President Punch, Top Dawg Entertainment’s head honcho, hopped on an interview with Mic. Somewhere in the conversation, Punch was asked about Kendrick Lamar‘s departure from the record label. He answered by saying Lamar is ready to “build his own thing.”
“I don’t even know if I would describe it that way as ready to leave, as more so ready to build his own thing,” he replied.
“That’s a grown man right now. We watched him grow from a teenager up into an established grown man, a businessman, and one of the greatest artists of all time. So how long do you actually be signed up under somebody? It’s been almost 20 years. So it’s time to move on and try new things and venture out.”
As the conversation progressed, Punch unveiled that he regrets not putting together an album for Black Hippy.
“We definitely wanted to do a Black Hippy album. But it was such a learning experience for us. Everything was new. The timing never really panned out.
When one guy would be recording his album, another guy would be on tour. Everybody was never in the same timeframe. So we didn’t want to hold back; we wanted to keep going and just push further into their individual careers.
In hindsight, I wish I would’ve pushed the Black Hippy album more. That was always my goal, personally. You would have to ask everybody individually to see if that’s what their goal was.”
Kendrick announced his departure in August 2021, saying his upcoming album will be the last one to be dropped via TDE.
