

But Dahi was a different thing. He comes from a different approach; like, this motherfucker is the fastest guy with ideas and drums. I’ve never worked with anybody in my life that was as fast and perfect as Dahi. I’m talking about every idea — experimental. Every idea — new. I’m talking about every six minutes he’s like, “Hear this, hear this. Hear that. Hear that.” I’m on the bridge of my song. I’m tryna figure out the bridge [laughs]. And I’m tryna figure out the bridge on week three of the song! And there Dahi is, feeding me all these drums. Then Sounwave listens to it, and Sounwave knows how to make songs out of everything, you know, so he’s like the cherry on top. It was beautiful. Kendrick came with the melodies, man. We was just having a ball in the studio. It felt fun.

I spent a long time on that sample. That particular sample has been through the ringer: from TopBox to VoCoder — we was really loving that sample way before we finally said let’s do something with that. “LOYALTY.,” which we recorded over a few days, was done with a different impulse than the last couple of records. DAMN. feels like now — it gets into your heart, but it feels like the future, man. You know? I feel like it’s the future because it’s incorporating a lot of other influences. Mike Will killed “DNA.” and “HUMBLE.” You feel me? You got all these different tracks from different influences, but nothing on the album sounds like anything else.

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We went back to Section.80 and started there. We went back to the essence, man. Samples, drums, just a little vibe, and just Kendrick rapping and writing. And he’s rapping his ass off. He’s writing some of the most prolific beautiful songs in the world today. You know, he’s writing songs that are gonna be in history books that are touching people but still with a high skill level being an MC over his power of music. That’s the real shit. ‘Cause he ain’t and we ain't giving up no time soon.

When “LOYALTY” was done, I looked at Dahi and Sounwave, and told them that I was happy that we were all a part of a composition. I was just happy that we all saw that seed grow. The best feeling is when you’re next to your brothers and you listen to a record, and everybody got they eyes closed, and everybody kind of look at each other on their own time, and everybody’s in the zone. The vibe in the studio was serious but fun. We tryna change shit. Like, let’s not do nothing we did. Let’s just go back to the essence. Let’s go back to the first point of direction, which was drum machines, boom-bap samples, and 808s. Let’s go back to the point of direction and find a new way.