Kendrick Lamar has shared that he felt like the anime character Goku from Dragon Ball Z while working on his song ‘Hey Now’.
In a new interview with the Recording Academy, American record producer and DJ Mustard – who is nominated for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical at this year’s Grammy Awards –who produced Lamar’s latest album ‘GNX’ opened up about the creatuon of the song and how the west coast rapper compared himself to the famous anime character while creating ‘Hey Now’.
NME previously described the track as “a fun track where the computerised percussion transports you to the hottest block party to show off your best C-walk”.
“I had heard “Hey Now” during the “Not Like Us” video shoot; he played me a snippet,” Mustard told the Recording Academy. “I asked him, ‘Man, what made you do that?’ And he said, ‘When I heard the beat, I just felt like Goku or something.’ I was like, ‘What?’ And he explained, ‘Yeah, when I hear certain shit on your beats, it brings out something else in me, so I just did whatever I felt.’ I was like, ‘Wow, that’s crazy.’”
Mustard had previously explained how the beat for ‘Hey Now’ was created and how it was passed to various musicians before it landed in the hands of Lamar.
“I was talking to Kendrick one day and I was just like, ‘Man, I got this really weird-ass beat, but I really love it. Like, I know that I love this beat,’” he told People. “And I sent it to him and right away he said, ‘Oh yeah, I got it.’ And I was like, ‘Alright.’ But still, I hadn’t heard it until I went to the ‘Not Like Us’ video shoot.”
In a glowing five-star review of ‘GNX’, NME shared: “Lamar channels what could be interpreted as hate and negativity into a teachable moment, leading you to draw upon the purest emotion known to man: love. In a year that started with so much venom, Kendrick Lamar shares the antidote on ‘GNX’.”
In other news, Lamar recently confirmed that SZA will be making an appearance during his Superbowl halftime show next week (February 9). The pair have announced a joint ‘Grand National’ North American stadium tour.
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