Kendrick Lamar Talks Reebok, Genius and Authenticity

Kendrick Lamar can easily considered the most revered MC in the game. After dropping a classic with good kid, M.A.A.D. City, the Compton rapper has solidified his next titan of rap credentials thanks to consistency and can now add sneaker deal to his rapper resume.

Reebok inked Kendrick to a shiny new contract, and he’ll be a spokesman for the brand (particularly the Ventilator model) and drop a capsule collection of gear in 2015. Hip-Hop Wired talked with the former K. Dot about how and why he connected with Reebok, but the convo also veered off to the importance of artist development, how he feels about being labeled a genius and more.

Fearsomely humble despite his impeccable rhyme talents, Kendrick Lamar always makes for a good interview. Also, that new album is done.

Hip-Hop Wired: How long has this deal with Reebok Classic been in the works?

KL: It’s been in the works for about two years. We finally got to sit down and finally after we jumped off the road. I been on the road for like three years straight so that kind of held up the process. Now where we need to be by the graces of God.

HHW: We’ve seen you in adidas or some crispy Nike Cortez. What made you rock with Reebok?

Kendrick Lamar: Anything that I touch, it always have to have some type of connection. Through Reebok the connection was I always wore these shoes as a kid. Me partnering up with them wasn’t something I had [to do a] doubletake on. It has to feel organic. It’s not like they’re throwing a new shoe at me and me selling the product. We’re actually continuing to drive culture because Hip-Hop and fashion go hand in hand.

It wasn’t a new company that just came out and they’re trendy and it’s for a check. It’s something that actually f*cks with for a long time and been a part of.

HHW: When you were coming up wanting to be an MC was a sneaker deal ever in the plans?

KL: No it wasn’t, man. When you’re a kid you don’t really know the opportunities that it will allow to touch. All you see is videos, women, cars and clothes, and that’s all you care about, and I was one of them kids. I didn’t know the other avenues you could venture off to.

It’s a blessing that we have people like Jay Z, or we have people like Diddy to go out there and be business and make their mistakes that we can learn from. Jay had shoes deal, 50 [Cent]…now it’s all about pulling from their risks and bettering it.

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Photo: Reebok

HHW: You touched on it before but was there something your Reebok deal that made it more palatable?

KL: It’s really about the connection it had in my community coming up. So when the people in my neighborhood, in my community of Compton, LA, Watts, when they see me with it on my foot they [say], Oh, that’s not nothing new. That was me wearing those back at Locke High School or Centennial or Compton High School. He’s continuing his originality. It just feel like that rather than me putting on a high end shoe.

HHW: Here’s a $500 shoe with my name on it, go cop it…

KL: Nah. It wasn’t about that. We went to the swap meets and grabbed our Reeboks and put our shoestrings in it and flipped it.

HHW: In the video you went back to Centennial High School, what would your classmates say if we asked them to describe you?

KL: Kendrick Lamar was laid back, he was cool. He wasn’t popular because he didn’t have to be popular. People gravitated towards me just because of me being me.

You can actually go to my classmates and make the calls and do the background check. Everything that’s in my music is who I am, ya know? That’s why you will never hear any bogus thing about my character, and I can out my life on that. You can talk to these people and I talk to them and they still see the same person. It makes them feel relieved to know that I still know the times when I was struggling. Them classmates, they know the deal.

HHW: What made you choose that verse [“I Am (Interlude)”] from The Kendrick Lamar EP for the Reebok film?

KL: It’s something I always say at my shows. It’s something that I always have with me whether it’s now or 15 years down the line. I always want to put that back in people’s face to let them know I’m still there, don’t get it twisted. For me personally it puts me back in the space when I first wrote. EP, I was still riding around in mom’s van.

HHW: In that verse you mention looking at Mozart and telling him you’re the genius. That’s a word plenty of people have used to describe you.

KL: It feels great. It’s a good thing because even lyric I’ll never put that down in paper; knowing in song and writing you can say whatever you want, but I’ll never go around boasting and bragging, “I’m a genius.”

It’s not supposed to be said in word and talking from a first person [perspective]… that’s something other people say about you in creating. It’s a great feeling. I respect it and I’m glad they appreciated my art because I wholeheartedly put a lot of time and effort in crafting it.

HHW: What do you think of J. Cole selling over 300K of his new album his first week?

KL: That’s my brother, man. To see that he did exactly what he said what he was going to do and me believing in what he was going to do is just confirmation for me to know that good people will always be blessed. When you look at the game today, it’s so contemporary.

These corporations and these labels they’ll grab these kids that have raw talent and take their one song, they don’t care about developing them. They’re just taking their raw talent. Matter of fact, they don’t give a f*ck about their raw talent, they just taking their song that has buzz, putting it out on the net and putting a price on it. Then once the single dies down, they push these kids to the left that just made them millions of dollars.

By Cole doing what he’s doing, it puts the artist development back into the business, where the music speaks for itself. It’s just overwhelming man, and I love it. I respect that dude not only as an artist but as a person. He’s a great person, he deserves everything he’s getting.

HHW: Y’all set the Internets on fire when y’all dropped the pics working on new music together, so what’s up?

KL: This is probably the situation where we obviously have albums coming out at the same time so that ideal project may be a little bit more realistic, now that we both out of the way with the albums. I’m in the process of finishing up and his album is crazy so we have that space and time to actually do what we do.

HHW: A lot acts don’t realize the importance of artists development until it’s too late, but a lot of you and your peers were savvy to it, early.

KL: You remember, it was an era where our development was putting out those mixtapes. But they weren’t even mixtapes, they were full albums. From Drake, to myself, to Wale, to Cole, Ab-Soul, Jay Rock, Schoolboy Q, that was development.

But we were backed by an independent company that actually cared for the artist. If we were signed to a major label they wouldn’t have done that. They wouldn’t have chanced selling a mixtape without stamping the big corporation behind it. With that being said it’s only right that we continue that process in developing these artists out here. Putting it back inside the culture.