Kendrick Lamar lyrics - Kendrick Lamar

I can tell you what it is, I can tell you what it isn't

No more K. Dot, my mother had named me Kendrick

Fuck a stage name, that's the name that I was given

The only thing that I can identify within this bidness

I'm just a good kid from Compton that want to rap

Weighing my options, pick up a Bible or a strap?

I never killed a man, never sold any crack

All I ever did was try to keep my city on the map

But this monkey on my back, y'all don't want me to win

I'm tryna follow dreams, you want me to follow trends

So just to get a dollar, will I sell my soul?

I look the Devil in the eye and tell him, hell no

They say anything worth having is worth the wait

Well I want the world, tell me how long that takes

There's no time like now, I can cut my patience/patients short

or give 'em some more gowns, I don't even want the crown

I just want a peace of mind, and nigga, when I get it

you won't get a piece of mine, won't you mind your own bidness?

A rich nigga buy anything you sell him

A broke nigga believe anything that you tell him

Well I'm a broke nigga

But still I wouldn't listen to you even if your hand was on a Bible quote, nigga

Pfttuh

See I was brought up different

Whatever that my pops said, for sure I'd listen

You said you did dirt, but I can't dig it

It don't concern you if you wasn't born in it

Oh-no-oh-oh

I swear we got to fast-forward...

Before time flies by

My new sound for '0-10 is, why lie?

And if you ain't trying to win, then why try?

Now you can low-ball or give me high five

This is I nigga, look into my eye

Nigga, I am Kendrick... Lamar

Nigga, my name is Kendrick... Lamar

I said my name is Kendrick... Lamar

I changed the name cause I was tired of being like y'all

Now finally I'm ready to tell the world who I are, pfttuh

And that used to be a hell of a task

Now I'm ahead of my class, so go ahead and harass

my character like it don't carry a

confidence that can marry a Halle Berry or Angelina with no cash

I'm bout to cash in my thoughts

Give you a compass, then tell you get lost

What I'm bout to accomplish is something that you can't fathom

Once the 'Eves' come, they quick to stare 'Adam'/at him

Hoping I don't take they bitch, but I'm on some other shit

When I'm done, I'm tryna run the government

They are big dreams

Transition from a rapper to a human being, you can't 'school' a dean

I be tutoring artist-es, leave 'em with no audience

All cause they all oversaw it, my God

Y'all be out partying, I be stealing your audience

All because who I are, Lamar

But my first name, it gotta be Kendrick... Lamar

Nigga, my name is Kendrick... Lamar

I changed the name cause I was tired of being like y'all

Now finally I'm ready to tell the world who I are, now let's go

But we can't go... backwards