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'It's The Greatest Story That Kendrick's Ever Told': 9th Wonder Talks Producing Kendrick Lamar's "Duckworth"
'It's The Greatest Story That Kendrick's Ever Told': 9th Wonder Talks Producing Kendrick Lamar's "Duckworth"
Source: Tidal

'It's The Greatest Story That Kendrick's Ever Told': 9th Wonder Talks Producing Kendrick Lamar's "Duckworth"

The hour-long plus conversation finds 9th Wonder and Young Guru chopping it up with Elliott Wilson and Brian "B. Dot" Miller on their Rap Radar Podcast.

Below are some cuts from the interview:

9th Wonder on how "Duckworth" came to be on DAMN.

I played 20 beats for [Kendrick Lamar] and he's like 'I'm gonna live with these.' Then in June of 2016 he sent me a nine-second snippet of his camera pointed at the computer and he played when the beat switches and I was like 'What's that?' And I ain't hear back from him in like six months.

...[TDE President Dave Free] He hit me with like 'Hey man, I need the samples for these two songs' and I'm thinking 'Oh I got two beats that made it.' And then he hit me back and said 'There's a third beat I need the sample for and I was like 'Oh ok, I got three.' And then he called me back and I said 'I got three joints on it?' And he said 'Nah, it's one song.' And he's like 'Yeah man, it's the greatest story Kendrick has ever told.

Young Guru on traveling to Jamaica and recording "Bam" for Jay-Z's 4:44

The whole Jamaica trip was incredible man...To have [Sister Nancy] actually come to the studio was an amazing thing...I've been to Jamaica mad times but to that was my first time going to Tough Gong, and you feel that vibe when you walk into the studio...To know the history of Bob Marley and the fact that he actually bought Tough Gong and that the family still owns it and what that place means to the culture...it was a great thing.

Young Guru on which album is the better rap album of the year, DAMN. or 4:44

I gotta go with 4:44. It's my record but don't take nothing away from DAMN. It's immaculate, the boy is incredible, he's one of my favorite MCs of all time. It's hard for to have the conversdation with people because I have to ask them 'When did you come in?'...Certain people had never heard Overly Dedicated, certain people had never heard Section 80, certain people had never heard the Kendrick Lamar EP. But I'm one of the people that was like at the SXSW in the audience singing 'Pussy & Patron' as they were doing it...It's very rare that you get an MC of that caliber. We're not gonna see another one of him for a very long time.

Young Guru on when people say Rapsody is good for a female MC

She's just a dope MC. Of course she is a woman so she's gonna talk about things from a woman's perspective but judge her on the things we jduge MCs on. The bar structure, the patterns, the flow, how did you handle these subject matter, did you tie things together well, and she does all of those things exceptionally well. So it's just annoying sometimes when people saying little things like that.

If you have Tidal you can check out the entire video.