Kendrick Lamar covers the latest issue of Harper’s Bazaar, one of only three times in the magazine’s history where they’ve put a man on the cover. Apparently, Kendrick asked Bazaar if his friend SZA could conduct the interview, and the result is precious. It’s very much a little sister fan-girling over her big brother, but also poking at him and trying to make him laugh and get a response. I almost cried on SZA’s behalf when Kendrick told her that he’s proud of her and proud of her artistry. She also manages to get a good question in there about Kendrick’s song of the year, “Not Like Us.” At no point does Kendrick mention Drake’s name. LMAO. Some highlights:
His daily spiritual practices: “All day, every day. Ain’t no bullsh-t. Ain’t no cliché. But I literally talk to God. Like, it’s to a point where I’ll be starting to think I’m going crazy. But then He has to remind me, “No, this is really me.” My early-morning practice is that I have to run. When I started running, that’s where I started to understand. There was this threshold of pain in the spirituality for me. I remember my shins was aching and I was like, I got one mile to go. Then I get whispers and downloads and start talking about sh-t that I want to know about. And next thing I’m three miles in, four miles in. I wake up and do that sh-t every day.
The last time he cried: “I would say the last time I cried was probably on Mr. Morale [2022’s Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers] on the “Mother I Sober” record. That sh-t was deep for me.
The first time he cried in public: “The first time I allowed it to happen is documented, actually, onstage [in 2011] when Dre and Snoop and the whole West Coast was out, and they was like, “This is the torch that we were handing off.” Dre passed me the torch, and a burst of energy just came out and I had to let it flow. My tears is all on the internet. And now I look back and I love that moment. I love that that happened. Because it showed me in real time expressing myself and seeing all the work that I put forth actually come to life in that moment.
His feminine side: “I have to balance both. At first, all I knew was the masculinity, and I always kept that wall up because of my pops. But the more I delve deeper into my music and the more expressive I get with myself … that is the feminine energy right there. That’s not the bravado that I grew up seeing all the time. This is who I am, the soft-spoken me, and I have to own it. This is where my superpower lies. Because if my job is to communicate, I need to be able to communicate with everyone. I need to be able to sit in front of SZA and talk to you in a way where you feel comfortable, in a way where it feels authentic from me to you, you to me, and I can’t do that with a wall up. I can’t do that with my full masculinity.
What “not like us” means to him: “Not like us? Not like us is the energy of who I am, the type of man I represent. Now, if you identify with the man that I represent …This man has morals, he has values, he believes in something, he stands on something. He’s not pandering. He’s a man who can recognize his mistakes and not be afraid to share the mistakes and can dig deep down into fear-based ideologies or experiences to be able to express them without feeling like he’s less of a man. If I’m thinking of “Not Like Us,” I’m thinking of me and whoever identifies with that.
On anger: “I don’t believe I’m an angry person. But I do believe in love and war, and I believe they both need to exist. And my awareness of that allows me to react to things but not identify with them as who I am. Just allowing them to exist and allowing them to flow through me. That’s what I believe.”
I found the “feminine side” part of the conversation really interesting because… I feel like we can see that evolve in Kendrick over the years, his ability to tap into a more feminine consciousness. In the real world, we can see it with how he relates to women, his female peers in the industry, his daughter and his partner Whitney too. Like, Beyonce loves Kendrick. Of course he’s tapped into his feminine side. The “not like us” conversation is interesting too… a man who isn’t pandering, a man who stands on business, a man with morality. WTF was Drake even thinking, you know?
Cover & IG courtesy of Harper’s Bazaar.