(Photo Credit: Sharon Alagna)

Modern hip hop legend Kendrick Lamar has revealed details about his next album, in the works during a particularly hard political climate. In a new interview with T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Lamar opened up and talked about what has been consuming his thoughts as he works on the follow up to 2015’s phenomenal To Pimp a Butterfly and 2016’s untitled, unmastered.

“I think now, how wayward things have gone within the past few months, my focus is ultimately going back to my community and the other communities around the world where they’re doing the groundwork,” he said, during the recording suite interview. “To Pimp a Butterfly was addressing the problem. I’m in a space now where I’m not addressing the problem anymore.” He added, “We’re in a time where we exclude one major component out of this whole thing called life: God.”

Later in the interview, Kendrick offered some insight into his writing process. After the interviewer told him that he has a newborn daughter, Kendrick responded:

Later in the interview, Kendrick responded to the interviewer’s statement that he has a newborn daughter:

“One day, I may have a little girl. And it’s a girl in particular—funny you said that. She’s gonna grow up. She’s gonna be a child I adore, I’m gonna always love her, but she’s gonna reach that one point where she’s gonna start experiencing things. And she’s gonna say things or do things that you may not condone, but it’s the reality of it and you know she was always gonna get to that place. And it’s disturbing. But you have to accept it. You have to accept it and you have to have your own solutions to figure out how to handle the action and take action for it.

When I say ‘the little girl,’ it’s the analogy of accepting the moment when she grows up. We love women, we enjoy their company. At one point in time I may have a little girl who grows up and tells me about her engagements with a male figure—things that most men don’t want to hear. Learning to accept it, and not run away from it, that’s how I want this album to feel.”