In a recent interview with HipHopDX, Kendrick Lamar revealed how his tour with Tech N9ne would eventually lead to the signing with Dr. Dre’s Aftermath record label. Often-crowned as the new voice of the West, Kendrick has even gone as far to collaborate with Dr. Dre on his upcoming and secretive release Detox.

Lamar, aka K. Dot, caught up with HipHopDX to explain how he was discovered by Dre and reveals that it was on The Independent Grind tour with Tech N9ne and Jay Rock back in 2010.

“Man, after years of putting in work, I started doing shows, setting up shows in L.A. Came on this side, started setting up shows. It just finally caught the attention,” he said. “I was with Top Dawg Entertainment, independent company, for years. Just the grind and putting out tapes, he saw one of my YouTube videos, ‘Ignorance is Bliss.’ I was on the road with Tech N9ne at the time, with Jay Rock. He called the phone, called my engineer’s phone, said he was looking for us. We thought it was fake and whatnot.”

It was only a week later that he was contacted by Dr Dre’s team and he was working in the studio with him on Detox. Lamar now has two solo records under his belt after being signed to Aftermath Entertainment, but clearly he hasn’t forgotten where he started.

It goes up!

Click here to read the entire interview.

Click here to purchase Tech N9ne’s All 6’s and 7’s featuring Kendrick Lamar.

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