Why Dr Dre thinks Kendrick Lamar is “strange”
Dr Dre isn’t responsible for Kendrick Lamar’s success, but he played a major role in magnifying his talent to a bigger audience. K. Dot was already making waves in the hip-hop space with his Overly Dedicated and Section 80 projects, but it was his major label debut, good kid, m.A.A.d city, released on Dre’s Aftermath, that made him a household name.
The NWA legend saw more than enough from Kendrick to sign him to his imprint in March 2012, inking a partnership with Top Dawg Entertainment. Months after his classic To Pimp a Butterfly was released, Dre had ideas for his own project. Instead of the much-anticipated Detox, he released his third studio album, Compton.
The follow-up to 1999’s 2001 album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 with 295,000 units, with Dre recruiting longtime collaborators like Eminem, Snoop Dogg, The Game, Xzibit, and more for appearances. Kendrick also had several features on the project, spitting verses on ‘Deep Water’, ‘Darkside/Gone’, and ‘Genocide’.
It was the latter song that prompted Dre to reflect on the way Kendrick works and how it comes across as bizarre to him. Similarly to Jay-Z, Kendrick doesn’t need to write down his lyrics. Shortly after hearing the ‘Genocide’ beat, produced by Dem Jointz, he came out with all of his bars in somewhat of a freestyle.
Dre told Beats 1, “It’s a really strange thing to watch Kendrick work. Like, he hears the music, I’m waiting for him to pick up a pen and pad, but he doesn’t do that. He just paces back and forth in the studio, and the next thing you know, there’s an incredible verse coming out of his face.” It’s no shade on K. Dot at all, rather something he admires. “Kendrick Lamar is the real deal,” he said. “He’s a real artist, and he’s gonna be here for a while, because this guy is seriously talented.”
The track, which addresses the high murder rate in Compton, finds Kendrick rapping, “Broke plenty records with this weapon, I protect it under oath/ My discretion, fuck your blessing, fuck your life, fuck your hope/ Fuck your mam, fuck your daddy, fuck your dead homie/ Fucked the world up when we came up, that’s Compton, homie!”
Dre and Kendrick have collaborated many times, including two songs on the good kid album: ‘Compton’ and ‘The Recipe’. The hip-hop mogul respects Kenny’s craft and feels like he’s a rare artist that listeners will always be excited about, no matter how long it takes him to release new music.
“Kendrick is one of those artists that we call ‘forever artists,’” Dre said on Hart to Heart. “He could disappear for fucking five years or something like that and come back and fuck our heads up, you know? Some artists feel like, ‘I have to do something all the time so I won’t be forgotten.’ That’s not him. He can disappear and come back with something that’s shocking, that’s amazing and everyone’s gonna tune in and listen.”