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Kendrick Lamar addressed that white female fan using the n-word at his show in Alabama last month.
She did it when the rapper invited her onstage to recite the lyrics to his song “m.A.A.d city,” but she didn’t omit the n-words and Kendrick stopped her.
Afterwards, a lot of people from in and out of the hip-hop community weighed in, and some said the Cali rapper was right to halt the female fan, while others voiced an opposite opinion.
But in an interview with Variety, Kendrick said he should have ownership of the word, because of all the things he and other Black folks have been excluded from.
“Let me put it to you in its simplest form,” he said. “I’ve been on this earth for 30 years, and there’s been so many things a Caucasian person said I couldn’t do. Get good credit, buy a house in an urban city. So many things —’You can’t do that’— whether it’s from afar or close up. So if I say this is my word, let me have this one word, please let me have that word.”
Later in the conversation, the 31-year-old was asked how he felt about Kanye West saying that “slavery was a choice,” and Kendrick said he’d rather tell the Chicago producer what he thought in person. But he did say that Kanye has a certain method to his madness when he says certain things.
“He has his own perspective, and he’s on this whole agree to disagree thing, and I would have this conversation with him personally if I want to,” said the “Alright” creator.
At the time of the interview, Kendrick was in New York City on TDE’s Championship Tour, and he was also in town to receive a Pulitzer Prize for his “DAMN” album, which he said was surreal.
“It was one of those things I heard about in school, but I never thought I’d be a part of it,” he explained. “[When I heard I got it], I thought, to be recognized in an academic world . . . Whoa, this thing really can take me above and beyond.”
“It took a long time for people to embrace us — people outside of our community, our culture — to see this not just as vocal lyrics,” the rapper continued. “To see that this is really pain, this is really hurt, this is really true stories of our lives on wax … Writers like Tupac, JAY Z, Rakim, Eminem, Q-Tip, Big Daddy Kane, Snoop … It lets me know that people are actually listening further than I expected.”
