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Kendrick Lamar Covers Complex, Talks Avoiding The Sophomore Slump + Nicki Minaj & August Alsina's "No Love" Remix

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Kendrick Lamar opens up about slaying the sophomore curse in the August/September 2014 issue of COMPLEX. More inside, plus Nicki Minaj& August Alsina's "No Love" remix...

Weeks in the making, August Alsina debuted his new single “No Love” featuring Nicki Minaj today. The duet remix puts a twist on the original anti-love song which was featured on Alsina’s debut album ‘Testimony’.  

Nicki added some singing and some bars saying as she sings,“August you know, I’m here to save you, me and them girls, we ain’t the same boo, you know I hate it when you leave me”.  Then raps, “You can’t treat me like you treat them , yes I am the crème de la crème, yes I am from one to ten-ten, you frontin’ in them streets keep sayin we just friends”.

Check out the full song above.

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Inside Studio 2 of the LA soundlab, Kendrick Lamar is in deep thought.  Will he be able to match the critical acclaim of good kid, m.A.A.d. city? How does he create another verse that ignites the social firestorm of "Control"? As he steadies his next album, Kendrick Lamar realizes that the world is watching...and expectations are high. “When I went back to my old high school, all these kids looking at me like I’m the real big homie, the same way I look at Jay Z, Nas, or Dr. Dre,” says Kendrick with a laugh, sitting in his luxury trailer at his Complex cover shoot. “You would’ve thought Michael Jackson walked through that joint off the excitement that they had.”

In the August/September 2014 issue of COMPLEX, Kendrick allow the magazine to document a studio session and opens up about fighting self-doubt, accessing his voice, figuring out how to follow-up a classic.  Here are highlights:

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On the pressure of the sophomore slump and following up GKMC: “If I keep focusing on, ‘I need to make something better than good kid,’ it’s going to be just that,” says Kendrick. “That’s not challenging yourself. I don’t want to become that person reflecting on what has been done. What I’m doing now is the question. I’m only as good as my last word, my last hook, my last bridge.”

On overcoming self-doubt and the advice Pharrell gave him:  “I was on the tour bus going back and forth on the text with Pharrell,” says Kendrick. “I asked him, ‘You think they gon’ get it?’ And he told me, ‘Don’t ever doubt yourself again. Always be aware but don’t ever mistake your first mind, your input of where your heart is at.’”

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On Macklemore and the Grammy snub:  “It wasn’t really a huge deal for me,” says Kendrick, who’s known Macklemore for over a year. “Macklemore deserves the accolades. That’s still my partner regardless. He probably didn’t need to Instagram the text. But what’s done is done.”

His first big word and how he learned to expand his vocabulary:  “My first-grade teacher flipped out because I wrote the word ‘audacity’ in a story,” he recalls. “I knew the word only because I heard my auntie and uncles arguing, saying, ‘You got the audacity to take my motherfucking drink and pour it out?!’ I learned all my words like that, so when I went to school it was in my head.” 

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On using music as his message and gift: “I got a greater purpose,” he says. “God put something in my heart to get across and that’s what I’m going to focus on, using my voice as an instrument and doing what needs to be done.” The only place to do that is back in the studio.

On creativity, making music and accessing his power:  "This is truly a blessing from a higher power,” Kendrick says, “and as long as I understand that there’s really no limitations to what I can do. Everything is forward with me. When I’m in the studio I’m looking for creativity I haven’t matched yet, a feeling I haven’t felt. It’s a high. When you look at people like Jay Z, Nas, Dr. Dre, these people are established, but they love music and they love that high. You always want that feeling of creativity.”

 

Pick up Kendrick's issue of COMPLEX now.

 

Photos via COLEMAN AND B+ FOR MOCHILLA.COM


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