Rapper Kendrick Lamar gave a surprise speech at Compton College’s commencement ceremony, telling graduates that they “have the courage to be independent thinkers,” adding, “there’s nothing more valuable than that.”
“Y’all have the heart, y’all have the courage to be independent thinkers. Independent thinkers, there’s nothing more valuable than that,” Lamar, who was raised in Compton, told graduates on Saturday.
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“This degree that y’all have right here is just as big as any degree. I don’t care what school, I don’t care what institution. Compton College, this Compton degree is just as big,” the “Not Like Us” rapper continued. “Now, it’s all about taking these resources and taking what you learned and applying them.”
Lamar went on to talk about the importance of having a relationship with God and talking to Him on a regular basis.
“You gonna have hardships, you go have tribulations, just as you had coming up here, but guess what, you got somebody special behind your corner and all around you, and that’s God, period,” the “Humble” rapper said.
“Every step of the way, when you fall and you have your shortcomings, he’s right there. When you have your victories, he’s right there,” Lamar said.
The rapper continued:
Give yourself grace, give yourself time to grow and appreciate it, because he’s growing with you. Every individual out here is experiencing a human life, a human experience, and God is experiencing it with you. So when you go through things, he’s going with you, he’s right there with you, he’s talking to you, all you got to do is talk back.
I walk on the beach every day and I’m talking to God. I’m just talking, like he the homie, I swear to God, I put that on my grandma grave. I talk to him, next to me, like the homie, just like the people that you grow up with.
Lamar advised the Compton College graduates to talk to God “as if you know him since you was born, the way he knows you.”
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