Kendrick Lamar and To Pimp A Butterfly contributors Sounwave, Derek “MixedByAli” Ali and Rapspody recall how Lamar’s 2014 trip to South Africa was the beginning of the album, in the Grammy’s editorial “The Oral History of To Pimp A Butterfly.”
Big Sean’s “Control” record with Lamar’s controversial verse was released while he was on this South Africa trip.
“Everybody was talking about the verse and Kendrick was in Africa,” Rapspody says. “I went about a year before him so I knew what that trip does to you, especially as a Black person.”
Producer Sounwav recalls that as being the moment of inspiration behind album.
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“I remember he took a trip to Africa and something in his mind just clicked,” Sounwav says. “For me, that’s when this album really started.”
K. Dot explored the country including a visit to Nelson Mandela’s jail cell as he began to piece together an album that would be more Compton, California, mixed with elements of jazz, soul and funk.
“I felt like I belonged in Africa,” the “King Kunta” rapper says. “I saw all the things that I wasn’t taught. Probably one of the hardest things to do is put a concept on how beautiful a place can be and tell a person this while they’re still in the ghettos of Compton. I wanted to put that experience in the music.”
Lamar’s engineer MixedByAli says Kendrick was like a “sponge” as he used the knowledge he learned in South Africa to help create the album.
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Elsewhere in the interview, the TDE rapper explains why a Prince feature on “Complexion,” making Prince and Raspody the only two on the record, didn’t happen.
“Prince heard the record, loved the record and the concept of the record got us to talking,” Dot says. “We got to a point where we were just talking in the studio and the more time that passed we realized we weren’t recording anything. We just ran out of time, it’s as simple as that.”
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