By: Amanda Anderson-Niles
Kendrick Lamar’s music career has taken off as the emcee continues to prove himself lyrically and gain respect from some of the greatest to ever pick up a mic. However, he’s made the conscious decision to try to avoid the usual pitfalls of being a rapper, and he does so by being careful about who he surrounds himself with and staying away from groupies. He also made the conscious decision not to rap about violence and drugs in his music, and it’s one of the reasons he’s probably found such massive success. The rapper was named the rapper of the year by GQ Magazine, but he didn’t show up to the party for the accolade because he didn’t appreciate some of the things that were written about him in his interview.
The CEO of Top Dawg Entertainment Anthony Tiffith (TDE manages Kendrick) tells TMZ that the rapper did not show up to the party because he’s not happy that GQ writer Steve Marsh wrote that he was surprised that Kendrick refuses to drink excessively and entertain groupies, like most Hip Hop artists tend to do.
Marsh also wrote quite a bit about the gang violence issues that plague Kendrick’s hometown of Compton, and Kendrick was pretty pissed because he feels the writer spent too much time talking about gang issues than the success of the young emcee.
Top Dawg’s head honcho Anthony Tiffith says:
“To say he was ‘surprised at our discipline’ is completely disrespectful … Kendrick deserved to be accurately documented.
“The racial overtones immediately reminded everyone of a time in hip-hop that was destroyed by violence, resulting in the loss of two of our biggest stars [Tupac and B.I.G.] … As a result of this misrepresentation, I pulled Kendrick from his performance at GQ’s annual Man Of The Year party.”
Tiffith also says that he feels it was “lazy” for the writer to focus so much on gang banging and past issues of Hip Hop than to write on Kendrick’s success.
Steve Marsh however doesn’t understand why Kendrick or his camp is offended based off his latest tweets, but it’s safe to say they weren’t too happy about him calling TDE the “Baby Death Row” either. However, the Editor in Chief of the magazine released a statement and claims he is shocked by Kendrick and his camp’s actions. He writes:
Kendrick Lamar is one of the most talented new musicians to arrive on the scene in years. That’s the reason we chose to celebrate him, wrote an incredibly positive article declaring him the next King of Rap, and gave him our highest honor: putting him on the cover of our Men of the Year issue. I’m not sure how you can spin that into a bad thing, and I encourage anyone interested to read the story and see for themselves. We were mystified and sorely disappointed by Top Dawg’s decision to pull him at the last minute from the performance he had promised to give. The real shame is that people were deprived of the joy of seeing Kendrick perform live. I’m still a huge fan.”—Jim Nelson, GQ editor-in-chief
Well I’m proud of him for standing up for what he believes in yet again! Love him!
He’s a little bit too new in the game to be burning bridges.
Baby Death Row? Yeah I don’t blame them at all. It’s like the guy who write the article has never listened to Kendrick’s music a day in his life. If so he would have never made that comparison.
I can’t even blame him. He’s trying to do something new for his hometown with his music and the magazine kept bring up the past. That’s crazy.
He’s overrated and people shouldn’t have blown his head up so much. Then just maybe he wouldn’t have pulled this stunt.
Good for them. This is a new era of Hip Hop and should be treated as such.
I think the editor should have tried to see things from Kendrick’s perspective. When an artist is trying hard to show a different side of where they came from with their music, it’s kind of disrespectful to keep bringing up the past. And on top of that, it is insulting that he acted so shocked that Kendrick doesn’t carry himself like a hoodlum. This writer should at least apologize.
Nowadays you just have to respect an artist that stands for something because most don’t. Props to Kendrick.
Much respect.
Kendrick is one of the few rappers left that wants to be known for spreading positivity and wisdom, so I can see why he didn’t like that the writer focused so much on negativity that his music doesn’t even embrace.
Wait, isn’t this the same group that called Drake sensitive? Interesting that they too are being sensitive. Hmmmmm…