspired and I started writing, so that will always be one of my favourite albums. And the fact that I just met DMX for the first time last week—I got to actually tell him that for the first time. That album inspired me to be a rapper.”
Kendrick stated that DMX filled the space that was left when Tupac was shot and killed in Las Vegas in 1996. He also revealed his two favourite songs on the album and rapped lyrics from one.
“It was just the raw and realness,” he said. “Tupac was gone, there was a void, [something] was missing in the game and he came through to fill that void. Now that I think about it, that was the reason why. My favourite song would probably be the ‘Intro.’ ‘One two one two/ Come through run through gun who/ Oh you don’t know what the gun do.’ I had that on repeat. That, ‘Get at Me Dog,’ I could go all day.”
Things came full circle in 2018. A few years before his death, DMX praised Kendrick as one of the “new artists” he liked to listen to. “Kendrick is dope,” he said to GQ. “J Cole. Ya know, lyricists.” He then named Jimmy Spicer, Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, Slick Rick, and Kool G Rap as rappers who inspired him the most.
Kendrick has also cited Tupac as inspiration for his wordplay, with the late rapper having the ability to make the listener really feel his lyrics. “Tupac inspired me just the simple way of how he put his words together,” he told Variety. “You really felt them, you felt the passion behind them. They meant something, not only to him, but when you heard it, you actually got a full experience rather than just words. You actually felt his words. That’s something that I was inspired to put in my music.”