Kendrick Lamar and Rick Rubin sat down for a while at the Shangri La studios and talked for a bit before heading in to record, but during the 49 minute power session, Kendrick credited Eminem for inspiring his unique brand of lyricism.
“I got my clarity just studying Eminem when I was a kid,” the Lamar says. “How I got in the studio was all just curiosity. I had a love for the music, but it was curiosity. The day I heard The Marshall Mathers LP, I was just like, ‘How does that work? What is he doing? How is he putting his words together like that? What’s the track under that? An ad-lib? What is that?’ And then, ‘Why don’t you go in the studio and see?’ So I do that. Then it became, ‘How’s his words cutting through the beat like that? What is he doing that I’m not doing, now that I’m into it?’ His time is impeccable. When he wants to fall off the beat, it’s impeccable. These are things that, through experience and time, I had to learn.”
In 2014 Eminem praised Kendrick Lamar himself, saying “He raps to be the best rapper in the world. He competitive-raps. That’s one of the things that’s going to drive his career. He’s going to be around for a long time.”
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