S. Samuel
Just over a week after the new "Don't Kill My Vibe" remix premiered at South By Southwest, footage of West Coast rapper Kendrick Lamar's initial shocked reaction to hearing Jay-Z's verse has popped up.
In the footage, Lamar is surrounded by his entourage in a studio and cannot hide his emotions once he hears how Young Hov throws it down on his good kid, m.A.A.d city anthem.
During a studio session in NYC with his entire TDE crew–including Jay Rock, ScHoolboy Q and Ab-Soul–Kendrick’s team set him up by telling them that they’d just ‘changed up some music on the second verse.’ As Jay begins to spit his first lines, it takes Kendrick a second to register what’s going on, and a hint of a smile remains on his face as he listens to the verse with laser attention. When it’s over, the reaction was almost immediate: “Damnnn, [he] bodied that sh—. Dammnn, that’s grimey.” (RapFix)
A few days ago, Lamar dished out how the seemingly overnight collaboration came together.
“You really can’t prepare,” Lamar said in an interview when asked how did he prepare for sharing microphone time with Jay-Z. “Jay-Z just came and just humbled the whole record. You just gotta go for what you know. … I been hearing through the air, through [his longtime friend] Tata, Tata told me they liked the album — we just reached out through mutual business partners, mutual business friends. Big John really set it up, a cat by the name of Big John — really just reached out to Jay and Jay gave it a go. … Jay laid his joint [verse] and set the whole tone. He just humbled it all the way down, man. The stuff he was saying on there was incredible and it inspired me to just go in and do what I do, to the best of my abilities.” (“In Flex We Trust”)
The record’s edited and uncensored versions officially premiered online Monday (March 18).
During South by Southwest, news broke of a new remix of Kendrick Lamar’s “Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe” featuring Jay-Z. Today, In Flex We Trust brings us to the “FINAL CDQ Version,” and along with it comes a new title, “Kill My Vibe”, and a whole lot of radio edits (ahem, “Trick don’t kill my vibe”). At least Jay-Z sounds a whole lot more interested than he did on his last round of bars. Take a listen at In Flex We Trust. Update: Phew, the explicit version is here. Also, the artwork gets a *thumbs up*. (Consequence of Sound)
Last week, Lamar kept close-lipped when asked about the unexpected joint effort.
“Ah, man, I can’t really speak too much on it, I just know it’s in the air right now,” Kendrick told MTV News, laughing. “I can’t — it’s under wraps,” he said when asked about the remix’s origins. It’s all love. That’s the big homey. It’s one of them things, you know, you live up to and one of them moments to really challenge yourself and say ‘OK, that’s how I come in. Always looked up to the greats to be a great.’ So to actually be on a track with him, it’s an accomplishment.” (MTV)
Check out Kendrick Lamar’s reaction:
