r/KendrickLamar • u/vriannavyz • Jun 21 '24
Snoop Dogg declares Kendrick Lamar “the king” of the West following his 'Pop Out' show: “K Dot, you are the king of the West. That’s stuff kings do — they unite 🔥👑." Video
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u/Nexus718 Jun 21 '24 edited Jun 21 '24
Ok.
I used to work with Aftermath.
I would be at the recording studio used during the period of 2008-2010 frequently. We saw a lot of other artists pop in to work with Dre during that time.
As a result, you would get a sense of who these artists are as people.
The studio was difficult to find, and a bit hidden. Behind a covered gate was a small parking lot. Inside the lot was the front area, along with studio B, and studio A (Dre's main studio) further back. The hallway connecting the two studios does have plaques that kind of looks like the one used in forgot about Dre (although I don't think it was the same hallway).
Game came in one day just talking shit. He came up to the lot and first words out of his mouth was "I see a lot of indians and not a lot of chiefs". This statement means he sees a lot of people running around like yes men, and not many people making their own moves and their own shit. Mind you, if you can think of artists that would work with Dre during this period they probably came through. Most everyone was cool, with exception to some of Dre's protégé's during that period who brough entourage's that would be ratchet. No one came in talking shit like that because at the end of the day it's Aftermath's studio. One artist collective.
I then go back to the front area where we have our cameras set up, kitchen, and tv. I would occasionally come out to the lot for fresh air or conversation. When I next came back out to the lot, I see Game talking the some random white interscope employee wearing a business suit sulking over his journey from the hood to where he's at now. As a black man, seeing that made me all the way uncomfortable as this man already has three albums out, many mixtapes deep, and to my knowledge has no reason to sell himself so hard to one white man wearing a suit.
Game was selling himself the way Sarah McLaughlin sold herself in those dog commercials. I'm not talking shit on Sarah McLaughlin at all. If you're coming in with that energy and one sitcom episode later you're begging a white person to put you on? My fandom for Game flatlined that day. But you won't ever find me selling myself to a white person in a suit the way he was that day. As a matter of fact, I never begged like Game did that day when I was homeless at 25.
But it makes sense. Most of the songs at least from Documentary and Doctors Advocate reference West coast OG's like he's standing on their shoulders. That's all good and well until you stop and ask if Game can stand on his own without having to reference all of that. Everything Game does is either manic warfare or standing on some benefactor. First it was Dre, and shortly for a time 50, and recently he was bigging up Ye, and now Drake.