Kendrick Lamar is certainly the most successful artist in TDE's short history.
He's now off the label, with Mr. Moral And The Big Steppers being his last TDE project.
Label president Punch isn't bitter about the K.Dot's departure.
In fact, he told Complex that Kendrick's leaving is a positive.
"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," Punch said.
As for whether he can duplicate Kendrick's success with another artist:
"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."
Do you think TDE can thrive post-Kendrick?