One of the great qualities about Kendrick Lamar as an artist is his versatility. He has a lot of different skills within his toolbox that he can wield at any point. He’s one of hip-hop’s strongest storytellers, unafraid to go raw and honest in his songs. There’s an abundance of different flows that Lamar can choose from, all while balancing a strong lyrical acumen. However, there’s one lesser aspect in his arsenal that he argues is his strongest musical trait.
In an interview for Harper’s BAZAAR, SZA inquired about Kendrick’s ability to tap into his masculine and feminine sides alike. “It’s almost gender ambiguous. It’s father and mother because you actually seem quite in tune with your feminine energy,” she told Kendrick Lamar.
For Lamar, he admitted that early on, all he knew was to embody the more masculine traits. Looking up to his father, that’s the side he knew how to wield first. However, with time, he embraced his “superpower” as someone who could equally tap into his feminine spirit.
“But the more I delve deeper into my music and the more expressive I get with myself … that is the feminine energy right there. That’s not the bravado that I grew up seeing all the time. This is who I am, the soft-spoken me, and I have to own it,” Lamar told SZA.
Kendrick Lamar Embraces His Feminine Side as His ‘Superpower’
“This is where my superpower lies. Because if my job is to communicate, I need to be able to communicate with everyone. I need to be able to sit in front of SZA and talk to you in a way where you feel comfortable, in a way where it feels authentic from me to you, you to me, and I can’t do that with a wall up. I can’t do that with my full masculinity,” Kendrick Lamar continued.
“Not Like Us”, his triumphant victory lap in his war against Drake, was the crowning achievement of his superpower. Ultimately, he argued that the song is representative of the kind of man he is in his everyday life.
“This man has morals, he has values, he believes in something, he stands on something. He’s not pandering,” Kendrick Lamar explained. “He’s a man who can recognize his mistakes and not be afraid to share the mistakes and can dig deep down into fear-based ideologies or experiences to be able to express them without feeling like he’s less of a man. If I’m thinking of ‘Not Like Us,’ I’m thinking of me and whoever identifies with that.”
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