News Q & A: Kendrick Lamar talks hip-hop tradition and young ambition After being signed to Dr. Dre's Aftermath imprint, having Lady Gaga hang out sidestage during his set at the Pitchfork Music Festival, and getting his own track on Drake's album, expectations for Kendrick Lamar and his major-label debut good kid, m.A.A.d city have been set absurdly high, but Lamar confidently accepts the challenge. The Compton, CA, native and self-professed hip-hop student has learned from his predecessors' successes as well as their mistakes and that knowledge has him sitting in an advanced, comfortable headspace on the brink of his debut. AUX: Last time we talked it was just days before you dropped ( AUX's top hip-hop release of 2011 ) Section.80 but you didn't want to tell me anything about it, not even the release date. Why the secrecy? Kendrick Lamar: I'm just trying to take it back to an era where the internet wasn't telling you what the album's about to sound like and what songs are going to be on there. When we were buying Jay-Z albums, we didn't know what to expect. All we knew was one song that was playing on BET and that's it. So by the time we got the album; "Damn! This shit's crazy! That don't sound nothing like what I thought it'd be!" we got something else. I just wanted to get to the feeling of ripping the packaging and reading the credits. Fair enough. I'll respect that and just ask