Kendrick Lamar Says Daily Convo with God Keeps Him Grounded

Source: Variety / Getty

God is a part of Kendrick Lamar’s daily routine. 

In conversation with former Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) label-mate SZA for Harper’s Bazaar last month, the Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper opened up about his mental health and spiritual practices. 

“I literally talk to God,” Lamar said. “Like, it’s to a point where I’ll be starting to think I’m going crazy. But then He has to remind me, ‘No, this is really me.’”

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His conversations with the Lord bleed into another routine that keeps him grounded. 

“My early-morning practice is that I have to run,” he said. “When I started running, that’s where I started to understand. There was this threshold of pain, in the spirituality for me. I remember my shins was aching and I was like, I got one mile to go. Then I get whispers and downloads and start talking about [stuff] that I want to know about. And next thing I’m three miles in, four miles in. I wake up and do that [thing] every day.”

The “Swimming Pools” rapper also opened about the out of body experiences he has when creating and performing music. 

“I say some [stuff] on a record and identify with a moment, and then I don’t identify with it anymore. That’s just growth for me. All that [stuff] is subjective,” he said.

“I’ve learned that I can’t identify with my performances on stage,” he continued. “I can’t hold my true whole identity to that person who’s onstage. Because if I did, that means I will judge every movement every time I [messed] up a lyric, every time I’m off-key.”

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Lamar believes it’s a process that allows him to free himself from the shackles of perfectionism.

“It’s too much to deal with,” he said. “So, I have to have a distance between the performer and the person I close my eyes and look at the ceiling with. I had to develop that tough skin at like 16, 17 years old, not knowing it was not only for my career but for myself. It’s mentally ill for sure.”

These revelations come ahead of Lamar’s big performance just months away. He’s performing at the Super Bowl halftime show in February 2025. 

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Kendrick Lamar Says Daily Conversations with God Keeps Him Grounded  was originally published on elev8.com