During President Barack Obama’s glorious eight-year run, the White House had seen more hip-hop faces than ever before in history.

Compton’s consciously-driven emcee Kendrick Lamar was among them and, according to his thoughts shared with XXL, he couldn’t be more grateful to the first Black president of the United States.

During his American Express pop-up show in Brooklyn on Friday (Dec. 16), K-Dot expressed his admiration for Obama and vowed that everyone else ought to be just as appreciative.

“I think the world, not just hip-hop, owes him,” the “Alright” rapper said. “We all have to give him his credit due for even allowing us into the building. We would probably never get inside that house ever again.”

Ludacris, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross, J. Cole, Common and Jay Z are just a handful of hip-hop’s elite that have had the honor of a formal invite to the White House from President Obama. D.C.’s own Wale even collaborated with First Lady Michelle Obama for an education-initiative project. Kendrick said that he holds Obama’s embrace of the hip-hop community and friendship in high reverence of the 44th president of the United States.  

“You look at him as such a high figure in the world, but for him to embrace you and have a connection with you further than just being the president and make you feel like an actual friend,” the Top Dawg Entertainment rapper said. “I meet a lot of people in high places and sometimes they get so detached from the world and from the people, they don’t even know how to interact with you. Basically watching him interact with my mother, my little niece, myself as a human, I think that’s the greatest thing.”

As we close out 2016, another one goes to show just how dearly and painfully missed President Barack Obama will be.