Black Hippy & Kendrick Lamar on MTV's The New West (Video)

Despite his high-profile admirer, Kendrick remains focused on his grassroots grind and is signed to independent label Top Dawg Entertainment. The 23-year-old and his fellow TDE labelmates — Jay Rock, Ab-Soul and Schoolboy Q, all high-caliber hip-hop prospects in their own right — joined forces and formed Black Hippy. The talented rap quartet share a love for deft wordplay over thumping beats (see “Zip That Chop That” and “Rolling Stone“), making them one of L.A. hip-hop’s most highly anticipated crews. More amazing is that most of their music is created in a tiny studio.
…Kendrick is set to appear on the good Dr.’s Detox and also has a joint project in the works with Roc Nation rapper J.Cole. Jay-Z’s first signing will be producing 90 percent of the as-yet-untitled album, according to Kendrick, who specified that it won’t be just a mixtape.
But props from Dr. Dre, J. Cole and others, isn’t going to stop Kendrick and his Black Hippy family from working even harder to build on the foundation they’ve already created.
“A lot of people will be like, ‘You good now, Dre messing with you,’ ” Kendrick said. “No, we’re not good now. We’ve got to go 10 times harder. Just because that man is further in his career doesn’t mean he could say one word and further my career right that instant. I’ve got to have the music to back it up and prove myself still.”

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Artist Label: Black Hippy