Kendrick Lamar has enough unreleased material to make “six albums”.
The Grammy-winning rap star hasn’t released a studio album since ‘Damn’ in 2017, but according to his long-serving engineer Derek ‘MixedByAli’ Ali, Kendrick has recorded plenty of unreleased material over the last few years.
He told ‘The ETCs Podcast’: “For Kendrick alone, let me say I think we could put together like six albums.
“Everyone [at TDE, Lamar’s label] 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. 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, y’know? He’s a true artist.”
Meanwhile, Kendrick previously admitted he spends time in between his album releases looking for “a new sound”.
The 33-year-old star explained that he’s keen to push his boundaries with every album he releases, rather than reproducing what he’s previously done.
READ: This Is Why Kendrick Lamar Takes Long To Release New Albums
He said: “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.
“I need something to get me excited. I see you get frustrated sometimes because you want some new s***.”
Asked if he’s keen to “surprise” himself with each album, he replied: “‘To Pimp a Butterfly’ did that for me. I had an idea in my head of how I wanted it to sound, built with jazz and blues and hip-hop. But it was more, ‘How am I gonna execute that?’”
READ: Kendrick Lamar: Music Videos As Important As The Songs
