Kendrick Lamar Almost Landed Lil Wayne Collab Before ‘Section.80’
Kendrick Lamar practically appeared on a tune with one in every of his Hip Hop heroes Lil Wayne, years earlier than he grew to become a rap titan himself.
In the newest episode of HipHopDX‘s The Bigger Picture, co-host DJ Hed revealed that a young K. Dot was initially supposed to handle hook duties on Jay Rock‘s 2008 sleeper hit “All My Life (In the Ghetto)” instead of will.i.am.
“Fun fact about this record: K. Dot was originally on this hook, and I actually have that record. But it can never see the light of day,” he said. “He was doing a whole different hook. The song was called ‘Ghetto’ nevertheless it had a distinct hook on it that Ok. Dot did.”
The veteran Los Angeles DJ/radio host additionally shared that Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, the founding father of the then-fledgling TDE to which Kendrick and Rock have been each signed, made the manager resolution to rearrange Wayne’s visitor verse on the tune attributable to it being too lengthy.
“I probably shouldn’t say this but when Jay Rock did this record, Wayne gave them this long-ass verse and they cut it up,” Hed mentioned. “Wayne was doing that at the time. Glasses Malone had a song called ‘Haterz’ and he did the same thing, it was like a 32-bar verse.
“In this song, Top was actually brilliant — and shout out to will.i.am, too — in arranging the song to where Wayne [and Jay Rock], it sounded like they were going back and forth.”
DJ Hed shares that Kendrick Lamar was initially supposed to do the hook on this Jay Rock & Lil Wayne monitor #TheBiggerPicture
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— HipHopDX (@HipHopDX) August 6, 2024
Released in October 2008 because the lead single from Jay Rock’s debut album Follow Me Home (which wouldn’t hit cabinets till three years later attributable to main label politics), “All My Life (In the Ghetto)” performed a pivotal position in TDE’s early ascent.
The tune was the West Coast powerhouse’s first to make a business dent, reaching No. 10 on Billboard‘s U.S. Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles and No. 110 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts.
It was also recently ranked as Lil Wayne’s 18th finest visitor function by DX, an inventory that sparked the above dialogue.
At that point, Kendrick Lamar (then going by Ok. Dot) was merely a gap act for his effervescent labelmate and nonetheless honing his craft with early mixtapes like No Sleep ‘Til NYC and C4.
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It wasn’t till two years later that the Compton native would construct a buzz of his personal with Overly Dedicated, his first full-length launch below his present stage title, which was adopted by his breakthrough venture Section.80 in 2011 and traditional main label debut good child, m.A.A.d metropolis a 12 months after that.
Despite lacking out on “All My Life (In the Ghetto),” Kendrick would ultimately land a number of coveted Weezy collaborations — first, on Mike WiLL Made-It‘s “Buy the World,” and then on “Mona Lisa” from Wayne’s Tha Carter V.
The latter made headlines earlier this 12 months when the Young Money legend defined why he by no means performs the tune throughout exhibits, regardless of requests from followers.
“This is the second time I’ve seen this within my last three shows. Somebody had a sign that said, ‘Mona Lisa’ […] If y’all real Lil Wayne fans, you know I don’t know the lyrics to my shit,” he mentioned at a live performance in June.
He added: “You know how hard that fucking song is, girl. [Mumbles lyrics from the song]. You know what I mean? I don’t like to rap the words, but I’m going to learn that shit. I’m going to learn it. I got you.”
