Kendrick Lamar blew everyone away when he debuted a new track on the season finale of the The Stephen Colbert Report back in December. That was the song’s first and last performance and it upped the anticipation for his follow-up to his Grammy-nominated debut good kid, m.A.A.d city.
Producer Terrace Martin stopped by the NPR Microphone Check show and dished some details about the talked about performance. He revealed that the song was written the night before the performance because they “didn’t want to do nothing that’s already been done.”
“We came with that the day before at rehearsal,” said the LA native. “He didn’t want to do “i.” Let’s just, you know, fly out, New York. Let’s rehearse in New York and get that energy and do something a little different.”
The freshness of the untitled track caused Martin and fellow beatsmith Thundercat to forget the arrangement during the performance and have to freestyle their way through it.
Listen to his interview below.