"It's cool for them to put me in big shoes," he says, "because I have high expectations for myself. Dre, who ushered in the careers of Snoop, Eminem, 50 Cent, and the Game, co-signs a potential new star. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment - positioning Lamar's album as the first solo rap debut on the storied label since the Game's "The Documentary" bowed atop the Billboard 200 in 2005 with 580,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan - the stage was set for "good kid, m.A.A.d city" to be one of the most-anticipated albums by a rap rookie in years. When TDE signed a somewhat opaque joint venture with Interscope in March that included a companion solo deal directly aligning Lamar with Dr. Embraced by both the press and his peers for his technical prowess and thoughtful subject matter, Lamar has been hailed as both the New West Coast King and hip-hop's savior. Since then, Lamar has evolved from local teenage standout (he came to TDE through high school friend/longtime manager/sometime producer Dave Free, who sought him out after catching wind of his talents while attending a school across town) to one of the most celebrated upstart MCs to emerge in the past 10 years. It's been nearly eight years since Lamar first hooked up with Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith as the second artist to join the latter's then-fledgling TDE. 31, 2009 - and arguably even well before that. The current schedule shuffle, stack, reshuffle, re-stack and reshuffle all over again is just a snapshot of how things have been going for the 25-year-old Compton, Calif.-bred MC since he released the "Kendrick Lamar" EP, the first project recorded under his birth name, on Dec. Kendrick Lamar's 'Good Kid': Track-By-Track Review If I sit down and think about it now, I'll go crazy." I don't look at days of the week or none of that - that's how I get another 12 months. "I don't look at no dates," Lamar says, explaining how he manages to stay afloat.
Two weeks ago, he had been scheduled to have the week off. Tomorrow, he'll push back his flight home in order to crash in a magazine photo shoot, a radio station appearance and a stop by BET's "106 & Park." On Saturday, he'll drive himself to Fresno, Calif., where he'll perform in the Big Fresno Fair. Dre-assisted single that will appear on the deluxe edition of "good kid, m.A.A.d city"), presenting the I Am Hip-Hop Award to legendary MC Rakim appearing in the West Coast cipher alongside the likes of E-40, DJ Quik, Kurupt and Snoop Lion and collecting an award for lyricist of the year. Before New Orleans, Lamar was in Atlanta taping a rack of segments for the BET Hip-Hop Awards, including a performance of "Swimming Pools" and "The Recipe" (the Dr. Last night, he was in Baton Rouge, La., picking up a sold-out spot date at Varsity Theatre that was tacked onto the New Orleans stop of the Music Matters tour the previous night. With the album's release just weeks away, Lamar is in the middle of a relentless run that began in earnest with the first of a 30-date self-titled tour, sponsored by BET Music Matters and TDE, in early September. In between: van chatter, the Blue Man Group or a few minutes to steal a few Z's.
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In the rearview is 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where Lamar just marked his first network TV appearance, taping a performance of his single "Swimming Pools (Drank)" for "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon." Ahead is a meet-and-greet at the Soho Apple Store, where he'll participate in an onstage Q&A with founder Chuck Creekmur and do another performance of "Swimming Pools" to promote pre-orders of his highly anticipated TDE/Aftermath/Interscope debut, "good kid, m.A.A.d city," which went live the night before and immediately shot the project to the top of iTunes' hip-hop/rap chart. He's got a black Top Dawg Entertainment hooded sweatshirt pulled low over his eyes as the inexplicable in-car entertainment, a live recording of the Blue Man Group, dances across a screen at the front of the cab.
It's a Tuesday evening in early October and Kendrick Lamar just dozed off in the back of a black mini coach.