MUMBAI: American hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar did not want to be a role model early in his career.

"Being a leader wasn't even an ambition, to be real with you. It's something I didn't wanna take responsibility for. Nobody do, especially when you're still searching for answers for yourself. I don't have the answers!," Lamar said.

"I tell people that all the time. I'm still learning, but I think that's what makes people connect with me; I don't point the finger," he added.

The 28-year-old rapper has received a "whole new perspective" since touring South Africa and visiting the Robben Island prison where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

"My teachers always made Africa seem like this hellhole place. It's like they didn't want you to go, so when I get out there and see all these beautiful people, I see kids living in tents and they still had these smiles on their faces,” said the ‘Poetic Justice’ hitmaker.

"And then you have this whole other side, as far as scenery - it's this paradise that nobody ever spoke about at school. I got a whole new perspective on life from going out there, it was refreshing," he told NME magazine.