"How dare you put out an album so lyrically dense?" - MistaJam to Kendrick Lamar

On going against the grain with To Pimp A Butterfly

MistaJam: We're in the era of ringtone rap, where it's all about the hooks. How dare you put out an album so lyrically dense, with so many messages! What was going through your mind? Were you like, "I'm just sick and tired of hearing all of this, let me make something that means something?"

Kendrick: Yeah, something like that. Also just having a whole lot of confidence in the music that inspired me to think the way I do, and some of the lessons I learned through music. And that was the energy I wanted, and if that took excluding radio singles - then that was just something I had to do.

K. Dot never listens to his old stuff

MistaJam: Do you ever go back to your old material?

Kendrick: No.

MistaJam: Why not?

Kendrick: It just makes me cringe. I think it's a creative thing - I don't want to get in the mindset of my accomplishments then; rather than thinking forward to what's next.

He still gets shook that people connect with his catharsis

Kendrick: When I go out into the streets and they say "This song did this for me" and "This song did that", it blows my mind because for me recording it... this is just my own ills.

Even if the story is not similar to the person that's listening, they feel it in some type of way. Something connects.

To Pimp A Butterfly was supposed to be his fifth album

Kendrick: This album could have come either way - as the second album or as the fourth or the fifth. I just decided to bump it up a little bit. This album is really the fifth album. I just decided to take that chance and the people appreciate it.

Jacking Flying Lotus' beats

Kendrick: Flying Lotus gave me all these beats and I think they were for his album. I didn't really know. The beats were so crazy, I didn't really care [laughs]... I was real selfish with them joints, man.

Even the joints didn't make the record, they still some of my favourite joints and I'm still holding them hostage.

On the Taylor Swift collab

MistaJam: The first thing that people are hearing from you, post this album, is the collab, Bad Blood.

Kendrick: She gangsta, man. She's hard. We had fun.. we just went in there and vibed out.

The 2Pac interview

MistaJam: Where did you come up with the Pac interview?

Kendrick: This guy I did an interview with gave me some unreleased Pac joints. I took it to the bus and heard it and I was like "Man this sounds like today, this sounds like everything that's going on". I'd be a fool if I didn't put this on the album. The world had to hear those words.