Tony Visconti: Kendrick Lamar is the 'greatest'

31 March 2017

David Bowie producer Tony Visconti has praised Kendrick Lamar as the "greatest of them all."

Kendrick Lamar

The 72-year-old producer, who worked on the late David Bowie's final album 'Blackstar', has praised the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Frank Ocean as "nice rule-breakers", and puts the 'Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe' hitmaker at the top of the list.

Tony said: "[There are] nice rule-breakers there at the top. I don't think I need to talk about people like Frank Ocean but Kendrick Lamar is the greatest of them all. His album 'To Pimp A Butterfly' broke every rule in the book and he had a number one album glued to the top of the charts.

"You'd think certain labels would learn from that. But they take somebody who is out there and say, 'That's what people want.' No, people want that for one week. You don't want the same song every single day of your life."

And the producer insists breaking rules is the key to keeping music "fresh", and says the tip is one he learned from the late 'Life on Mars' hitmaker himself.

He added to BBC Newsbeat: "Just break all the rules then music will always be fresh. David taught me that and we started doing it years ago.

"At the top level some people are just chasing old hits. Everybody likes variation and some of the big labels are leaving out the variation. Some labels want these ready-made kids to write songs for, to groom, to almost train in a gym - that's ridiculous.

"There are thousands of young people making great music ... give a young kid a chance."

Meanwhile, Kendrick recently revealed his new album - which will be the follow-up to 2015's 'To Pimp A Butterfly' - will centre on the idea of learning to accept situations he may not necessarily like, such as when a father has to watch his daughter date a boy for the first time.

Using the concept of parenthood to explain his thinking, he explained: "One day, I may have a little girl ... 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."