TDE president Terrence “Punch” Henderson Jr. recently sat down with Complex to discuss the future of Top Dawg Entertainment following the departure of the label’s biggest star, Kendrick Lamar. After the release of his fifth studio album, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, Lamar has officially moved onto his new venture, pgLang.
In the months since Lamar first revealed he’d be leaving the label, many have theorized there to be a rift between Punch and Lamar, but the TDE President says there’s no bad blood.
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Punch explained to the outlet: “I’m not really one for correcting assumptions. People can feel and think whatever they want, but in this particular situation, the goal is to build an artist to what they want to do. This is what he wanted to do, so we helped build him to it. That’s not a negative at all. It’s actually a positive, because he’s leveling up. He’s going from one stage to the next stage of how he sees his life and career progressing. You’re not here to hold anybody forever. You come in, you do what you set out to do, and then you continue to move forward.”
As for the future of TDE, Punch says that he isn’t necessarily looking to “duplicate” the success found with Lamar, instead stating that every artist is unique.
“I wouldn’t use the word duplicate, because that would mean that it’s a certain formula and that gets cookie-cutter to me,” he told the outlet. “It’s more so about what each individual artist wants to do. Everybody doesn’t have the same goals and want to accomplish the same things. You’ve got some where they want to be the biggest star in the world, or you’ve got some who just want to be low key and be able to support their family and do shows. Or you’ve got some that want to transition into movies. It’s just so many different things, so it’s not a duplication; it’s enhancing whatever the individual artist wants to do.”
Additionally, Punch says that the “natural progression” from here is to branch out into TV and film, mentioning that he’s interested in a TDE series or docufilm.
Elsewhere in the interview, Punch discusses how he learned from Lamar, as well as SZA’s success, being proud of his former TDE artist, and more.
[Via]