Kendrick Lamar took the game by storm in 2012 when his highly anticipated debut album, good kid, m.A.A.d. city, sold over 240,000 copies in its first week of availability, and was eventually certified platinum, despite his refusal to sacrifice the sonic integrity of his album to fit the Top 40 theme of radio. His verses became rap’s hottest commodity–everyone from Robin Thicke to Eminem had a Kendrick Lamar feature on their album–and despite not bringing one of the coveted trophies home, Lamar was nominated for no less than 7 Grammy Awards.
The underlying story behind going 0-for-7 at The Grammy Awards was the artist Kendrick lost to in 4 of the categories. Macklemore, who became rap’s biggest hit at radio in 2013, and sold an unprecedented number of units of his three widely popular singles (“Thrift Shop”, “Can’t Hold Us”, “Same Love”), was looked down upon largely by the hip-hop community for a perceived lack of depth in his music, in comparison to the story-telling and self-reflection featured on GKMC.
Following the awards, Macklemore posted a screenshot of a now infamous text message that he sent to Kendrick Lamar that wasn’t received very well.
Drake, who was also nominated in the same category fans and critics alike felt belonged to Kendrick Lamar–The Best Rap Album category–took exception to Macklemore exclusively telling Kendrick Lamar that he was robbed, and addressed this sentiment in an equally infamous Rolling Stone interview, and, more recently, at The ESPY Awards.
Today, Complex Magazine revealed their August/September print cover, which features Kendrick Lamar, and in the cover story, Kendrick addressed the infamous text message as coolly as one would expect.
He probably didn’t need to Instagram the text. But what’s done is done.
You can read the full cover story here, in which the “B*tch Don’t Kill My Vibe” rapper reveals he once received $400,000 for a verse, and that his sophomore album will probably be out by the end of the year.
