“HUMBLE.” wasn’t the type of track people expected from Kendrick Lamar when he kicked off his DAMN. campaign last month. But with the single currently sitting at number one on the Billboard 100, it’s fair to say it paid off. The producer behind it, Mike WiLL Made-It, recently spoke to NPR about working with K.Dot, where he revealed that “HUMBLE.” was originally made with Gucci Mane in mind.
Check out an excerpt from the interview below:
With “HUMBLE.,” I knew that beat was going to capture a moment. It just felt real urgent. I made that beat [last year] when Gucci Mane was getting out of jail; I made it with him in mind. I was just thinking, damn, Gucci’s about to come home; it’s got to be something urgent that’s just going to take over the radio. And I felt like that beat was that. I ended up not doing it with Gucci and I let Kendrick hear it. I was thinking, if Dot gets on this it’ll be his first time being heard on some[thing] like this. At the same time, it kind of has an NWA/Dr. Dre feel, an Eminem kind of feel. So I thought, let me see if Dot f**** with it. And he heard the beat and he liked it. But he was about to give me “HUMBLE.” for [my album] Ransom 2. I love that song so I was like, ‘Man, hell yeah.’ Then he told me that his team was saying he should keep it. And I told him, ‘Bruh, you definitely should keep it, and you should use it as your single.’
OS REWIND: Mike WiLL Made-It – Ransom 2 [Album Stream]
OS REWIND: Mike WiLL Made-It – On the Come Up (feat. Big Sean) [Music Video]
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