Many artists have been spending time in Africa recently. From Stormzy to Chance The Rapper and now Kendrick Lamar, the motherland and Ghana, more specifically, has been the destination of choice for musicians looking for inspiration.
Last year, Kendrick spent time with the youth of the West African nation and in an exclusive interview with Spotify, the emcee spoke about his album, Mr Morale & The Big Steppers, and how it came to creation.
In an interview entitled, ‘A Day in Ghana with Kendrick Lamar,’ Spotify spent a day with the Compton musician in Accra to learn about the project. Elaborating on the themes of the album, the Black Hippy artist disclosed, I wanted “to give y’all [people] some shit you can feel, and that’s the real reason why I wrote Mr Morale because everybody’s going through something.”
Lamar revealed his favourite lines. With regard to therapy, the rapper disclosed, “Real n*ggas don’t go to therapy. Our parents don’t know about that; our grandparents don’t know about that. You live, and you experience the shit that you go through, and you deal with it right then and there, or you don’t never deal with it. We learn to hold all our shit in.”
He continued, “Shit, I’m gonna keep it 100 with you. That wasn’t my forte when people mentioned it to me. I’m still stuck how my pops think. The fuck you need therapy for?! To challenge myself to go to therapy, shit, that’s like a whole new step in a whole new generation. It’s growth.”
While in Africa, preparing to go on the road, he shared some of his thoughts on the album and even revealed which of the 18 tracks is his favourite. As the headline act of Glastonbury last year, Lamar had the honour of closing the festival and, before performing ‘Saviour’ told the crowd, “This next record I want to perform is my favourite record off that album. It’s the reason, the true reason, the true meaning of imperfection. And that’s beautiful. No matter what you’re going through, imperfection is beautiful.”
Listen to Kendrick Lamar song ‘Savior’ below.
