When Kendrick Lamar recorded the self-empowering track “i” he said that it was inspired by not only his homies behind bars but also by his fans who told him that his music kept them from committing suicide. Last weekend while headlining the Sweetlife Festival in Maryland, he came face-to-face with another one of those special fans.
“I’m at the end of the show, and I see this young lady crying, and I’m thinking, She must be really going through something right now,” the Compton rapper told MTV News. “Then I start hearing her murmur with her lips, ‘You saved my life.’ So I’m like, Damn. This is serious. This is not for play, why she’s out here right now. She came to see the person that actually helped her get through a life, through music.”
He added that the fan, Claire, said that she was going to kill herself last year.
“So I said, at that point, I gotta bring her up onstage and show her some love and let her know this is real.”
While onstage, K.Dot embraced Claire as she broke down in tears.
At 15, Claire was diagnosed with severe depression and said that Kendrick’s music is what “got her through” such a hard time.
“And I couldn’t have done it without him,” the 16-year-old told MTV News. “I listened to his music over and over and there were nights where I thought I was going to end it all, and I didn’t, and I think that’s because his words impacted me in a way that no other artist has ever done. I can’t thank him enough. I can’t thank the people behind him enough for making him come to the earbuds that I listen to. I feel inseparable from his music.”
When he brought her to the stage, she finally had the chance to share with him how his words saved her life and spend time with him backstage.
