ScHoolboy Q’s an often overlooked emcee. The West Coast rapper (real name Quincy Hanley) rose out of the California hip-hop scene in the mid-2000s and, with the help of Anthony Tiffith at Top Dawg Entertainment, released impactful such as including ScHoolboy Turned Hustla and Gangsta & Soul. However, Hanley claims one lyricist “saved his life.”
ScHoolboy Q credits Kendrick Lamar with “saving his life” as, according to Hanley, Lamar helped him build and maintain his music career in his early days as his TDE labelmate.
During an appearance on the BACKONFIGG podcast, ScHoolboy Q detailed Lamar’s impact on his career and how the DAMN. musician played a pivotal role in becoming the star he now is. Delving into the details, Hanley stated, “Dot taught me so much, bro. Dot… Dot gave me… Dot gave me so much confidence. Dot made me a rapper. This sh*t make me want to cry right now.”
Highlighting the significance of Kendrick’s input, Hanley asserted, “Dot saved my life. I owe a lot to Dot.” ScHoolboy Q unveiled that, following the low sales of his first two projects, Top Dawg Entertainment CEO Anthony Tiffith was ready to drop him from the label. However, Lamar prevented this.
Explaining Lamar’s role in saving his career, Hanley continued, “Dot made me his hypeman; he would tell me to come to the studio all the time.” The West Coast rhymer even unveiled that by keeping him in the fold, ScHoolboy Q’s music ended up in the hands of Dr Dre, which helped him secure a record deal.
Jovially explaining this, Hanley detailed, “Even with Dre, Dre was initially interested in Kendrick, and then every time he went to Dre sh*t, he’s like ‘I’m going to Dre sh*t. I’m going to Dre sh*t, pull up, pull up. I was like his lil’ sidekick. Next thing you know, Dre hearing my sh*t. And then I get my deal because of Dre, really. I get signed to Interscope because Dre was f**king with me. He just kept pulling me, kept pulling me.”
The ‘Collard Greens’ rapper concluded by sharing that Kendrick dropped him from his hypeman duties as when his career began to take off following the release of his 2011 project Setbacks and happily unveiled that he’s never looked back or “left the studio” since. You can watch ScHoolboy Q’s interview below.
