2012 is arguably the most important year in Kendrick Lamar's career. He had just signed to Dr Dre's Aftermath/Interscope Records and was gearing up to release his major label debut in good kid, m.A.A.d city. Of course, we all know it's one of the best rap albums of all time.
But before it came out, Kendrick and everyone responsible for pushing it out to the masses were torn on what song to lead with. It's understandable that serious conversations were being had, especially because Lamar was really gaining a lot of momentum.
In a video from Justin Hunte, aka The Company Man, he spoke with DJ Mormile about this. He was in charge of A&R and urban music over at Interscope during this time. He is now the EVP of West Coast at Def Jam.
During their past chat, Mormile reveals that "The Recipe" and "Swimming Pools (Drank)" were the songs they were deciding between to fill that role. The former wound up becoming the lead single and it gained a lot of buzz amongst fans for its prideful representation of Los Angeles.
The lyric video boasts over 120 million views at the time of writing and for years, fans have been waiting on an actual visual. Folks thought it was going to drop after ScHoolboy Q shared some behind-the-scenes shots from the video shoot.
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Kendrick Lamar & Dr Dre Collabs
However, up until now, it's been a mystery as to why it didn't materialize. DJ Mormile tells Hunte the wild reason around the nine-minute mark why it's still the case.
Ultimately, Mormile and a few others actually wanted "Drank" to be lead single. But because he had so much faith in Lamar despite not selling any records for Interscope and they had to shoot a visual for "The Recipe" because it was the lead-off track, they made one just to get to the one for "Drank."
Hilariously, Mormile recalls telling another senior employee at the label back then, "'We are gonna lead with "The Recipe," even though I think it's the wrong song.'"
"'We're gonna shoot the video. It's probably gonna be very expensive. It's probably never gonna come out... But this is how we're gonna do it because this is how the process has to happen...'"
In the end, everything still worked and Kendrick did become the next rap superstar.
It still is a shame that "The Recipe" doesn't have the accompanying visual. But the song is still a classic and is tied to an all-time LP. It's not the only one him and Dr Dre have though. "Compton," which is also on the deluxe version is another. They also have a handful of collabs on Dre's Compton such as "Deep Water" and "Darkside/Gone."
The 3rd Verse Podcast with Stat Quo, DJ Mormille & Justin Hunte premieres on Wednesday December 10 on Youtube.
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