Shadowing Practice: Kendrick Lamar & Rick Rubin Have an Epic Conversation | GQ - Learn English Speaking with Video
Choose a practice mode
Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.
785 sentences
If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.
1
All right.
2
Yeah, man.
3
Yeah.
4
Do you usually start with a track, or do you, like, how does writing work for you?
5
It varies.
6
Usually the time me and the boys get in the studio, and I can just go off a simple drum loop that I like.
7
Like, my process, it starts from just a whole bunch of premeditated thoughts.
8
The process of me thinking about the ideas and what I want to say next.
9
Yeah.
10
You know, and by the time I get into the studio,
11
I have to find that exact sound that triggered the emotion or the idea that I thought about two months ago.
12
Would you have more than one of those going on at the same time?
13
Like, might you have six of those before you go into the studio, or do you do them one at a time?
14
Do them one at a time.
15
So the concept will come, you'll sort of live with it and let it grow in you.
16
Yep.
17
Do you make notes?
18
Definitely.
19
All the time.
20
I have to make notes because a lot of my inspiration comes from meeting people
21
or going outside of the country or going around the corner to my old neighborhood, talking to a five-year-old little boy.
22
And I have to remember these things.
23
I have to write them down and then five or three months later,
24
I have to find that same emotion that I felt when I was inspired by it.
25
So I had to dig all the way deep and see what were the things that triggered the idea.
26
Does it always come back?
27
It comes back.
28
It comes back.
29
It comes back.
30
Because I have key little words that make me realize the exact motion and what drew the inspiration.
31
You?
32
Yeah, man.
33
Definitely.
34
It's a process.
35
It's a working process.
36
I'm my worst critic.
37
Tell me about that a little bit.
38
You're critical of your, you just want to be really good.
39
Yeah, it's really about me challenging myself.
40
I think my excitement in doing music is me feeling like I'm never stagnant.
41
Me feeling like I didn't get comfortable in my own skin of what I think is good
42
or what someone else thinks is good.
43
Stepping outside of my comfort zone and mastering it.
44
That excites me when I feel like I've accomplished that.
45
It just keeps the hunger for more going.
46
I don't feel I can ever stop.
47
Do you ever consider, so when you think about the challenge to yourself, do you ever consider the listener or who's gonna,
48
like the audience at all or is it more like just self expression?
49
How do you describe it?
50
I used to.
51
I used to consider the listener.
52
But now I'm in a space where if I'm not inspired I can't really, you know, do the music.
53
You know, I can't feel it.
54
I think I put enough hours
55
and work to be able to pin a hundred bar verse on the spot at any given moment.
56
But for me to actually feel an idea and concept has to come from me.
57
And a lot of times I have to block out a lot of different needs and wants, you know, just for my own selfish reasons.
58
But at the end of the day, it comes out where, you know, whether you like it or not,
59
you know, you're going to know it comes from a real place and it's going to feel unapologetic.
60
I'm not compromising and it's gonna feel me.
61
Has there ever been anything that you felt like, I don't want to say that on a record?
62
Like it feels like...
63
That's a great question.
64
I always said to myself, if I said it on record, I never retract my statements.
65
Yeah. Because it's my self-expressions.
66
You can have your opinions on it, you can feel a certain type of way, but it's how I feel.
67
And I can't contradict that at all.
68
And sometimes I do come across them lines.
69
As rappers, we always have that thing about us where it is controversy.
70
But it came from some type of inspiration, and I have to say it.
71
I have to be vocal about it.
72
And do you ever look back on any and feel like you'd like to change any of the things that you've written?
73
It would be me saying I want to go deeper.
74
I should have went deeper.
75
I see.
76
You know?
77
I shouldn't have held back.
78
You know, but moving along, I know, okay, you're not going to be in the box and saying what you want to say, and that's where I'm at now.
79
Content-wise, do you feel like you could talk about anything, or do you feel an obligation to talk about certain things?
80
I can talk about anything.
81
That's great.
82
Anything.
83
I can talk about anything, and this is the challenge for me.
84
Being able to talk about anything
85
and make it connect to a listener where the listener can either feel like you
86
or feel like they understand you or you have just a deeper connection through the music with the listener.
87
Talking to a little kid and making that represent something and feel like something or saying the most brutal,
88
harsh things on record where society may not want to hear it.
89
still having that connection and that's what I think music is about for me.
90
Period.
91
Period.
92
Do you think about how to ask this?
93
Let's talk about how you got to this place of doing this.
94
What would have been inspirations along the way for you, musically, lyrically or philosophically that got you to this stage?
95
Oh man, that was a journey.
96
I think first off it had to be how I was raised, you know, in an environment where having the idea of my father being,
97
you know, just a complete realist, just in the streets, and my mother having this idea of being a dreamer,
98
and me traveling the world and doing all these things that I'm doing today, it starts there first, you know,
99
before I even heard any type of melody or lyric.
100
That was implanted in me first.
101
That's just DNA, who I am and the things I talk about today.
102
It's always the end and the game, the good versus the evil.
103
And that's how I feel as a person.
104
And eventually that pushed me toward the music that I love to listen to.
105
and it came from Tupac, Biggie, Jay, I mean, you know, your usual suspect.
106
These were the people that was played in my household that not only I loved to listen to,
107
but it kind of complemented my DNA because these artists always had different perspectives on life in general,
108
and they put that in their lyrics, and they put that in their music.
109
And as a kid, I connected with it, you know, because I see my older cousins going through the same type of feelings, and emotion that these artists are going through.
110
And as I started to write and dig into my own thing, it just progressed in that same nature.
111
Was that music playing in your house your choice in music, or was it the music your parents were listening to?
112
How did you get exposed to it?
113
Definitely my parents.
114
Parents?
115
Yeah, my parents were fairly young in the city of Compton.
116
And I was basically growing up with them.
117
So the things that they played was more in, you know, there was the hip crowd, you know.
118
So I was being exposed to all these ideas, you know, from Big Daddy Kane to Easy E to, you know, the Bay Area 2 Short,
119
E-40, you know, back to Marvin Gaye and the Isley Brothers.
120
This field of music, you know, just broadened, you know, my ideas to come.
121
We never would have thought in a million years, you know, that I'd be doing it.
122
Yeah, it's amazing.
123
Yeah, it's amazing.
124
So I owe my first ideas of how I want to attack music to them.
125
When did jazz find its way into your world?
126
That's crazy.
127
Yeah, it's a trip.
128
Because I was in the studio one day with my guy,
129
Terrace Martin, and he noticed something about the type of sounds that I was picking.
130
In my whole catalog from my mixtapes to my EPs to
131
just my process of making my debut album to where I'm at now.
132
He noticed this type of instruments I was picking.
133
He was like man, a lot of the chords that you pick are jazz influenced.
134
You're a jazz musician by default.
135
The way your cadence is rapping over certain type of snares and drums,
136
this is everything that a person on the saxophone and on the horn,
137
you know, commute with how they hear music.
138
And that's something that just opened me up.
139
And then he just started breaking down everything, just the science of it, going back to Miles, Herbie Hancock.
140
I'm listening to his score like, man, I like that sound.
141
What is that?
142
You know, that's a road key.
143
So that's what I've been liking all these years?
144
Yeah, you've been liking this for years.
145
This is in your DNA.
146
This is why you picked certain instrumentals you picked.
147
So when was that moment when you had that experience in the studio where you realized that you liked it?
148
When around was that?
149
About three months until my second LP, to Pimper Butterfly.
150
I was going to say that after hearing the first album, when the second album came, it was completely unexpected.
151
Yeah, yeah.
152
Nobody was expecting you to make that.
153
Yeah, definitely.
154
And I knew from the jump that there was going to be a challenge for my listeners here.
155
But if I'm challenging myself in the studio, I want to challenge you as well.
156
So I just went full fledged with it, man.
157
And we built everything from scratch.
158
Amazing.
159
So do you feel like this will be, this is kind of a funny thing because I'm asking you to project the future.
160
It's impossible.
161
But do you feel like Butterfly, what What do you refer to it as?
162
Butterfly to pimp a butterfly.
163
Okay.
164
It's a few things.
165
Maybe too pimp.
166
I was going to ask how you'd like to call it.
167
Let's say the second album.
168
Do you feel like that's more indicative of where things will be in the future?
169
Or is it more like that's where you are then or now?
170
And we should, based on the difference between the first album and the second album, should we continue to expect it to change?
171
That's a great question.
172
Again, it may not be possible to answer, but tell me your best thoughts.
173
My best thoughts, the best answer I can give you, that was me then.
174
Not to say that it wouldn't be a continuous or would not.
175
You know, it'll always have some type of DNA in my music.
176
But me as a person, just knowing who I am, I grow.
177
I'm like a chameleon, you know?
178
And that is a gift and a curse for me, you know?
179
But more so a gift because it never pertains to me to put me in a box.
180
and my ability to express it and to still make the connection wherever I go, that is my high points,
181
you know, and that's something that I pride myself on.
182
You know, it's always come from an organic place.
183
Beautiful.
184
It sounds like the connection you're talking about really is your connection to it more than other people's connection to it.
185
Yeah, right, right.
186
But I think the thing that's infectious about it and the reason other people connect is they feel your connection to it.
187
Exactly.
188
You know, it's not even necessarily that, like, probably a lot of people who are your fans, who heard your last record, might not have been that into jazz.
189
Exactly.
190
But they feel your connection to it, and it inspires them to open their selves to hear new music that they might not have heard.
191
That is so true.
192
That is so true.
193
And you can look at a person, you can have a conversation with them, and you know if, you know,
194
whether it's the music or who they identify themselves with, if it comes from an organic place, a real place.
195
And we call the consumers, you know, we've been told to call the consumers done.
196
But they're not.
197
They know when it's real.
198
Absolutely.
199
And they know if they can feel it, you know.
200
And that's something that I always understood, you know, just being a fan myself.
201
You know, when I looked at still to this day, when I look at my certain aspirations as far as artists, when I look at Eminem,
202
when I look at Jay, I felt the stories they were telling, whether it was fictional or not.
203
These ideas that they were putting down made me believe in everything
204
that they were saying
205
because it just came from a space of whether a realistic point of just their imagination being
206
so strong and so heavy that you just get bombarded into their ideas.
207
That's how it comes across for me.
208
Beautiful.
209
I feel like even if you don't agree with what someone is saying, but if they're saying it and you know that they believe it, you resonate with it on some level.
210
You don't have to agree with it to respect it and appreciate.
211
It's just human expression.
212
People really allowing to show themselves is a beautiful thing, whether you agree with them or not.
213
Exactly.
214
And that's a great point because I always...
215
I've always been heavy on vocal tone and the way you manipulate your voice and things like that.
216
Because different tones from me just gives off different expressions.
217
I may wake up one morning and feel like this scenery right here.
218
Or I may wake up one morning feeling like the depths of hell, you know
219
and you may hear that grunge and that emotion.
220
But that emotion, it translates through the music to the person
221
that was feeling that way the day before or when they wake up the next morning.
222
And I've always been a huge fan of that.
223
When I hear you, I don't always know it's you.
224
Because you seem to inhabit so many different characters with your voice that it's not always It's clear that it's you.
225
Right, exactly.
226
It's interesting.
227
It comes from my personality and DNA, and it also just comes from being a complete huge fan of Prince.
228
My father was a heavy, heavy still to this day Prince fan.
229
That's all he was playing.
230
And I just sat back and just, I could never tell when it was Prince for me.
231
You know, he had a falsetto.
232
You know, he had this baritone.
233
He just gave you so many different emotions, you know, but I seen the way my father was always connected with him.
234
And I studied it, you know.
235
You know, alongside of lyricists, I've studied R&B, I've studied soul, you know, to even pop, you know.
236
And eventually all these things, you know, gathered up to how I connect and approach music.
237
It's really beautiful.
238
It's a great journey you're on.
239
I appreciate it.
240
How do you go into the studio experience versus the live experience?
241
The difference, your mental state going into each of those things.
242
Man, that is a whole other beast for me.
243
I drive people racket because I approach the stage, my stage performance, the same way I approach the studio.
244
I have to think about it and live it and know how my mannerisms are, how I'm moving.
245
You know, all that is, it has to be dead on for me,
246
you know, from the hits and the licks on how we rearrange the idea just to give the fans a new experience.
247
It's a process.
248
The same way I sit with mixes and mastering,
249
it's the same way I sit inside that that rehearsal room to make sure that everything is hitting on cue.
250
Beautiful.
251
And talking about the musical process, how involved are you in the, beyond the vocals and lyrics, how involved are you in the music,
252
in the making of it, in the choosing of it, in all aspects?
253
Man, I don't sleep.
254
I don't sleep with my team, no, they can't sleep.
255
Because I just, you know, not that I don't trust them.
256
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
257
I have 100% trust in my team, but I just have to be there for everything.
258
Yeah.
259
Sometimes I drive myself crazy.
260
But it just makes me feel like I'm not only pushing them, but I'm pushing myself.
261
I just have to be involved, man.
262
It's a freaky nature sometimes, but I have to be there from everything, from the snare to the hi-hat.
263
So if we gotta gain up this two more DBs, we gotta snatch this out and let this part of the section breathe, you know, I'm there.
264
Have you ever written to a track and then afterwards decided to keep the song but change the track?
265
Has that ever happened?
266
Oh yeah, all the time.
267
Definitely, definitely.
268
Or in the case of building on the track and the pieces that we build it on, it sounds better than the actual bottom.
269
And just being able to know how to be a minimalist in certain areas and pull something back,
270
and letting a new thing breathe opens it up more.
271
And these are, that's a trial and error, though.
272
This is something I couldn't tell you 10 years ago, or six years ago.
273
But it has been plenty of times.
274
It's really just about pushing myself pushing the musicians to not settle in.
275
We can put this in a space where it can be better.
276
So do you usually have the musicians playing all together, or do you do parts individually?
277
Sometimes we play all together.
278
Sometimes we do parts individually.
279
And if they're playing all together, would you conduct or say, let's try it like this?
280
Yeah, definitely.
281
I have to be.
282
We'd be everywhere.
283
It'd be just a bunch of crazy sounds, you know, with no arrangement, you know.
284
And when I say musicians, it's not all the time someone that can play an instrument.
285
A person that can chop and break down a crazy sample is a musician to me because that's a lost art.
286
Someone that can pull out the MPC, you know, from out the dungeons, out the crates, you know,
287
and be able to break down some crazy drums along with a crazy bass player, you know?
288
These are the people that I like around me.
289
Have you ever written anything more before hearing a track almost like it was poetry?
290
Like, do you know?
291
Yeah.
292
A few times I've written four songs, and I had to find the actual instrumentation to match it.
293
Wow.
294
You know?
295
And that's fun.
296
That's fun because it gives me the, not only me, but it gives the producer the freedom to build around the lyrics.
297
Certain words that get tossed out, a sound just might crack over top of that.
298
They know the cadence. For sure.
299
It's cool to have just a lot of different ways of doing it.
300
It's like what moves to the basket.
301
It's got to be good.
302
Exactly.
303
I never know how a song is going to turn.
304
I may think I know, you know, but it may come a whole new direction.
305
It may give off a whole new entity of its own.
306
You know, from the approach to how I wrote it, to me going in the booth just freestyling,
307
it usually comes across with no sign of how.
308
How do you know when it's good?
309
How do you know when it's good?
310
Or how do you know when it's done?
311
Man, I think that's the question.
312
I think that's the question of our artists and just people who create.
313
It's just a feeling, man.
314
You can feel it.
315
It's just a feeling.
316
Great.
317
It's not rocket science.
318
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
319
I'm sure you know.
320
Absolutely.
321
It's just that feeling that everyone gets, or that feeling that you just get along.
322
Everybody may not get it.
323
Everybody may not get it until it comes out.
324
Yeah.
325
And it'd be that thing, and then they'd say, oh, you know.
326
Have there been any reactions to your music that have surprised you,
327
either songs or projects where people reacted either better, worse, different?
328
Surprised?
329
Yeah.
330
My first album, Good Kid, Mad City, this was me being fresh in the game.
331
And I already knew what songs, well, in my head, I knew what songs were going to be.
332
Big records, you know, radio, single.
333
I'm playing the game.
334
I'm a new artist.
335
And I have enough knowledge just going through meetings
336
and going to labels and trying to get signed in my early 20s and things like that.
337
I just know how the game works.
338
So I'm creating these records for the radio.
339
Just for people, just ear candy for people to enjoy.
340
So in my mind, I'm thinking these are going to be the biggest records on the album.
341
But turns out that a song called Mad City, where I'm just rapping for maybe 40 bars or 30 bars,
342
is probably the most song with the biggest connection on that project.
343
And that threw me for a loop.
344
But it also gave me an insight clear enough to know
345
sometimes it's not about what you think is going to happen or what you feel.
346
People connect to things in strange ways.
347
And at the end of the day, you have to go with that feeling.
348
Absolutely.
349
OK, now I have a question based on that.
350
Forgetting, thinking of what you thought was going to work commercially, how did you feel about that song on the album in the context of the others?
351
In the context of the album?
352
Just as a, for your taste, where was that song on your meter?
353
I loved it.
354
Was it one of your favorites?
355
It was one of my favorites.
356
But I didn't know, you know.
357
Yeah, it didn't fit a formula, but it was one of your favorites.
358
Yeah, it was one of my favorites for sure.
359
I hope that has given you confidence.
360
Oh yeah, oh yeah, definitely.
361
Nothing has to fit a formula if you go with what feels good to you.
362
Exactly.
363
That's what works.
364
We was having a conversation in the studio the other night, you know.
365
You know, of course there are certain rhythms and tempos and certain note changes in music that immediately appeases the ear.
366
But when something just feels good, it can be a tree branch falling off the ground
367
and somebody hitting that right key or that right lyric on
368
that tree branch and it'd be the biggest thing in life because you just can't stop sound and you can't stop frequency.
369
I truly believe in music is just like that.
370
It's simple, you know?
371
Let's talk about All Right for a second.
372
Yeah.
373
It has become sort of our generation's protest song.
374
Yeah, yeah.
375
And when you wrote it, did you have that in mind?
376
Did you think of it as a protest song or?
377
You know what?
378
I had that record.
379
I was sitting on that record for about six months, the beat Pharrell.
380
And between my guy, Sam Taylor and Pharrell, did you do it?
381
When you going to do it?
382
When you going to do it?
383
When you going to do it?
384
It was on me.
385
You know, I knew it was a great record.
386
I just was trying to find the space and to approach it.
387
What was, what's the approach, you know?
388
I mean, the beat sounds fun, but it's something else inside of them chords that Pharrell put down
389
that feels like it can be more of a statement rather than a certain tune, you know?
390
So with the blessings of For Real and Sam asking me, am I going to rock, when I'm going to rock on it,
391
it put the pressure on me.
392
It put the pressure on me to challenge myself
393
and to actually think and focus on something that can be a staple in hip hop.
394
And eventually I came across it.
395
Eventually I came across it and found the right words of what I wanted to talk about.
396
You know, it was a lot going on
397
and still to this day a lot going on
398
and I wanted to approach it as a more uplifting but aggressive, you know.
399
Not playing the victim but, you know, still having that, you know, yeah, we strong, you know.
400
that was one record that executed exactly how my approach was the moment I put that pen to the paper.
401
So you had the beat for like six months and then you didn't have any words at that point?
402
I didn't have any words.
403
I think P knew that that record was special.
404
P knew that the record was special.
405
Sam knew that the record was special.
406
They probably knew it before I even, you know, had a clue, you know, so.
407
I'm glad that they put that pressure on me to actually challenge myself.
408
Because sometimes as a writer, you know, you can have that writer's block.
409
And, you know, when you like a sound or a type of instrumental, you want to approach it the right way.
410
So, sit on it.
411
Yeah, I think also sometimes like the, maybe like the right content wasn't where you were for those six months.
412
Like, you know what I mean?
413
It's like the universe has a way of, like, the timing of it is not really on our control.
414
You can't say, well, I got this track I like, so I'm gonna write to it now.
415
It's like it comes when it's supposed to come and it's relevant in the world.
416
It's like it works the way it's supposed to work.
417
Yeah, definitely.
418
You just have to be open to it and ready for it when it comes.
419
Exactly.
420
Exactly.
421
I remember hitting P on the text and like, man, I got the lyrics.
422
You know, and typing the lyrics to him, he's like, that's it.
423
And did you have a scat over it before or nothing?
424
Yeah, I had a scat.
425
I had...
426
And it had that phrasing?
427
Different cadences.
428
Yeah.
429
You know?
430
Hook or not yet?
431
P had the hook.
432
Oh, cool.
433
Yeah.
434
A good hook.
435
Yeah, P had the all right.
436
That's him on the hook.
437
Yeah, yeah.
438
I'm just saying that, the all right phrase, what does all right represent?
439
What does we all going to be all right represent?
440
Yeah.
441
You know?
442
I'm glad that sparked the idea because that song could have went a thousand other ways.
443
Absolutely.
444
Yup, a thousand other ways.
445
What do you listen to mostly, would you say, now?
446
Now?
447
My list of music right now is ranging just a whole bunch of oldies.
448
That's cool.
449
Yeah, it's kind of trippy.
450
Same usual.
451
Marvin Gaye.
452
Aisley Brothers.
453
I don't know, man.
454
I just...
455
Would you say more R&B than hip hop?
456
It's more R&B.
457
It's more soul.
458
Could you imagine making an album in the future where you're not rapping?
459
You consider yourself first and foremost a rapper.
460
Yeah, definitely.
461
Yeah, I think I got the confidence for it.
462
I got the confidence for it.
463
I have the experience and the time to approach it.
464
So I can master up the idea and the time to approach the right way, I think I can pull it off.
465
I feel like it's really interesting now with what's going on in hip-hop.
466
You seem.. it's almost like you're a throwback to when lyrics mattered.
467
Because it feels like so much of hip-hop today is more about vibe and swag and personality and less about words.
468
And sometimes it sounds like even the MC doesn't know what he's saying on today's record.
469
So it's interesting to hear the sort of clarity and depth that you go lyrically.
470
The clarity...
471
I got my clarity just studying M when I was a kid.
472
Always, you know...
473
How I got in the studio was just all off curiosity.
474
I had a love for the music, but it was curiosity, you know.
475
The day I heard Marshall Mathers' LP, I was just...
476
How does that work?
477
What is he doing?
478
How is he putting his words together like that?
479
What is that?
480
What's the track under it?
481
Oh, that's a double.
482
It's an ad lib.
483
An ad lib?
484
What is that?
485
You should go into Studio C.
486
I do that.
487
How is he projecting?
488
How is his words cutting through the beat like that?
489
What is he doing that I'm not doing now that I'm into it?
490
Yeah.
491
His time is impeccable.
492
You know, when you want to fall off the beat, it's impeccable.
493
You know, and these are certain things that through experience and time that, you know, I had to learn.
494
Lucky that you got to learn it as young as you were.
495
Yeah.
496
It just gave you the ability to grow so much.
497
Yeah, definitely, definitely.
498
13, 14 years old.
499
Crazy.
500
In one of your lyrics, you mentioned meditation.
501
Mm-hmm.
502
Do you have a meditation practice?
503
Yeah, man.
504
I have to have at least 30 minutes to myself.
505
If it's not on a daily, every other day, to just sit back, close my eyes, and I absorb what's going on, you know, the space that I'm in.
506
When you're in music, and everybody knows this, the years are always cut in half because we always have something to do.
507
Whether we're in the studio for four months, that go by.
508
Now you gotta go on the road for five months, that go by next thing you know five years don't went by and you're 29 years old you know and and
509
for me now i have to find a way to understand the space
510
that i'm in and how i'm feeling at the moment because
511
if i don't it's going to zoom i know i can feel you know
512
and i'm sure you know what i'm I'm talking about.
513
It just goes, you know, and then you miss out on your moment because you were so in the moment,
514
you didn't know the moment was going on.
515
If that makes sense.
516
Absolutely.
517
Yeah.
518
You can also get lost.
519
I know some artists get lost in touring, and they become less relatable.
520
Like the stuff they have to write about doesn't relate
521
because all they know is being on stage and accolades
522
and hotels like stuff that's like doesn't it doesn't their reality is
523
so different than everybody else's reality that it's not so interesting especially
524
if that's all you talk about definitely definitely it's definitely a
525
different it's a like to call it a cartoon world you know
526
and you can really get lost in it
527
so fast you know it's scary out there it's so scary man
528
and how did you get the idea to do the 30 minutes every day or every other day?
529
Well, just knowing my scheduling and how much I just think about music.
530
Someone brought it to my attention.
531
It's all I think about.
532
There's nothing wrong with it.
533
It consumes me.
534
It consumes my life.
535
I breathe it.
536
I can't think about nothing else.
537
And once I start realizing that,
538
OK, I know that I have to give it some time and space every now and then.
539
And that 30 minutes helps.
540
That 30 minutes helps where I can totally zone out and not think about my next lyric.
541
And it gives me a restart, a jump start, and a refresh, and lets me know why I'm here, doing what I'm doing.
542
Beautiful.
543
Does it typically take a long time from the time you have the concept until you get the whole thing written?
544
Maybe not produced the way you want, but at least written.
545
It varies.
546
I've written concepts in four songs, three verses each, 24 bars,
547
16 bars, four songs within an hour or six months.
548
Yeah.
549
It just moves like that sometimes for me.
550
When you have the concept, you said before that you're surprised sometimes by how the record comes out.
551
Yeah.
552
But do you know the message you're trying to get across before?
553
Oh, yeah.
554
So you always know that in advance.
555
Definitely.
556
That nature comes from the skills of loving to write in school
557
and knowing how to engage the listener
558
and knowing where I'm going to land it or where it's going to end or where it's not going to end.
559
You know, that's always been something I was always unique about and really focused on.
560
You know, where does this thing go?
561
You know, and I have that premeditated in the process of me pushing the lyrics.
562
Earliest memory of music?
563
Being in the living room and watching We Want Easy.
564
How old would you say you are?
565
Had to be four maybe
566
I actually said before him busting out it was a scene where he bust out of jail on stage
567
And he's rapping his verse
568
That's my earliest memories I think
569
Then after that it would be Snoop Dogg nothing
570
but a jeep thing I was heavy into music videos this one the box was out.
571
Yeah, you had to order You know, they constantly order, so the song was coming on back to back and I just sit in front of the tube, just watch it back to back to back to back.
572
Amazing.
573
Alone, my parents playing it every night, you know, they partied.
574
They partied every night, literally.
575
And, um, films or television shows that mean a lot to you, or you...
576
Oh yeah, definitely.
577
All those things play a part to the start of my imagination, you know.
578
Any particular ones you remember?
579
I used to look on the tube.
580
It could be from Dennis to Menace.
581
It could be from, what was I watching, Fresh Prince.
582
All these things constructed my imagination of what was outside of the actual house that I was living in, or the neighborhood I was in.
583
Because I'm looking at these figures, these figures almost are like, you know, imaginary.
584
You know, you're looking at Will Smith as the Fresh Prince.
585
You know, he's actually a real person, but as a kid you see him in the TV screen.
586
So to you To me I should say
587
He's almost like a character in a sense
588
You know when I look at Michael Jackson still to this day Michael Jackson is
589
The biggest imaginary character for me because I never got to meet him.
590
I've always seen him on television You know, I've always seen him doing magic on stage, you know?
591
So I'm looking at this guy as just a fig my imagination and me wondering how did they get,
592
you know, beyond to that television screen.
593
So all these things played a part with me being where I'm at today from the music to what I'm watching.
594
Just my perspective my perspective was always that I'm not just watching TV.
595
I'm trying to figure out How does he do that?
596
You know just curiosity Who were the people were there any people that you saw?
597
Growing up that you had that feeling about that you did get to be and and how did what was that like?
598
Oh, yeah, that was bugged out.
599
Oh, yeah, it's crazy Dr. Dre Snoop Dogg Dre for sure.
600
Tell me about your relationship with Dre.
601
Oh man, it's a great thing man because I once looked at it as just me being an ultimate fan,
602
I'm still a fan to this day, but to actually sit down and have conversations beyond the music,
603
he wasn't just a figment of my imagination that I was watching on TV screen.
604
It's almost confirmation.
605
The people I've watched, they just didn't get there out of pure luck.
606
They actually worked hard and they are human beings with real emotions, real drive, real consistency, real hunger.
607
You know, it's way deeper than just a fan now, you know.
608
And that always tripped me out because I told them about the story when I seen them when I was eight, nine years old with Tupac on Rosecrans.
609
Fast forward 15 years later, I'm in the studio with him, and I'm telling him that story, and he remembers it. So beautiful.
610
I just...
611
You remember that?
612
He's like, yeah, I remember that.
613
Everybody was out in the street.
614
Y'all was across the street from a burger spot.
615
Yeah, that's my burger.
616
I was one of the kids out there that was watching.
617
Crazy, right?
618
Crazy to me.
619
Yeah.
620
Crazy to me.
621
An interesting part of it is there's both.. both the amount of work that goes into doing it
622
and being able to keep doing it.
623
It's not, you know, sometimes when you're a kid and you see the person on the screen, you think, oh, I want to have that life, but you don't understand what goes into it.
624
But then also, even if you have the work ethic, there's still a tremendous amount of luck involved.
625
Even if you're the best in the world, not everybody gets to find out.
626
It's like so many elements have to go right.
627
It's crazy.
628
The stars, they really align.
629
It is so much, so many talented artists out there that I come across every day.
630
And things just don't plan out.
631
It can be from their own personal experiences or issues or management.
632
It's something that is an indescribable nature.
633
You know, it's an indescribable nature for sure.
634
On the second album you have the, I'll call it the poem that happens over and over again.
635
Yeah, yeah.
636
I remember you was conflicted.
637
Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely.
638
When did that idea come up to use that over and over again?
639
It came into the process of me actually recording the records.
640
I wanted a thread conceptually just ties in the songs.
641
I've always just been a fan of just movie flicks and writers in general.
642
I just love writers, man.
643
Like, sitting in a screening where people just come up with the craziest, wackiest ideas, you know?
644
And that was a process that came along while I was writing a record, you know?
645
And it worked out, you know?
646
It's a little...
647
It's so cool.
648
Appreciate it.
649
Yeah.
650
But it wasn't, there was no influence of like, there was some old album you heard that did something like that?
651
Nah.
652
It must have been a, if anything, it was a movie, subconsciously in the back of my mind.
653
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
654
It resonates and feels unusual, but it pulls you further into it.
655
And then also, sometimes when I'm listening to it and it comes up, I remember the first time I was listening to it, I was always like, oh, wait a minute, I think it messed up.
656
It's playing again.
657
You know, like I didn't...
658
Those are things I like.
659
Yeah, absolutely.
660
Those things are fun and they're funny to me.
661
It also pulls you out of the normal experience of just sitting back and listening.
662
It's like it makes you question what's happening
663
and then it forces you to pay attention in a new way and force you to listen again.
664
It really does?
665
Or force you just don't listen at all anymore.
666
You know, whatever your taste may be at the time.
667
But you're gonna go back to it eventually.
668
How do you celebrate when something good happens?
669
That is the question of my team asks me every day.
670
Really?
671
I don't know if it's the actual moment or me getting back in and doing something new or furthering that.
672
I think that's the thrill for me.
673
I feel the same as you.
674
Yeah, it's a crazy feeling for me.
675
I don't know if it's not the actual celebration for me.
676
It's about not doing it again, but doing something fresh.
677
It's almost like the opportunity to do something new.
678
Can you think of a disappointment that you've had?
679
Finding the balance between family and music.
680
That is the disappointment because when you're doing this,
681
it comes a lot of sacrifice.
682
You're going to miss a lot of birthdays.
683
You're going to miss a lot of moments.
684
Those are my earliest disappointments appointment, the idea of that, knowing those times were coming and they came and there's going to be more of it.
685
And me not learning to find the balance,
686
it always was a stress for me.
687
Because you have certain people you care about and you love and sometimes you may get lost in the music so far,
688
you may forget how much you mean to the people that that you came up with, or your family, or your mother, or your father.
689
You can hear it, and you can hear, even if it's not as blunt or as vocal, you can hear the sort of disappointment.
690
For the most part, are the people around you supportive of what you're doing?
691
Yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely.
692
They're supportive, but everybody has feelings. Of course.
693
And sometimes, in the position that I'm in, And they may not want to express those real feelings
694
because it may bring worry or they don't want to bring worry or stress into my life.
695
So them finding that balance and the time to do that, it can be somewhat of a weary situation.
696
So on a personal scale, that would be disappointment for sure.
697
But do you have anyone around you Who tells you if something's not good?
698
Oh yeah.
699
Like either if you do something that they perceive is out of line or. For sure.
700
Then I'd be head over heels right now
701
if I didn't have a certain type of grounded family or team that just have my best interest, not only in music, but as a person.
702
Everyone that's around me, everyone that's even around This area has been with me since I was 15 years old.
703
And these are the same people I keep around.
704
And hopefully, eventually, I know we grow as people.
705
And I will grow some people in different natures.
706
But I will hope that these same people will continue to grow with me.
707
Because I can't stop.
708
Yeah.
709
I can't stop.
710
And musically, do you have anyone who's like, it's not good enough?
711
Or are you the biggest critic?
712
Your team will do it too?
713
My team will do it too.
714
Yeah, man.
715
Yeah.
716
I think that's how I became the biggest critic of myself.
717
Because through their criticism, you learned to be better.
718
Yeah, my skin is tough.
719
Yeah.
720
My top dog himself, CEO of the company, when I was 16, yeah, that verse ain't good.
721
That's whack.
722
You know, you know, you're a kid like, what?
723
You know, your feelings will get hurt.
724
But after constantly, you know, you grow tough again, and you get better, and you're being pushed.
725
It's in service to you.
726
Him saying that is in service to you.
727
Definitely, definitely.
728
Because it taught me to know what to do and not to do on record, you know, as far as lyricism,
729
as far as my approach because I've had the training.
730
I have the rap boot camps, being in there with my team and just going at it, sleeping on couches for hours.
731
I've had the process for 10 years plus.
732
And in doing that, I just developed a critique and a liking for what I know, what I'm capable of.
733
Yeah, beautiful.
734
Do you have any idea of the direction that's going coming next as far as writing goes?
735
It's soon.
736
I have ideas though.
737
I have ideas and I have a certain approach.
738
I want to see what it manifests to.
739
I want to put all the paint on the wall and see where that goes.
740
Maybe you can help me with that. For sure.
741
Do you usually, like for Butterfly, did you record more songs than the ones on the album?
742
I have so many floating around, 24 bars, 16 bars, hooks.
743
Really, mainly hooks.
744
Hooks and choruses and bridges and ideas.
745
You know, verses here and there, songs here and there, but really concepts of hooks and references
746
that I had in mind for other people to sing and things like that.
747
Where do you find the most inspiration?
748
You said early when we started talking about traveling around the world and talking to people.
749
Can you give me an example, just like one picture of something that happened?
750
Man, it's mainly kids, man.
751
I always say this.
752
Kids bug me out because they have no fear and nothing.
753
Like nothing.
754
I sit there
755
and I talk to kids kids like my little niece you know she's two years old
756
but she fears nothing and she has no concept
757
of reality as we know it
758
that always inspired me to write for some reason man it
759
don't necessarily have to be whatever the actual child is pertaining to
760
but it it gives me a moment talking to them It gives me a moment to step back
761
and look at the world for what I know it and for what this kid sees.
762
They say kids are much closer to God in that way.
763
Like they're not yet indoctrinated into society so they're closer to just pure essence.
764
Exactly.
765
Exactly.
766
Because deep down we're all kids at heart.
767
And I know I am.
768
I'm the biggest kid ever.
769
I can be able to relate and communicate with them in a way that I watch most adults can't.
770
I'll sit there and hold a conversation and go back to the studio and write the most bugged out song.
771
Like I said, it gives me a chance to sit back
772
and allow myself to look at the perspectives of the different spectrum of having responsibilities and not having any at all.
773
It's fun talking to you, man.
774
Yeah, man.
775
I'm ready.
776
This is great.
777
Great, great introduction.
778
Anything else you want to talk about?
779
Check out the space, man.
780
I'm in a creative zone.
781
This is this.
782
Should we go inside and record?
783
Right.
784
Right.
785
Exactly.
Download App
Everything you need to speak fluently
AI PronunciationScore every sentence
IPA PracticeMaster every sound
VocabularyBuild your word bank
Vocab GameLearn while playing
Same Channel
B11
10 Things England Captain Harry Kane Can't Live Without | GQ Sports
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
Megan Fox & Machine Gun Kelly Take a Couples Quiz | GQ
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B11
Central Cee Breaks Down His Favourite Music Videos | Action Replay
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B210 Things Joji Can't Live Without | GQ
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
Casino Boss Breaks Down Gambling Scenes from Movies | GQ
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B22
Martin Scorsese Breaks Down His Most Iconic Films | GQ
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B2Mads Mikkelsen Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
Daniel Radcliffe Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B23
Simu Liu Replies to Fans on the Internet | Actually Me | GQ
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B22
10 Things Jensen Ackles Can’t Live Without | 10 Essentials
Travel EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B110 Things Formula 1 Driver George Russell Can’t Live Without
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
Becoming Michael with Jaafar Jackson
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B11
The Odyssey's Zendaya & Robert Pattinson Take a Friendship Quiz
TeensDaily ConversationHigh School Students
B19
10 Things Fredo Can't Live Without
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
Seth MacFarlane Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B22
Jason Segel's Favorite 'How I Met Your Mother' Scene
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B23
Bob Odenkirk Replies To Fans Online | Actually Me
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B22
Sal Vulcano Replies to Fans Online | Actually Me
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
Ed Sheeran answers all the questions fans really want to know | Vs The Universe | British GQ
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
C13
Psychiatrist Breaks Down Mental Health Scenes From Movies & TV | GQ
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
FOR YOU
Recommend Video
B21
678 sentences
Central Cee: Apple Music Live and Can't Rush Greatness | Apple Music
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B24
54 sentences
Jordan Peterson - The Best Way To Learn Critical Thinking
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B22
71 sentences
Rick Rubin on the Creative Act — 60 Minutes
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B22
132 sentences
THE MINDSET OF A WINNER | Kobe Bryant Champions Advice
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B22
225 sentences
Conan Delivers The State Of The Podcast | Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B24
32 sentences
Henry Rollins on the Joy of Writing
Business EnglishDaily ConversationHigh School Students
B211
762 sentences
If You Care Too Much About What People Think, Watch This | Kendall Jenner
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B28
192 sentences
Eminem's Philosophy on Diss-Tracks | Full Interview | Friday Night With Jonathan Ross
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B21
966 sentences
Tame Impala: The Deadbeat Interview | Zane Lowe Interview
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B26
116 sentences
"Got any hobbies?"
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B217
157 sentences
JENNIE | Check In
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B21
459 sentences
David Beckham on pressure, competition, and redemption | ReThinking
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Kendrick Lamar & Rick Rubin Have an Epic Conversation”. This video has 785 sentences and 7818 words to shadow. The speech runs for 49:12. The speaker talks at a natural 159 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 87% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| listener noun | /ˈlɪs(ə)nɚ/ | Someone who listens, especially to a speech or a broadcast. |
| emotion noun | /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/ | A person's internal state of being and involuntary physiological response to an object or a situation, based on or tied to physical state and sensory data. |
| butterfly noun | /ˈbʌ.tə(ɹ).flaɪ/ | A flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, distinguished from moths by their diurnal activity and generally brighter colouring. |
| musician noun | /mjuˈzɪʃən/ | A composer, conductor, or performer of music; specifically, a person who sings and/or plays a musical instrument as a hobby, occupation, or profession. |
| verse noun | /ˈvɝs/ | A poetic form with regular meter and a fixed rhyme scheme. |
| critic noun | /ˈkɹɪt.ɪk/ | A person who appraises the works of others. |
| disappointment noun | /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪntmənt/ | The feeling or state of being disappointed: a feeling of sadness or frustration when something is not as good as one hoped or expected, or when something bad… |
| rap verb | /ɹæp/ | To strike something sharply with one's knuckles; knock. |
| vocal adjective | /ˈvoʊ̯.kəl/ | Of, pertaining to, or resembling the human voice or speech. |
| lyric noun | /ˈlɪɹɪk/ | A lyric poem. |
| clarity noun | /ˈklæɹ.ɪ.ti/ | The state or measure of being clear, either in appearance, thought or style; lucidity. |
| curiosity noun | /ˌkjʊɹ.iˈɑ.sə.ti/ | Inquisitiveness; the tendency to ask and learn about things by asking questions, investigating, or exploring. |
| drum noun | /ˈdɹʌm/ | A percussive musical instrument spanned with a thin covering on at least one end for striking, forming an acoustic chamber; a membranophone. |
| cadence noun | /ˈkeɪ̯dəns/ | The act or state of declining or sinking. |
| impeccable adjective | /ɪmˈpɛkəbəl/ | Perfect, without faults, flaws or errors |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| come across verb | To change sides; to cross over to work for the opposition. | |
| come back verb | To return to a place. | |
| break down verb | To stop functioning. | |
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. | |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. | |
| wake up verb | /ˌweɪk ˈʌp/ | To stop sleeping; to awake. |
| come up with verb | To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- How do you describe it?
- Do you think about how to ask this?
- How do you know when it's good?
- Can you think of a disappointment that you've had?
- You know, you know, you're a kid like, what?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | I've been liking · you've been liking |
| “Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true | used to consider · used to look |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've accomplished · you've written · we've been told |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was inspired · was raised · was implanted |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 171 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you're, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thrill /θɹɪl/, booth /buθ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/, musician /mjuˈzɪʃən/, meditation /mɛdɪˈteɪʃn̩/, infectious /ɪnˈfɛk.ʃəs/, fictional /ˈfɪkʃənəl/
- Long words — get the stress right: disappointment /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪntmənt/, curiosity /ˌkjʊɹ.iˈɑ.sə.ti/, impeccable /ɪmˈpɛkəbəl/, indescribable /ɪndɪˈskɹaɪbəbl̩/, musically /ˈmjuːzɪkəli/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like listener, emotion, butterfly.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.