Kendrick Lamar explains why he criticised white fan who rapped the N-word

'If I say this is my word, please let me have that word'

Kendrick Lamar has addressed the moment which saw him call out a white female fan for rapping the N-word after he invited her to sing one of his songs on stage last month.

The rapper was performing his song “M.A.A.D City” at Hangout Festival when the moment happened, halting the music after the fan rapped the racial slur three times.

Following the moment, Lamar cut the woman off and permitted her to perform the song again, telling her: “You got to bleep one single word though.”

In a brand new profile interview with Vanity Fair, the rapper explained the situation for the first time publicly explaining why white people shouldn't use the word.

“Let me put it to you in its simplest form,” he said. “I’ve been on this earth for 30 years, and there’s been so many things a Caucasian person said I couldn’t do. Get good credit. Buy a house in an urban city. So many things - ’you can’t do that’ - whether it’s from afar or close up. So if I say this is my word... please let me have that word.”

Following the moment, Lamar cut her off, permitting her to perform the song again but telling her: “You got to bleep one single word though.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Lamar also reflected upon winning the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his 2017 record DAMN - the first non-jazz or classical artist to do so.

“It was one of those things I heard about in school,” he said, “but I never thought I’d be a part of it. [When I heard I got it], I thought, to be recogniszed in an academic world... whoa, this thing really can take me above and beyond. It’s one of those things that should have happened with hip-hop a long time ago.

"It took a long time for people to embrace us - people outside of our community, our culture - to see this not just as vocal lyrics, but to see that this is really pain, this is really hurt, this is really true stories of our lives on wax. And now, for it to get the recognition that it deserves as a true art form, that’s not only great for myself, but it makes me feel good about hip-hop in general."