By Kyle Eustice - August 9, 2017

DULUTH, GA – Kendrick Lamar is closing in on the last leg of The DAMN. Tour, a 36-date national expedition that kicked off on July 7 and culminates on September 2 in Miami. During a stop in Duluth, Georgia, Rolling Stone sat down with the highly revered Compton MC to discuss everything from his childhood to Drake.

After revealing that his childhood nickname was “Man Man” (his family always said he carried himself like a man), he touched on what a “wack artist” is to him. It was a topic he broached on the DAMN. track “ELEMENT.,” where he makes the distinction between a black artist and a wack artist.

“A wack artist uses other people’s music for their approval,” K. Dot explained. “We’re talking about someone that is scared to make their own voice, chases somebody else’s success and their thing, but runs away from their own thing. That’s what keeps the game watered-down. Everybody’s not going to be able to be a Kendrick Lamar. I’m not telling you to rap like me. Be you. Simple as that.

“I watch a lot of good artists go down like that because you’re so focused on what numbers this guy has done, and it dampers your own creativity,” he continued. “Which ultimately dampers the listener, because at the end of the day, it’s not for us. It’s for the person driving to their 9-to-5 that don’t feel like they wanna go to work that morning.”

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