Kendrick Lamar’s “HUMBLE” beat was almost blessed by Gucci Mane before producer Mike Will Made-It gave it to the current king of Hip-Hop to spaz out over. In an interview with NPR, Mike Will Made-It revealed,
“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.'”
Mike Will pulled off a huge coup as he snagged the first two singles from Kendrick’s fourth opus DAMN. with “DNA” and HUMBLE.”
Speaking of the creation of DNA, the platinum super-producer added,
“With “DNA.,” he went the whole way [through] and then he just started rapping a cappella. He said, ‘I just want to see if you can put some drums around this.’ I said, ‘Man, hell yeah.’ But he was going so hard; that man was rapping so crazy. Just imagine him a cappella rapping the second half of “DNA.” and I had to build a beat around that. I didn’t want the beat to just sound like a regular boom-clap, boom-clap. I wanted that s*** to sound just as crazy. I wanted it to sound like he’s battling the beat.”
Check out the complete interview here.
