For a new cover story with Rolling Stone, Kendrick Lamar got to discuss his lyrics from the song “Element.” The song is featured on his latest album, ‘DAMN.’ In the song, the Compton emcee rapped “there’s a difference between Black artists and wack artists.” Lamar was asked to define the phrase “wack artist” and he went on to say,
“How would I define a wack artist? A wack artist uses other people’s music for their approval,” he explains. “We’re talking about someone that is scared to make their own voice, chases somebody else’s success and their thing, but runs away from their own thing. That’s what keeps the game watered-down. Everybody’s not going to be able to be a Kendrick Lamar. I’m not telling you to rap like me. Be you. Simple as that. I watch a lot of good artists go down like that because you’re so focused on what numbers this guy has done, and it dampers your own creativity. Which ultimately dampers the listener, because at the end of the day, it’s not for us. It’s for the person driving to their 9-to-5 that don’t feel like they wanna go to work that morning.”
Kendrick Lamar definitely is not labeled as a “wack artist.” On Thursday, July 6, Forbes revealed that Lamar’s latest album ‘DAMN.’ is the highest-selling album of 2017 so far.
