Terrace Martin is excited for upcoming albums from West Coast players like YG and Mustard, it’s Kendrick Lamar and Roddy Ricch’s LPs that have him pumped up the most.
“Aye, let me tell y’all the records I’m excited for,” Terrace said during a recent livestream. “I’m excited for YG’s album, I’m excited for Mustard’s album. I’m excited for a lot of people, but there’s two albums, I’m going crazy, I can’t wait ’til they drop.”
He continued, “Roddy Ricch album and whenever Kendrick drops his album, I’m excited for those two. Those two Compton artists is like, I’m excited. So much shit bubbling, you know?”
Kendrick Lamar attended Compton College’s graduation event for the class of 2024 on Friday (June 7) where he shared a passionate speech.
“I wanted to come out here just to tell y’all how much I appreciate y’all,” Dot told the grads. “I’m proud of the city of Compton; I’m proud of Compton College; most importantly I’m proud of the graduates out here. That’s right, I know what it takes. You had a lot of hardship, not only in your house, in your communities, but most importantly, within yourself. And that’s the toughest thing to overcome. We still growing day by day, brick by brick, making sure we develop, not only in physical form but in the spiritual as well.
“Seeing y’all out here, it’s not only a representation of the world, but it’s a representation of me. When I walk out in these cities, in these countries, I can be proud and say, ‘This is where I’m from.’ I still believe in Compton — Compton always been [the] future for me. I think we breed some of the most incredible individuals: creatives, intellectuals, talent. We had it since day one, that’s why I always scream this city. I traveled the world; there’s no place like this one right here. No place.”
He went on, “And I still believe in everything we’re doing, brick by brick, I still believe. It’s time that we change the narratives. Some people tell us this generation don’t have what it takes. Gen Z — we talk about it all day. They try to pull us down and say we don’t know what we’re doing. They wrong though. You know why? Because not only [do] y’all have what it takes; y’all have something bigger: y’all have the heart, y’all have the courage to be independent thinkers. Independent thinkers — there’s nothing more valuable than that.
“This degree that y’all have right here is just as big as any degree — I don’t care what school, I don’t care what institution. Compton College — this Compton degree is just as big. Now it’s all about taking these resources and taking what you learned and applying them. It’s as simple as that.”
Kendrick Lamar recently thrilled his Los Angeles fans when he announced The Pop Out concert to be held on the June 19 holiday in Inglewood’s Kia Forum. The tickets were sold out as soon they became available for purchase but those who missed out now have a chance to livestream the event on Amazon Prime Video and Twitch.
Powered by Amazon’s Rotation brand, the event will be organized by Dot’s label pgLang & Free Lunch. Although the “Not Like Us” rapper is yet to reveal any guest appearances on the event, producer Mustard previously announced that he’ll be present.
Since there have been rumors that Kendrick Lamar is currently working with the producer on new music, an X user took to the comments to ask for an update. “Sounds like a big W. But who is locked in with Dot now?” the user asked, before Terrace simply replied, “All of us.”
Terrace Martin contributed to Dot’s acclaimed 2015 album, To Pimp A Butterfly.
There’s no denying that the Drake and Kendrick Lamar rap feud of 2024 was the biggest in the rap game in decades. The feud included more than 8 diss tracks exchanged between the two within a month.
But at one point Drake and Kendrick were collaborators and even toured together. In fact, in 2011 Drake gave Kendrick Lamar an enormous recognition boost by featuring him on his wildly popular 2011 album, Take Care, which won Drake his first Grammy Award, winning Best Rap Album. In fact, it was Drake’s idea to have Kendrick Lamar on the ‘Buried Alive Interlude‘.
In a 2011 interview with XXLmag.com (The year Kendrick was featured on XXL‘s annual freshman list) Kendrick talks about his first meeting with Drake and how he became featured.
“I did a show in Toronto. My first show in Toronto. I think it was the same night, we was going back to the hotel, and he hit my phone. I guess he had got the word that I was in town. He was there for the night working for the album, and he just said he wanted to meet up. We met up, chilled out, got to vibe, see where each other was at and sh*t.“
Drake would reach out again after Kendrick dropped his debut studio album, Section.80 (which Kendrick reportedly emailed drake) and told him he loved what he did on the album and wanted Kendrick on his upcoming album. Drake followed by sending K-dot the 40 produced instrumental and told him to ‘”do whatever he wanted to do on it.”
On the song a very chill introspective Kendrick even speaks about the encounter of meeting a much more popular rapper in Drake and and his hope and suspicions that come with rising in the rap game. Listen to the song below.
Fast forward to 2024 amidst the Drake and Kendrick fued, Drake would release a “Buried Alive Interlude, Pt. 2”. Which was a remix of Kendrick Lamar’s interlude of the same title, borrowing Kendrick’s cadence, flow and tone from the track to mock the rapper over lines about how Drake boosted up Lamar’s career through bringing him on tour.
The track was first posted by Drake to his Instagram (now deleted) as part of the promo for his third diss track towards Kendrick titled, ‘FAMILY MATTERS‘. Listen to the track below.
If you want to catch up on all of the background and timeline of the Drake and Kendrick feud, this article by V101.9 is very in depth and accurate.
Snoop supports both Drizzy & Dot despite recent confrontation
Snoop Dogg remains supportive to both Drake and Kendrick Lamar regardless of their recent bitter clash and in fact, he is appreciative because the spat has upped the lyricism bar.
“Well, the only thing I want to say about that whole scenario is that I want to give both of them a shout out for raising the bar as far as lyrics, as far as song-making and writing because the writing has been upped since the confrontation,” Snoop said during a recent interview on Entertainment Tonight.
“Those are my nephews. I’m not in the middle of it. I support both of them and that’s personal business, not my business.”
He continued, “As far as what they did for the industry and the rap game, they made you rap again. You can’t mumble your way and gimmick your way to a song no more, buddy. So thank y’all.”
Charlamagne knows what he feels about ‘Mr. Morale’
Charlamagne Tha God is positive that his opinion about Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers is his own. During a recent conversation on The Diary of a CEO, the radio host explained that fans can’t influence his view that K. Dot’s last album on TDE is a great one.
“I love Kendrick Lamar. I think he’s fantastic,” Charlamagne said. “I think Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, in the future, is gonna be known as one of the most important hip-hop albums of all time. That one and JAY-Z’s 4:44. But, people are hitting me and telling me their thoughts and telling me their opinions and I’m blocking all of that because I listened to the record. I listened to it five or six times, I know what I got from it. I know what I feel about it. And, I’m not letting y’all change my mind.”
Charlamagne speaks about the importance of disconnecting from social media and blocking people who contact his phone trying to influence his opinion about Kendrick Lamar's album "Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers."
Kendrick Lamar’s scathing Drake diss “Not Like Us” has proved be not just lyrically menacing, but also a commercial juggernaut. Over the weekend, the track became the fastest rap song to garner 200m streams on Spotify (19 days), breaking a record set by Drake’s “God’s Plan.”
Earlier on, the track also broke Drizzy’s record by becoming the fastest rap song to hit 100m spins on Spotify (9 days).
Kendrick Lamar's 'Not Like Us' becomes the fastest rap song EVER to surpass 200m streams on Spotify (19 days) 🔥🤯
“Not Like Us” had also earned the biggest single-day streams for a rap song in Spotify’s history, beating Drizzy & Lil Baby’s “Girls Want Girls.” It also outdid Drake’s “In My Feelings” by earning the biggest weekly streams on Spotify.
