Best Rap Album Acceptance Speech 2018 GrammysKendrick Lamar

This is special, man. As my guy Mozzy say, you know, God up top all the time—real talk, you know. Hip-hop, man. I said hip-hop.

This is a special award because of rap music. This is the thing that got me on the stage. This got me to tour all around the world, support my family and all that. Most importantly it showed me a true definition of what being an artist was.

From the jump I thought it was about the accolades and the cars and the clothes. But it’s really about expressing yourself and putting that paint on the canvas for the world to evolve for the next listener, the next generation after that, you know what I’m saying? Hip-hop has done that for me.

I got a lot of guys in this building right now that I still idolize to this day: Jay-Z, Nas, Puff, you know. These guys showed me the game through their lyrics, from close and from afar.

So with that being said, this trophy to hip-hop, real talk. That’s love, baby. Jay for president!