0:00
Look at this place.
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0:01
Yeah, we out here barbecuing later.
0:04
Yeah, I got to Is that you on the grill? Uh, I try. Burn some up.
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Make sure everybody eat it, though. Exactly. Eat it.
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I worked really hard on this. Eat it. You're fine. Uh, Coachella 2017.
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I suppose we should set the scene.
0:19
Kendrick, you know, we're here.
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It's It's um Saturday morning before of weekend one, so your first performance will be tomorrow night. Yeah. Yeah.
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Man, as soon as I hit master and I just turn that thing in.
0:38
I try not to listen to it or even see the actual response, you know, for a while because I've been attached to this, you know, piece of art for the last, you know, year and some change.
0:54
I've indulged so much I don't even want to hear it, you know?
0:55
I just want to give it to the people, man, and let them take it and live with it and and and and breathe it, you know?
1:01
And then when I come back on that stage, that's when I want to feel it.
1:05
That's when I want to see it.
1:06
That's when I want to see your reaction, you know, because I can't get that same reaction on the internet, you know, through some comments, you know, when I go out there and I see people just really taking these songs to heart, that's the reaction. So, no headlines.
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No, no one in your camp, no one trusted goes, "Look, you know, here's the here's the overview."
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You know, you know, you have people that want to send it to you.
1:27
I'm I got to curb everything, you know, because I'm so desperate to tell you now.
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I know you don't want to know.
1:33
I mean, the the the internet is a tricky place, man.
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You know, and the way our minds work in a psychological matter, you know, we only going to see the good things anyway.
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You know, we going to block out the the negative things.
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you know, everybody's not going to appreciate it.
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And um I know how it works.
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So I don't I don't even want to, you know, gravitate towards it.
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You know, I want to go out there and I want to see is you sitting in the crowd looking at me with a mummy face.
2:03
Then I can actually go directly to you, right?
2:04
Or is you, you know, enjoying yourself, you feel me?
2:08
Um well, okay, how do I navigate this next part of the interview without pulling you into a world you don't want to be in, i. e.
2:13
the reaction of the record.
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I feel compelled to just share with you that um you know we all absolutely love this record. Appreciate it.
2:21
And people are really really pulling it apart and I think that the kind of music that you make and the way that you make it and the way that you carry yourself and the reticence you have to overexlain things and and how deep the music and dense the music is with thought really um drives people to want to start pulling it apart, micromanaging each of these songs in a way, you know, and rearranging ideas and thoughts.
2:40
And are you at least aware that that happens?
2:42
I mean, you make music that lends itself to conspiracy effectively in many respects. Yeah, definitely.
2:47
Um, I'm definitely aware of that because, um, prior to me going and recording the record, everything is probably 80% premeditated first, you know, before I actually put the words, you know, over the reference track or go in the studio and lay down vocals.
3:05
Everything for me is about execution.
3:07
Um cuz I can go in with a thousand ideas, but if I'm not executing it right, it doesn't feel home to me, you know?
3:15
So, I like to put a lot of different things and and and and you know, word plays and and messages in my music cuz I wanted to live further than two weeks, you know, further than attention span of, you know, how we all was as kids, you know, we take it, we listen to it, and we move on.
3:37
But I wanted to live for the next 20 years.
3:39
So you have to listen to it over and over and over again, you know, to fully understand uh the direction and and the message I put in there, the execution of it.
3:49
And I want you to do that, you know.
3:53
I want to challenge the way you think and challenge the way you take your music.
3:57
You're hiding things down the back of couches and things that Yeah, that's because that's what excites me.
4:01
you know, when I listen to Jay-Z coming up as a kid, when I listen to Eminem, um, P, you know, it was things that I couldn't understand.
4:09
But as years progressed and I went back and listened to it again and and and I've learned and I've grown and I matured, um, these things blew me away, you know, when I found out what they was talking about and how certain things connected to other albums and stories that they told growing up in their communities, you know, and their whole perspective of it.
4:30
So, in doing that, I I I love to have that same type of impact on my listening.
4:37
You mentioned three of the greatest artists ever, right? Jay-Z. Yeah.
4:42
Eminem, and Tupac, all of which I hear in your music in in a in a respectful way. Definitely.
4:47
And I I kind of want to just draw one word on each of them and see how they feel.
4:50
Like for me, Jay-Z is is this beautiful combination of this kind of bravado and this confidence and this also kind of this vulnerability and honesty.
4:57
Is that something that's influenced you throughout your life?
4:58
cuz I hear that in your music, you know, the the the ability to be able to share your own life experience, but I don't but I feel like I'm I'm living vicariously through that almost like I'm watching a a series, you know? Yeah, definitely. Whole lot of influence.
5:11
Um, my boy Dave will tell you, I was in his garage and, you know, all my ad libs sounded like Jay-Z. My my words, my my flow.
5:20
He was an early reference when you were trying to find your style. Him, Eminem.
5:25
Um, I mean, I grew up off Pac, you know, being from Compton.
5:27
M uh but Jay-Z I I wanted to have um the conversational you know type of word play and aspect of things you know you know whether I'm engaging in the story or I'm just having fun.
5:42
He just felt like he was natural and he was fluent with it and um it never felt like when I found out he didn't write it made sense because it never sounded like he wrote. Yeah. I I did that too.
5:54
So that I've heard that about you.
5:54
I've heard that you go in and it's in your head. Yeah.
5:57
But it it all, you know, it all worked for me years down the line when I can go in and just do the craziest verse, you know, uh just off emotions and off my own experiences, you know, where I don't feel like I need to um actually put the thoughts down on paper, you know.
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At first, I was doing it because I just wanted to be like Jay-Z, you know.
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But in doing time, it became a practice, you know, and by the time I got back to writing my rhymes, you know, I knew the full potential in that.
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I knew the creative process in that and what worked in that.
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And I also knew how to go in there and just spill out my feelings and and show how I really feel. So, you rely on both. Yeah, definitely. Definitely.
6:41
With Eminem, it's been particular on this record.
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Up until this record, no one has ever put so much in to one bar. Two bars, four bars, 16. Yeah.
6:54
A full verse, full song, an album.
6:54
At the end of listening to an Eminem record, the amount of information and ideas and humor and tragedy and that's coming at you as a fan is just overwhelming.
7:04
And and you very much are that kind of artist, too.
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Um, and that's obviously important to you that no word is wasted. Definitely. Um, I just love words. I love how to bend them.
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I love how to break them.
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I love how to twist them, turn them, make them in couplets.
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Uh Eminem has said this to me.
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Have you had this conversation with him?
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Have you guys bonded over this? Cuz he said this to me.
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He's like that same thing.
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You know, he like I like to take words and I like to bend them to my will and make things make things that shouldn't rhyme rhyme. Yeah.
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You can manipulate it, you know. You can manipulate it.
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And that shows the true uh craft and and and your sportsmanship.
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You know, a lot of a lot of the guys that actually dig into uh uh taking things that don't even necessarily rhyme that that gets them excited to know you figured out how to make that rhyme, you know, and how to take this couplet and make it a double antandra at the end.
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It's all acrobatics, you know.
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It's all acrobatics and that excites me when I hear other people do it.
8:03
It it it gives me a drive and hunger like man Tupac is um more than just an influencer from an artistic point of view.
8:11
It feels like his spirit is traveling through your records now in many respects the way that you refer to him and as a deep reference point for you.
8:18
Obviously, he played a huge role on Toa Butterfly with that with the piece at the end, which was beautifully done, but you referenced him again on this record, you know, particular talking about, you know, I imagine how this must be how Park felt when he felt like the apocalypse was coming. You know what I mean?
8:32
So, he's never too far away from your thoughts. Never. Ever. Um, why?
8:38
It's just some man that that I hold dear just in my memories of just growing up in the city.
8:44
I mean this dude impact you know not only on me but on the culture is something I can never forget you know from physically seeing him to hearing him on record uh to him applying himself in the community and actually being right there with us.
9:02
It's just something that I hold dear, you know.
9:07
Um, no matter how many times I come into my own, you know, as Kendrick Lamar, which I felt I've I've I've done that over the years, you know, you grow into your own artist.
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Um, I will always have that that sense of reaching a certain standard as far as, you know, empathy and compassion toward a record.
9:33
The same way Pac approached music, it will always be in the back of my head to never forget that.
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No matter how big the hit record gets, no matter how big the album gets, always had a compassion.
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And that's why his memory and his legacy in my music will never leave.
9:51
Look, there's a thing that we have to talk about on this record, man, that you know it's coming, which is that you say several times and you make a statement and you made it in half part four when you put that out and we all knew that wasn't going to make it on the record cuz you got to clear the pallet, right?
10:04
You know, but there's always a throne.
10:06
There's always a crown in rap. That's how it started.
10:10
My DJ's better than your DJ.
10:10
I'm a better rapper than you.
10:14
What is What is the greatest rapper alive?
10:16
What are you referring to?
10:16
You You are the greatest rapper alive.
10:18
I got to I didn't I didn't Come on.
10:23
I'm so passionate about hip-hop, man.
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Like, I don't know what era everybody else come from, but when I I I listen, man.
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Like we play house parties, bro, every night.
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Like, I love it to a point I can't even describe it, you know?
10:49
And when I heard these artists say they're the best coming up, I said, I'm not doing it to have a good song or one good rap or a good hook or a good bridge.
11:02
I want to keep doing it every time. Period.
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And to do it every time, you have to challenge yourself and you have to confirm to yourself, not anybody else.
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Confirm to yourself that you're the best. Period.
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I don't no one can take that away from me period.
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And that's my drive and that's my hunger.
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I will always have and at this point right now I've I've the years and the time and the effort and and the knowledge and the history, you know, I've done on the culture and the game I've gotten from, you know, those before me and respect I have for them.
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I want to hold myself high on that same pedestal 10, 15 years from now.
11:53
And that's what that's where you were going when you were so blunt on control.
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You were like, I need to say this. This is what I mean. Yeah. What we doing it for? Right. This is this is culture.
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This is not something you just play with, you know, get some few dollars and get out.
12:07
You know, people live their lives to this music, period.
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You know, it's my partners in the hood right now that they listen to rap every day cuz it's the only thing that can relate to their stories and their tribulations.
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They live and breathe it.
12:27
You can't play with this.
12:27
And you have to take in consideration what you write down on that paper.
12:32
And if you're not doing it to say the most impactful or doing it to be the best you can be for the listener to live their daily lives, then what are we doing? What are we doing here?
12:44
You came out of an you know experience with Toip Butterfly which as albums go was was was different again.
12:50
Um you know if this is state of mind that was sort of state of times. Exactly.
12:55
And um you know I wondered when you put out to Pippa Butterfly, were you aware of what you created as a document and what it said and and did the reaction that the record received eventually when you realized what it it was doing and how people were adopting it and using it beyond just music.
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Was that something you'd hoped for? Definitely. Definitely.
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It was something I wanted to shed light on.
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You know, what was going on in my community, what was going on around the world, what was going on with my people.
13:19
Um, I always feel the need to approach it in an aspect where I'm not only thinking about right now.
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This record has to live and and and teach the same way Tai lived, the same way Jay, the same way Common, the same way Ice Cube taught us back in ' 91.
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I went back 15 years later and I I've learned from it.
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This album has to teach not only in these times but for the future, you know, to understand our history, what we was going through in 2010, 2012, 2014, 15.
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And when you can go back and you can apply that knowledge with whatever's going on in the future, that right there is going to help the next individual, the next Kendrick Lamar, the next kid on the corner to make whatever situation they're in a better situation, not only for themselves, but for those around them, you know.
14:14
So the success of that record didn't come from the accolades and the awards for me.
14:21
It came from people going out there and singing all right in the middle of these streets and and you know taking pride and dignity uh into where they come from and where they want to go, you know, and expressing themsel.
14:36
A lot of people don't have voices out here.
14:38
So to see them actually express themselves through song, you know, through lyrics that I wrote, that's confirmation for me, you know, that's confirmation for me that the passion and the insight uh the thoughts that I put into these records, you know, it's far beyond me.
14:59
And the pimple butterfly that that that gave me this this this this fire, man.
15:04
A different type of fire to know that music is it's just not about, you know, putting your lyrics and saying cool things on on on a record.
15:18
It just kept it just really a firm, you know, confirmation for me that what I do is not for Kendrick Lamar, man. Like, period.
15:32
And that record did that for me.
15:35
It let me know that, you know, it's people out there that go through real things that want to hear this.
15:41
the success of that record in those terms that have reached so many people in a deep way and ultimately you you had to try and detach yourself from that connection in some regard because it belongs to them now and you know but also and correct me if I'm wrong but I hear real themes of self-preservation on Dan yeah definitely like like okay I I did that I made that it it's worked it's going to it's working it's going to continue to work.
16:13
But at what does it take a toll on you?
16:15
And at what point do you withdraw yourself back into something that you can control?
16:19
Cuz you can't control what people are doing with butterfly. Yeah, definitely.
16:22
Um, the best way for me to put it, uh, to pimp a butterfly would be the idea of the thought of changing the world, you know, and how we work and how we approach things.
16:39
Um, down will be the idea of I can't change the world until I change myself, you know.
16:48
So when you listen to records like pride, humble, um, lust, love, these is all just human emotions and me looking in the mirror and coming to grips with them, you know, and thinking of the idea of the world itself and combine them in two records.
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I will hope the listener can take heed and and and grab something from both of them two ideas and carry out their day to the best potential of themselves they see.
17:23
What came first, the song titles, the words, the idea, the list that the track listing has become or the music and then you would apply a word to the song that you've made. It would be the music. It would be the music.
17:34
Um, so you finish a track and then you go, "This is the word that's going to identify that song."
17:38
Well, what happens is that word comes across in some of the lyrics. Yeah.
17:44
You know, while I'm writing, it's the first thing I I grab from far as inspiration.
17:48
Um, the word come across in some of the lyrics and I just pull the I just pull that word out but keep the record, you know, and that that actual word is what represent the whole idea of the song. Yeah.
18:01
So, it's a lot of lost verses, you know, imagine.
18:05
Let's just get a few sort of facts on the record.
18:07
You said just over a year you were working on the album. Yeah. Yeah.
18:11
How do you start a record?
18:11
Does it have a starting point or do you just are you just creating before you know it?
18:16
Man, I sit and I think all day, you know, all day.
18:20
That's why I said 80% of it is is just me prepping, you know, myself to get back in there, you know, to to first acknowledge how I'm feeling in the moment.
18:29
I was going to say, is it as simple as you asking yourself what do I want or in fact what do I have to say this time?
18:36
Um, what can I say after what I just went through?
18:39
It's more about what's true to me and what will impact the person listening.
18:46
Um, the idea of of making that connection again but without being a a a false story.
18:54
You know, people can write about anything, but if if I don't feel it, then the listener sure enough ain't going to feel it. Simple as that.
19:04
So, the first idea is me coming to grips what I'm feeling at the moment.
19:08
You know, when I have records like Phil or I have records like Fear or Pride, you know, these are some of the first initial ideas, you know, coming across music.
19:19
I sit with beats, you know, we create them from scratch and I just sit and live with it until I'm able to reach that point of this what I feel like that's and that could take days.
19:30
Yeah, it could take months. Months.
19:32
Yeah, it could take months.
19:32
Um, the right approach or it could take 2 minutes, you know, and um me understanding that process and knowing how I work, you know, to execute it is the best for me.
19:46
And I have a great team around me that has a lot of patience.
19:48
Um because sometimes I can't just pull these words out of the sky.
19:52
I have to really just indulge myself in it.
19:57
So if you started making this record just over a year ago, um we were still in a very different situation in America.
20:02
We had a different president. Yeah.
20:04
And it was still very much in in in that world of Tampa Butterfly.
20:07
And then within, you know, months with the end of last year, it all changed. Everything changed. Yeah.
20:14
you know, and I'd imagine that, you know, you're someone who absorbs what's going on around you.
20:17
And was it hard for it not to just veer directly into that world there because politics changed so dramatically overnight? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Definitely.
20:25
It's It's definitely tough.
20:27
I mean, I have a lot of records. Yeah. Do you a lot of records?
20:32
So, you expressed yourself privately.
20:34
So, you have records that that cover that. Oh, yeah. Definitely. Heavily. Um, easily.
20:40
just off of of of pure frustration.
20:44
Um just off of simple the wow factor of what's going on and um yeah simple as that definitely.
20:55
So what happens is I have these records and you know certain things that are in these songs and I I may pull pieces from you know to make sure that it's covered.
21:09
it's covered. is covered to where I feel like I feel uh better about it that the listener know or that he know you know so it's the sharpest message in the shortest amount of time yeah yeah yeah I think a lot of people were probably
21:29
expecting a heavier reflection of that of this time because of what had happened with butterfly and maybe some people thought okay well we're we're in a different place now Donald Trump's president is that going to more heavily reflected on the new music. I think there was a
21:41
I think there was a Right. Exactly.
21:42
But I wanted a more self, you know, self evaluate evaluation. Yeah.
21:46
Discipline because what's going on now, we're not focusing on him. What's going on now? We focusing on self.
21:58
You see, you know, different nationalities and and cultures are coming together, man, and actually standing up for themselves. You get what I'm saying?
22:10
And I think that's a pure reflection of this record prior to even prior to even coming out.
22:19
Um, we say, "Okay, we can't control now.
22:22
We see we can't control what's going on out there."
22:24
You know, it's a whole another power to be.
22:25
So, what we can do now, we can start coming together and figuring out our own problems and our own solutions, you know. Mhm.
22:34
And I think that's I believe I know that's this is what this album reflects. That's what damn is. Take a look.
22:42
Take a look at yourself and ourselves. Yeah. Exactly.
22:44
Let's not blaming everybody else for the decisions that we didn't make at proactively. Proactive. Proactive.
22:52
I want to start going through the record. Mhm.
22:55
Because um you know 14 14 pieces of of music or 14 tracks. Yeah. Um starting with blood. Blood. It's like a parable.
23:03
There's some hidden things in there.
23:07
You're going to have to pull up where you got to pull up because you know me, my job is to go deep and there are people who are just like go deep.
23:11
So, you got to protect yourself as and where you have to protect yourself.
23:14
But, I mean, par let's just talk about it. What What is it?
23:17
What is it in relation to the record?
23:18
What can you tell us about that opening because I know that you want people to discover it in time, but it is it to me it's a parable. Yeah.
23:25
Um, what can I say about that?
23:29
without saying about that.
23:31
Um, it is the one of the most interesting pieces on the record.
23:37
Um, man, I don't even think I could find the wit the wit to to tell you about that record, man.
23:46
Without telling you about that record. Um, it's a new life. It's a new life.
23:56
Is it the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning? I can't tell you that.
23:59
M that's what I can't tell you. Come on now. That's the whole thing. Come on. I had to ask them. Yeah, I know. That's the whole thing. Okay. All right.
24:09
DNA as opening lines go, you know, I got loyalty, I got royalty inside my DNA.
24:16
Um, did you know when you came up with that, wrote that was making that track that that was the kind of start in many respects that was going to be the opening line of the record? Oh, yeah. Yeah, definitely. Definitely.
24:29
Um, it's one lesson I learned from Ice Cube.
24:36
He said, uh, if your first opening lines don't grab the listener, it ain't period.
24:45
You know, it it has to be a state. He would know, man. Yeah. Yeah. Come on, man. Yeah.
24:51
And it has to be a statement.
24:53
And I don't care if if if the statement is uh blunt or the statement is, you know, held back.
25:02
They got to feel it regardless. You get what I'm saying?
25:05
And people are going to feel it if they know it's real and true to you.
25:09
Um, you say a lot in that opening verse.
25:11
I mean, you get a lot out is very quick.
25:13
I mean, the idea of DNA, and you sum it up brilliantly at the end with sex, money, and murder, our DNA, and you make it about all of us, but it's a very personal journey in the beginning.
25:19
You're like, I'm going in. Yeah, definitely.
25:21
Um there three type of themes in that in that record.
25:24
Um it's me recognizing the the world around me. Yeah.
25:33
Um it's me recognizing the lifestyle.
25:36
That I've I've grown to see and and and indulge in from time to time.
25:42
um from a famous perspective um to come to grips to the idea of knowing who Man was, you know, as a seven-year-old boy and figuring out who they see as Kendrick Lamar, you and taking all these different aspects and and and um personalities from my own perspective from me, for my soul and putting them in the record, you know.
26:26
So, you're going to hear different tones.
26:27
You're going to hear a baritone.
26:28
You're going to hear me breaching out the water like a whale, you know?
26:33
And you're going to hear that that same hunger and that same desire that I had as a kid, you know, but through record, through my own DNA, through my own bloodline, it's just everything who I am.
26:46
You have this remarkable relationship with religion, at least in your work. Yeah.
26:51
The way that it features is is it's hard to put a put it in a in a circle, you know what I mean?
26:57
But it's constantly there.
26:59
And DNA, you make reference to um Yeshua's new weapon.
27:01
M and I it made me think like you know you often refer to yourself as as it's almost like where would you be in the religious line of hundreds of years ago as opposed to right now right?
27:15
You know what I mean right?
27:16
Um, I've always had that that I mean we all spiritual beings period and that's something I can't never run from in music you know and when I say as a weapon going back to the line that you referenced I always felt like God used me as a vessel period you know whether to show my flaws whether to show my intellect um to show my pain to show my hurt um to share my stories um to share his message all across the board.
27:50
You know, that's that's me personally, that's always been a vessel.
27:55
You know, I can say the nastiest thing on record, period.
27:57
But I still feel like that's a vessel.
28:00
You need to hear that because I can't sugarcoat the reality of what's going on out here.
28:05
I can't sugarcoat the reality of uh my imperfections, period.
28:10
So when you hear certain things and certain things you may not like, you may have discomfort from, it's it's out of my hands.
28:19
These words, you know, they're not just made up words, you know, when I say I sit and I and I live with them, you know, and I really zone into them.
28:31
These are ideas that's coming way beyond me.
28:36
And that's just how I feel about it since day one.
28:38
working with Mike Will who's on a serious wave right now. Unbelievable.
28:44
I thought your work on Perfect Pine as well.
28:45
It's one of my favorite songs on Ranc's incredible.
28:49
Um, let's talk about your your relationship with him creatively and how you guys get what you get together and what you like about working with him as a producer.
28:56
You know what's crazy about me and Mike, man, we've been in the studio for a long time.
29:00
Like longer than we would know.
29:02
Longer than you guys would know, but we never made records.
29:04
You know, he always said to each other, "Man, one day we gonna make them records." Yeah.
29:10
We gonna make them joints, you know.
29:10
And we always say, "Timing, that's our thing. Timing is everything."
29:16
When he hit me on the text, he is it time yet?
29:18
I'm like, "No, it ain't time. It ain't time yet."
29:24
How do you how do you let somebody down like that on a text?
29:26
I mean, what what happens is, you know, you build a relationship with people, you know, and it's it's further than just, you know, lip service.
29:33
You can be honest, right?
29:34
trying to small talk and you know keep keep someone ego right.
29:40
How did you know it was time?
29:41
Um just the moment that how I was feeling from the aggression I wanted to take and the approach that I wanted to take and uh the urgent feel I know you know the producers you know to go to Mhm.
29:58
and I know who's going to going to bring that uh that thing that inspires the right lyrics for me, you know.
30:05
So, um I want to talk to you about Yah and and we have to talk about I mean the way that it fits into the record, the news reports, it's very ice cube actually, the way it would take when people would pull apart his philosophy and he would take that and use it back in it. Oh yeah.
30:20
Um so you know that report that came out that that followed the BET performance, when did you first hear about that?
30:25
When did I first hear about that?
30:27
Um, probably as soon as it came out. Did you actually see it? Yeah.
30:33
Well, someone sent it to me, right? Yeah. So, I can see it live.
30:37
I thought it was just a trip, you know.
30:39
I I thought it was a a click a clickbait because anybody that know me, they know that, you know, I represent my people, you know, and the culture the right way.
30:50
So to try to attack my character, you know, and and make it a actual stunt that wasn't for it.
30:59
Do you have a relationship with media in the sense that you use it or you you look to it for information or do you detach yourself from that? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm aware. Definitely. Definitely.
31:09
I have to see what's going on.
31:10
I have to know what's going on.
31:12
Um I have to do my research on what's going on to let me know that you're not just feeding me bull. Um, yeah.
31:17
I got to find a backstory and I have to apply my own knowledge.
31:24
You think the media is doing its job right now?
31:26
It's the media is doing the media always has some twists and some turns.
31:28
You know, like my mother say, you got to know when to listen and when to shut your ears off, holding them and when to fold them.
31:36
Let's talk about the song called Element.
31:37
Um, yeah, you know, I love the fact you brought Kid Capri and the mixtape king, legendary hip-hop personality and DJ into the whole thing, which was what was the inspiration behind him using Kid Capri? Oh man.
31:46
Uh, that's that's a great question.
31:49
The funny thing is that was probably one of the first ideas I had for this record. Crazy.
31:54
I wanted it to feel like um I wanted it to feel like just the raw elements of of of hip-hop.
32:04
You know, whether I'm using 808s or whether I'm using some boom bap drums, you know, the idea of having Kid Capri, you know, the initial thought was having him off like some real trappy 808, you know, something I've never heard from him.
32:19
And um I got in the studio, man.
32:19
And I had him do like a thousand takes, you know, but he's the greatest, you know, to ever even do it, period.
32:26
He knocked them out, man. And yeah, he he's there. He's rocking.
32:35
Um, let's talk about loyalty.
32:35
Let's fast forward a little bit because I love feel, you know, that, but I but I really want to get to to to loyalty because you work with Rihanna on that record.
32:42
I mean, one of a few key sort of outward collaborators on that outside of production work. Um, how did that happen? How was that experience?
32:50
Were you in the same room?
32:50
I mean, paint the picture for us. Yeah, definitely, man.
32:53
Um, I've always wanted to work with Rihanna.
32:56
I love everything about her, you know, her artistry.
32:59
Um, how she represent women, you know, to to to um not only be himself, but express himself, the way she express herself through music and and how she carry herself.
33:14
I love everything about her.
33:15
So, I always wanted to work with her. Um, I had the record.
33:17
I I I did the record um and immediately her name just popped up, reached out and we locked in the studio and we made it happen. Good vibes. Great vibes. Quickly done. Great vibes. She got amazing energy. She's a vibe itself. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Love. Yeah.
33:38
This is like a beautiful love song, but of course complex as always. Yeah. Tell us about that. Oh man, my guy Zach. Yeah.
33:44
The guy singing on the record.
33:47
Um, we was in the studio vibing and he playing tracks after track after track after track.
33:55
This dude is an amazing talent and I've always love to have fresh ears and and and bring fresh uh well present, you know, fresh talent to the world period.
34:09
because it's so much good out there that you got to always make sure that people are able to hear it.
34:17
And being that a lot of don't get hurt, that's great. Mhm. He's one of the guys.
34:22
So, he's playing this record, man, this beat and these drums and and it just feels like euphoria, you know, immediately.
34:29
Um, we knocked it out probably like the next day.
34:36
beautiful experience to be able to focus on something as as overtly positive as that. You know what I mean?
34:42
And because you have to really to write a love song like that, you have to put yourself in a place where you have to try and just put everything else to one side. Exactly.
34:49
And that's why I say we we knocked it out as soon as possible. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
34:54
Yeah. I heard the beat and immediately, you know, I I just go back to this to this this this space of, you know, being a teen and and and and you just now figuring out what is the concept of actually further being attracted to a woman, but
35:10
actually loving someone, you know, and feeling that type of love and getting your heart broken, you know, going back to that space and and the simple idea and the simple concept of love and and that feeling amongst all the other madness around the album. I was going to ask you to have that in
35:24
I was going to ask you to have that in your life to be settled in in in a relationship, you know, that seems well account strong must be hugely grounding given what the kind of craziness that you exist in.
35:34
It's not a normal existence. This Yeah, exactly.
35:36
And that's the yin and the yang.
35:38
You know, you can't have u love, you know, without, you know, your pride affecting it, you know, without having having to take your ego out the situation, you know, throwing your humble uh uh uh the idea of that, you know, around, you know.
35:56
So, I felt there was a um perfect exclamation mark, you know.
36:03
I want to talk about XXX. Yeah.
36:05
features you boner often said, you know, to me in in public that America is an idea. Mhm.
36:13
And he sort of that sentiment is in that song and he talks about it's it's a sound. It's not a place, right?
36:19
You know, um crazy lyrics. Crazy lyrics. Couple bars. Impactful. Yeah.
36:27
What does what does XXX mean to you? What is it?
36:29
XXX is a idea of complete chaos and madness.
36:36
That's what I got from it.
36:36
Um, organized madness, controlled madness, you know, us trying to control this madness.
36:44
So, when you hear them lyrics of what he's saying, you know, it's a place, you know, it's a idea.
36:48
It's a kind us trying to control that idea um through lyrics, through song, you know. Is it a good idea?
36:55
Even if the original idea of what America is, for better or for worse, um it's a content idea. A content idea. Simple as that.
37:14
You know, that that's one of the songs that you do kind of like touch on Donald Trump as as president.
37:17
That's where it makes its way into that again, you know, in a situation where you're like, you know, okay, this is the world we live in right now. Yeah.
37:25
Um, wasn't the world we were in before.
37:27
You had a story, you know, you have, you know, really personal relationship with Barack Obama.
37:30
And I wonder what that left in you as a person, the chance to meet him, the chance to share thoughts with him and have ideas with him as the president at that moment in time.
37:38
What you took from that experience?
37:40
What I took from that experience was the idea of knowing that it takes more is going to take more than just a 8-year uh uh uh idea of four years idea of change.
37:59
You know, a lot of times being a kid when he was elected, well, not a kid, just a younger adult, we get the idea, well, I got the idea that was going to do a 360 like that.
38:15
So, me having a conversation with him and him sitting me down, he says it it change don't, you know, don't start while I'm here.
38:26
It it it starts once we leave the space that we're in.
38:34
That was the idea, you know, and subconsciously that goes to the idea of me self- evvaluating my own personal thoughts, the way I think, and what I'm going to take from this meeting and do when I go outside this building, you know.
38:53
So, that was the experience.
38:56
That was something I always hold dear.
38:57
Just the idea of knowing that in the moment of time I have to think further than this year or last year.
39:06
Got to prep yourself for the next decade of what you're going to do that's going to result to change in the idea or the thoughts that we have consumed for so many years.
39:17
You guys are free to hoop now, right?
39:19
Are you going to have that game?
39:20
We got the court right here.
39:23
We got the court right here. You jump on that PJ.
39:25
I'm keep putting this out in the media, too.
39:27
I got to see that left-handed person.
39:29
We got the court right here. That's not going away.
39:34
Dude, there's so much to talk about.
39:36
I can't believe we're coming to an end of our time.
39:38
I mean, um I just don't want to leave anything undone.
39:43
So, I'm going to I'm going to get to Duckworth. Okay.
39:46
I mean, this this incredible end to the record which just shows how tenuous it all is. Do you know what I mean?
39:58
Like it's on a it's on a rope, isn't it?
40:00
It's on a tight rope at all times and and left or right can change everything the whole time. Yeah.
40:07
When did you realize that that story that that had happened?
40:10
When did you realize that they knew each other?
40:11
When did that when did that story get shared with you?
40:16
Were you in the room when they worked it out and looked at each other?
40:18
I mean, just about a year after I met Top Dog, I met him when I was 16.
40:23
So, my pops came to the studio after I've been locked in with him for a minute and we got a relationship now. Bring my pops through.
40:34
You know, he heard, you know, I was dealing with Top Dog, but my pops personally don't know him as Top Dog.
40:43
you know, the industry know him as Top Dog.
40:45
Before he was Top Dog, he was another name.
40:48
And um so when he walked in that room and he seen that Top Dog was this guy, they flipped. I mean flipped. Yeah. Still to this day. And Top flipped as well. Top straight away. Oh yeah.
41:05
Still to this day, they laugh and they laugh and they trip out and they tell the same story over and over to each other, you know.
41:17
Have you been waiting to tell that story? Have I been waiting?
41:19
Um, or was it just the right time?
41:22
It was just the right time.
41:22
Um, Top himself didn't know I was going to do it.
41:26
um or or even execute it in that fashion to be the last song or or to be anywhere just making it make sense.
41:37
Um, I remember playing it for him and he he flipped, you know, because further than the song when you really can can hear the word, hear your life, you know, in words, you know, that is so true to you and that affected your life 100% through one decision.
42:02
It really make you sit back and cherish the moment, you know?
42:07
And I think that's something that we all did playing that record.
42:09
Like, man, look where we at.
42:13
We in we we we recording music for the world to hear and we're taking care of our families and you know, we're blessed.
42:21
But listen to these words.
42:23
Like this this is what happened. This is real life. This is it's amazing.
42:29
And since a kid, man, I always said to myself, bro, anything is possible.
42:35
And it always comes around tenfold, 100% confirmation.
42:42
And that story is confirmation.
42:46
You could tell that and all all great artists have this, you know, this this kind of internal battle with maybe who I was, who I am, who I want to be, who other people want me to be.
43:01
And this record is rife with that.
43:01
I mean, I really feel like this is a deeply human album.
43:04
That's my that's the only way I can describe it.
43:06
I've been trying to find words to describe it.
43:09
And um the most simple way is it's a really it's a really human experience. listen to this record. Definitely.
43:15
Um the the best word to describe for me um it's an album about my own self-discipline.
43:22
Um that's my favorite word um this past year.
43:28
discipline, you know, and obedience, you know, and how to um control your own emotions and how to even speak that truth on a record, you know, to expose yourself even more to have that closer connection with another human.
43:47
Um, and have them relate to it.
43:47
You know, it's not easy telling your truth, you know, and things that you fear, you know, from when you was seven, 17, and even a couple years ago, you know.
43:56
So, but I know at the end of the day that, you know, the music is not for me.
44:01
It's for somebody else that's going through a up day to listen to and progress in their lives.
44:09
And that's the reason why I always choose to have that dynamic when when approaching it, you know, being selfless in the whole situation.
44:20
You've been recording and making a lot of music, you know, that's appeared on this record.
44:24
I'm sure there's a lot of music that didn't appear on this record. Yeah, man.
44:28
XXX has six verses on that thing. Yeah.
44:34
That's why the changes are so crazy.
44:36
Are we talking just a huge amount of music that we've never heard before in the process to get to where you need to get to? Oh, yeah.
44:42
Cuz you know, my my process after premeditating, I throw all the paint on the wall I can and I pour from it.
44:51
You know, people think that there's a resurrection this Easter weekend.
44:56
Man, there's some things in that album.
44:58
But as if damn is not enough.
44:58
As if damn is not enough.
45:01
I'm still trying to get my head around that.
45:02
And yet already people are just like, there's another one coming.
45:06
Yeah, there's some things in that album, but it ain't that one. But there are things.
45:10
There's things and know a lot of time um people that listen to my music um they're really good.
45:15
They're they're really really good.
45:17
Like these these are some You must laugh out loud when you when they get it right, man. Man, I'll be mind blown. I'll be blown away.
45:28
Well, you doing that to us all the time.
45:30
I I think I got through 30% of what I wanted to get through, but it was a beautiful 30%. I appreciate that.
45:35
No, I really appreciate the opportunity to sit with you, man.
45:36
I know you don't do it often.
45:37
And um you know, just you know, I hope we got we got we got enough for everybody right now, but uh if not, like you say, it's all in the album, right? Yeah, man. All right. Appreciate that.