THE defining characteristic of Kendrick Lamar’s ‘HUMBLE’ is its conflicted feelings about success.

The verses of the song feature Kendrick rapping about all his success – “Obama just paged me”. The chorus, in contrast, features the lines ‘bitch, sit down, be humble” over and over – Kendrick telling himself not to get ahead of himself. These conflicted feelings are also present in the sounds used on the track.

Produced by Mike Will Made It, ‘HUMBLE’ is largely based around Roland TR-808 drum machine sounds and a riff being played on the bassy lower notes of a grand piano. It sounds cheap, especially when compared to the luscious full sound of Kendrick’s previous album To Pimp A Butterfly. But listen closer.

A grand piano is, of course, an icon of high culture and success – you could buy a house for the cost of a top-shelf Steinway grand piano, the kind designed to sound good when accomplished pianists play Rachmaninoff. And yet, in Mike Will Made It and Kendrick’s hands, the high-culture piano is playing a down-low repetitive riff.

Similarly, the TR-808 drum machine was essentially seen as a cheap toy when it was originally released; in its commercial lifetime in the early 1980s, music shops could barely sell them. However, once hip-hop pioneers like Afrika Bambaataa discovered its futuristic sound, its booming bass drum sounds, and its ease of use, the TR-808 more or less became the drum machine sound of hip-hop.

As a result, second-hand TR-808s in good condition go for upwards of $5000 on eBay these days. If Mike Will Made It used an actual grand piano and an actual TR-808 for his track, these were not cheap sounds.