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It comes as no surprise that Top Dawg Entertainment, the home label of Kendrick Lamar, operates differently from most hip-hop labels. In a new interview with Billboard, Kendrick and TDE CEO/founder Top Dawg go in-depth about the label's history and its work practices. While there are great stories about blindfolding engineers to keep the label's studio location private and such, perhaps the craziest is that Kendrick went through several drafts of his classic 2012 debut album good kid, m.A.A.d. city over many, many years, with the first version present around the same time as his self-titled EP in 2009.On his approach for the Kendrick Lamar EP:
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Lamar says he wrote good kid "about three four times before the world got to it." He continues:Lamar: Like, that sounds like cologne—we can sell that shit! I'm thinking, "What's the [musical] approach?" It's got to be real, it's got to be my story. It's got to be some shit that not only I feel, but everybody else can feel. That was the initial idea: I'm going to give a small piece of my backstory before my debut album. Because good kid was already prepped.
Elsewhere, Top teases that TDE is working on visual media, possibly a film. ("The movie, the TV shit that we're working on, Kendrick's going to be executive producer on whatever we do.") You can read the whole interview here.Meaning new songs?
Lamar: New songs, new everything. I wanted to tell that story, but I had to execute it. My whole thing is about execution. The songs can be great, the hooks can be great, but if it's not executed well, then it's not a great album.