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Kendrick Told YG Not to Rush Albums to Exit a Deal, YG Says
In a June 4 conversation with DJ Hed, YG says he played Kendrick Lamar his new album and admitted he used to rush projects just to exit a bad deal. Kendrick's response: "Bro, you ain't never supposed to do that. You gotta give it your all every time."
There is a familiar tension in contemporary rap: artists trapped between contractual deadlines and the impulse to make something that lasts. For YG, that tension showed up plainly in a YouTube conversation with DJ Hed that premiered June 4 — a candid, slightly messy hour where industry mechanics and personal craft collided.
Speaking to DJ Hed, the Compton rapper said he played Kendrick Lamar his new record and walked back a period when his strategy was simply to put out projects to get free of a bad deal. The context feels important. This is not the abstract advice you trade on social media; it was Kendrick, one of the few peers whose opinion still seems to alter career thinking for others.
“I was talking to Dot, I’m playing him the album and shit… I’m telling him about what I was doing, like putting out albums just to get out the deal ’cause my deal was fucked up,” YG said. “He (Kendrick) was like, ‘Bro, you ain’t never supposed to do that. You gotta give it your all every time.'”
That exchange landed with weight. YG framed The Gentlemen’s Club as a concept album built from “real stories and perspectives,” and said he took Kendrick’s admonition to heart. If the record is his attempt to shift the conversation around his catalog — from hustle tactics to craft — he picked an obvious ally to test it on.
The Gentlemen’s Club is billed as YG’s seventh album and arrives on all digital streaming platforms June 19. YG has spent the last several years refining the 4Hunnid brand, and here he explicitly links the project’s slower rollout to a desire for respect and serious reviews rather than merely checking a contractual box.
Elsewhere in the Hed interview, YG moved between concrete beats-and-bars talk and broader career frustration. He didn’t sugarcoat the business side: the phrase “my deal was fucked up” came out twice, with that blunt, streetwise cadence he often uses to cut through corporate euphemisms.
It’s telling that Kendrick’s reply was short and blunt. There is a simple logic to it — releases driven by escape strategies rarely age well — but there’s also a counterargument in an era where frequency and streams sometimes matter more than liner notes. YG’s admission is both personal and procedural: he recognized a past choice and wants this record to be measured by different standards.
On a cultural level, the moment is less about celebrity mentorship and more about how peers police craft. Kendrick has positioned himself as a kind of benchmark for seriousness in hip-hop; an endorsement or critique from him still carries editorial weight. Hearing YG recount that moment felt like listening to two different kinds of stewardship: one financial, the other artistic.
YG’s posture in the interview was pragmatic. He sounded tired of the short-term game and intent on staking a claim. Whether The Gentlemen’s Club convinces critics and listeners remains to be seen, but the intention is clearer now: he isn’t trying to clear a ledger, he’s trying to make one.
Listen for June 19. If Kendrick’s advice stuck, expect a record that aims for a little more patience and a little less paperwork.
