Mike WiLL Made-It delivered the first two singles of Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. album. But what if he told you that he produced “HUMBLE” with Gucci Mane in mind?
In an interview with NPR’s Rodney Carmichael, Mike WiLL broke down how each of his three beats, “HUMBLE,” “DNA” and “XXX” featuring U2 came to be.
For “XXX,” didn’t know what to expect. He says that both he and Kendrick have both met and lunched with Bono before through their relationships with Jimmy Iovine, but nothing came out of either meeting until now. For “DNA” he says Kendrick already had the song written and asked him to create “chaos” around his vocals. With “HUMBLE,” he says that he made the beat last year around the time his frequent collaborator Gucci Mane was getting out of jail.
Per NPR:
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.’
Crazy to think that the biggest song of Kendrick Lamar’s career so far almost wound up on Mike WiLL’s compilation album.
Read the rest of the interview here.
