Kendrick Lamar reveals how Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg made him cry
Kendrick Lamar rarely gives interviews and is a private person who prefers to show his emotion through his music. Whether it’s Good Kid m.A.A.d City or To Pimp A Butterfly, the emcee is far from guarded when it comes to his verses. However, fans rarely see him cry.
Nevertheless, in a recent in-depth discussion with R&B star SZA he unveiled that the one time he cried in public was when he was honoured by his childhood heroes as the new king of the West Coast.
Whether it’s in his material or brief promotional interviews, the DAMN creator has highlighted on numerous occasions that the soundtrack to his childhood in the inner-city projects of LA was provided by West Coast artists. This music shaped him into the person he is today and according to the lyricist that’s why the moment made him shed a few tears.
Lamar has cited DJ Quik, Snoop Dogg, Tha Dogg Pound, Daz Dillinger Kurupt, Tupac, and more as his childhood idols. However, these MCs were West Coast ambassadors in the ’90s and by the 2010s, Lamar was becoming the king which prompted loving Los Angeles-based MCs to rally around him as a sign of support.
In 2011, at The Fonda Theatre in LA, a group of West Coast icons, including The Game and Snoop Dogg passed the torch to Kendrick with the latter declaring, “We watchin’ you rock and we wanna pass the torch to you. It’s a beautiful thing you ain’t good at what you do, you great at what you do! So imma say this; you got the torch n*gga you better run with it!”
During his recent Harper’s Bazaar interview with SZA, Lamar recalled that this was the first time he ever cried in public, admitting, “The first time I allowed it to happen is documented, actually, onstage [in 2011] when Dre and Snoop and the whole West Coast was out, and they was like, ‘This is the torch that we were handing off.’ Dre passed me the torch, and a burst of energy just came out and I had to let it flow.
He continued, “My tears is all on the internet. And now I look back and I love that moment. I love that that happened. Because it showed me in real time expressing myself and seeing all the work that I put forth actually come to life in that moment.”
The moment was amazing for Lamar and brought the child from Compton back out of him in the sweetest of ways.