Kendrick Lamar Does First Interview Since Drake Beef

Kendrick Lamar conducts his first interview since the Drake beef where he opens up about his hit single “Not Like Us,” tapping into his feminine side and more.

Kendrick Lamar Opens Up in New Interview

On Monday (Oct. 21), Harper’s Bazaar shared a new interview with K-Dot and SZA, which features the Compton, Calif. rapper speaking candidly for the first time since engaging in lyrical warfare with Drizzy back in the spring. The interview finds Kendrick and SZA interviewing each other with the R&B singer asking K-Dot what his chart-topping song “Not Like Us” means to him.

“Not like us is the energy of who I am, the type of man I represent. Now, if you identify with the man that I represent,” Kendrick says. “This man has morals, he has values, he believes in something, he stands on something. He’s not pandering,” he continues. “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.”

SZA also asks Kendrick to address tapping into his femininity.

“I have to balance both,” Kendrick says. “At first, all I knew was the masculinity, and I always kept that wall up because of my pops. 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.”

He adds, “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 has been his usual recluse self after hosting his Pop Out- Ken & Friends Concert back in June. There have been unconfirmed rumors that he is dropping an album. In September, he was announced as the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show headliner.