Forbes' 30 Under 30 lists came out on Tuesday and, to go along with it, the magazine released the transcript of an interview that senior editor Zack O'Malley Greenburg conducted with Kendrick Lamar back in October at the magazine's 30 Under 30 Summit.
The interview, which will appear in the magazine's Dec. 12 issue, but which you can read in its entirety here, was a wide-ranging look into Kendrick's artistic and (this is Forbes, after all) business concerns.
A highlight, even more than Lamar remembering his earliest exposure to hip-hop (Big Daddy Kane being played in the car when a newborn Kendrick was on his way home from the hospital) or sharing that he started rapping when he was just eight years old, was realizing that he actually discovered that hip-hop was going to be his life in a particularly low moment, after he had just finished making a terrible song (and no, he didn't say which one).
"I wasn't aware that that was my highest point because I got back in there and I did it all over again, and continued to push through," he told Greenburg. "That's when I realized I really wanna do this, because I ain't give up when I made a terrible ass song."
Lamar opened up about what he learned from Dr. Dre, how he wants people to refer to the last POTUS as "Big Barack," and which X-Clan song his dad really liked (this one). He also opened up about what he wants out of his corporate partnerships.
"I promised myself any type of venture or partnership I'm doing with a brand, I have to have ... 100% creative control on how I want the proceeds to go, and the look and the creative process, and actually what it's saying, rather than just putting a name and a price tag on it," he explained. "Because, at the end of the day, you want something that's further than the right now and the moment."
You can check out the whole interview over at Forbes.
