Was the music playing in your house your choice of music, or was it the music your parents were listening to?

Definitely my parents. My parents were fairly young in the city of Compton. So the things that they played—you know, that was the hip crowd. So I was being exposed to all these ideas, from Big Daddy Kane to Eazy-E to the Bay Area—Too Short, E-40—you know, back to Marvin Gaye and the Isley Brothers. This field of music just broadened my ideas to come. We never would've thought in a million years that I'd be doing it.

When did jazz find its way into your world?

It's a trip, because I was in the studio one day, and my guy Terrace Martin noticed something about the type of sounds that I was picking. He was like, Man, a lot of the chords that you pick are jazz-influenced. You don't understand: You a jazz musician by default. And that just opened me up. And he just started breaking down everything, the science, going back to Miles, Herbie Hancock.

“I always said to myself, if I said it on a record, I never retract my statements. Because it’s my self-expression, and you can have your opinions on it, you can feel a certain type of way, but it’s how I feel. And I can’t contradict that at all.”—Kendrick Lamar

So when was that moment?

About three months into my second LP, To Pimp a Butterfly.

After hearing the first album, when the second album came, it was completely unexpected. Like, nobody was expecting you to make that.

Yeah, definitely. I knew from the jump that it was gonna be a challenge for my listeners' ear. But if I'm challenging myself in the studio, I want to challenge you as well. I just went full-fledged with it, man. We built everything from scratch.

This is kind of a funny thing, because I'm going to ask you to project into the future here. But do you feel like Butterfly—what do you refer to it as?

Butterfly, To Pimp a Butterfly. It's a few things.

Okay, I thought maybe To Pimp. But let's say the second album. Do you feel like that's more indicative of where things will be in the future? Or is it more like, based on the difference between the first album and the second album, we should continue to expect it to change?

That's a great question.

It may not even be possible to answer, but tell me your best thoughts.

My best thoughts… The best answer I can give you, um… That was me then.

Yeah.

Not to say that it wouldn't be continuous. It'll always have some type of DNA in my music. But me, as a person, I grow. I'm like a chameleon. You know? That is a gift and a curse for me. But more so a gift, because it never puts me in a box. And my ability to express and still make the connection wherever I go, that is my high point. That's something I pride myself off of.

I think that what's infectious about your music—the reason other people connect—is they feel your connection to it. Probably a lot of your fans might not have been into jazz. But they feel your connection to it, and it inspires them to open themselves to hear new music that they might not have heard.

We've been told to call the consumers dumb, but they're not. They know when it's real. And that's something that I always understood—just from being a fan myself.

When making music, do you ever consider the audience at all, or is it more just self-expression?

I used to consider the listener. But now I'm in a space where if I'm not inspired, I can't really do the music. I can't feel it. I put in enough hours to be able to pen a hundred-bar verse on the spot at any given moment. But for me to actually feel an idea, it has to come from me. And a lot of times, I have to block out different needs and wants just for my own selfish reasons. But at the end of the day, it comes out where, whether you like it or not, you know it comes from a real place. It's gonna feel unapologetic, uncompromising, and it's gonna feel me.

When you say unapologetic, has there ever been anything that comes up that you feel like, I don't want to say that on a record?

That's a great question. I always said to myself, if I said it on a record, I never retract my statements. Because it's my self-expression, and you can have your opinions on it, you can feel a certain type of way, but it's how I feel. And I can't contradict that at all.