Kendrick Lamar has been making music non-stop.
As per the rapper's longtime engineer, Derek "MixedByAli" Ali, the Compton MC has been consistently churning out new tunes. "For Kendrick alone, let me say I think we could put together like six albums," the collaborator said during his appearance on Kevin Durant's "The ETCs” podcast. "Everyone [at TDE] is the same way. It's all about just understanding that you could always do something better. It's having that mindset to just strive for the best possible version of you."
"That's Kendrick's whole mind state, always striving to do better," he continued. "Whether it’s recording a new verse, you know, he would record a whole song and get one ad-lib back a month later because he don't like how he breathed the ad-lib, you know?"
Lamar recently spoke about the lengthy gaps in between his projects. "I spend the whole year just thinking about how I’m gonna execute a new sound, I can't do the same thing over and over,” he told i-D magazine. "I need something to get me excited. I see you get frustrated sometimes because you want some new sh*t."
Lamar has released four studio albums via Top Dawg Entertainment, including his latest, 2017's Pulitzer Prize-winning album, DAMN. The colossal set, which spawned hits like "Humble" and "Loyalty," was certified triple platinum and won a Grammy for Best Rap Album. Back in September, PEOPLE published a photo of Lamar shooting a new music video in downtown Los Angeles. Prior to the update, TDE CEO Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith had teased new music from the star. "Stay patient king Kendrick will return soon,” he told wrote in a comment during an Instagram Live.
In the meantime, fans can hear K. Dot on Busta Rhymes' new album, Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God. Among the other guest stars on the collection include Mariah Carey, Chris Rock, Mary J. Blige, Rakim, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Pete Rock and more.
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