Kendrick Lamar has accomplished a “bucket list” moment, and it’s all thanks to esteemed designer Martine Rose.
K. Dot worked closely with Rose to help design his forthcoming line of clothes, which includes a slick leather vest embroidered with his “Oklama” moniker made to embody the jacket donned by the late Eazy-E.
Additional merch includes leather pants and a black hoodie scribbled with Martine Rose’s signature.
“Bucketlist to work with martine rose she camera shy but gangsta say hello to my young,” Kendrick wrote on Instagram.
Kendrick is far from the first A-list rapper Martine Rose has worked with. The designer also had Drake appear in her Martine Rose’s What We Do All Day virtual fashion show last winter. Drizzy was seen wearing some cozy sweats and a grey long-sleeve from Rose’s newest menswear collection.
The new line of clothes arrive shortly after Kendrick Lamar extensively celebrated the anniversary of his seminal sophomore effort good kid, m.A.A.d city last month. Aside from the project making Billboard history for spending 10 years on the Billboard 200 chart, the project was also crowned the “Greatest Concept Album of All Time” by Rolling Stone, surpassing Green Day’s American Idiot and Raekwon and Ghostface Killah’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx
Lamar comes of age in Compton, encountering the city’s many pleasures as well its ever-present threat of gang conflict and police violence,” RS said of the album. “The cover promises a short film by Kendrick Lamar, and the rapper delivers with a coming-of-age opus, the cinematic scope of which has been rightfully compared to Scorsese and Tarantino.”
As for Kung Fu Kenny’s most recent effort Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, the Compton-bred rapper referred to the project as “the reward for humanity” in an extensive new interview.
“I’ve had rewards for my other albums in different ways, whether it was accolades, whether it was the Pulitzer, whether it was the Grammys,” Kendrick said. “This one is the reward for humanity for me.”
He added: “That’s the beauty; that’s the best feeling I’ve been getting. It’s like when I be talking to some of my partners that never was able to express themself and communicate — they only knew how to communicate with violence
I’ve had rewards for my other albums in different ways, whether it was accolades, whether it was the Pulitzer, whether it was the Grammys,” Kendrick said. “This one is the reward for humanity for me.”
He added: “That’s the beauty; that’s the best feeling I’ve been getting. It’s like when I be talking to some of my partners that never was able to express themself and communicate — they only knew how to communicate with violence.
And for them to call up they moms, call they pops and say, ‘You hurt me, and this pushed me to go stay with my grandma, which my grandma pushed me to stay with my homies, which the homies pushed me to…’ For them to be able to express that and have that communication is rewarding for me.”
