“Life Is Like A Box Of Chicken.”
That was the original title of what ultimately became Kendrick Lamar‘s DAMN. closer, “DUCKWORTH.”
9th Wonder, along with Young Guru, sat down with Rap Radar for their latest podcast, where they spoke on a variety of topics: Rapsody (and the subsequent GRAMMY nods), JAY-Z‘s discography, and much more. But a key moment is when 9th touches on how “DUCKWORTH” came together, six years after Kendrick expressed his desire to work with the producer via Twitter.
“It was a crazy day in Los Angeles,” 9th says. “At 1:00pm that day we went to see Snoop. At 6:00pm that day we went to Dre’s studio to see Dre. We saw Kendrick at like 11:00pm and I’m like, ‘that’s the West Coast,’” After playing and leaving 20 beats for him, 9th received a text message from Kendrick in June 2016 containing a brief snippet of what would be the song.
Later, Top Dawg Entertainment executive Dave Free would hit 9th asking for sample information for three of the beats, which led 9th to believe that he may end up with three songs on the project. Which he did… technically.
