The advice Lauryn Hill gave to Kendrick Lamar: “I battle with it all the time”
Kendrick Lamar wouldn’t be considered one of the best rappers without some help along the way. The Compton-born artist has been lucky enough to cross paths with some greats throughout his career, even signing with one of his heroes, Dr Dre, in 2012.
Another hip-hop legend who has given him advice is Lauryn Hill. The Fugees member is considered a master of her craft through classic albums such as The Score and The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, so her opinion is invaluable.
Kendrick wrote a piece for XXL in January 2015, just a couple of months before releasing his timeless album, To Pimp a Butterfly. During this, he discussed being oblivious to his celebrity status and how he distances himself from others due to how people treat him.
“I think one of my biggest assets is not knowing how famous I am,” he said. “Or even excluding the word, I hate the word ‘famous’. I’m aware of it. I know people treat me different because of it. And the more I am aware of that and play into it, the more I become detached from the real world. So it’s really about balance. The more somebody opens the door for me, and I walk through without acknowledging that they opened the door for me, the more I become separate from others.”
He then revealed he had a conversation with Hill that has stuck with him over the years. Kendrick was told to let go of any self-importance to flourish creatively.
“I had a talk with Lauryn Hill, and she said, ‘Try to completely throw away your ego,'” he recalled. “How many times can you throw away an ego, you know? It’s tough. It’s something we all battle with. I battle with it all the time and the idea of being in all these places—the big spots, all the events, the lights—it’s all for your ego.”
Adding, “It’s all for your own confirmation to be like, ‘OK, I’m somebody.’ But truthfully, you’ve always been somebody. You don’t need the lights. I try to think about that.”
Kendrick tries to stay grounded by looking back at old photos and thinking about the past. He feels many rappers should do more of this instead of focusing on the future.
“I like to look at old pictures and think of things from back in the day that kind of draws me back to where I came from,” he explained. “I think a lot of times when artists are in so much of the now, they only think of what’s ahead of them, which is cool. But I look at pictures of the small little apartment that I come from in Compton and things like that.”
Kendrick collaborator Rapsody, who has worked with KDot on songs like ‘Complexion (A Zulu Love)’, ‘Power’ and ‘Rock the Bells’, once compared him to Hill. “He’s the type of artist who gives me the type of feeling like when I first heard Lauryn Hill,” she said. “[They have] that same energy and spirit about them.” They also have more things in common: Hill won five Grammys in 1999, with Kendrick following suit in 2025 by matching her achievement.