“Keep a horn on me, that Kamasi,” Kendrick Lamar raps on his hit single, “Squabble Up,” a bar that was actually first teased in the music video for “Not Like Us.” It was one of those bars that Kendrick damn-near treated like a throwaway in how he delivered it, but it just stuck, like one of those quotable lyrics that loop in your brain.
During a recent interview on Go With Elmo Lovano, Kamasi Washington, who has won Grammys for his work on GNX, explained that he was caught by surprise by the shout-out. “It was surreal, man,” he explained. “It was weird. It was one of those moments when life is life-ing, and I started getting all these texts. Like ‘Aw man, congrats, man. That’s real cool, man.’”
Washington explained that it was early in the morning, so he wasn’t entirely sure what exactly Kendrick did to warrant the influx of messages. “I kind of integrated into the world and then like, ‘Oh, he dropped the video,’” he recalled, saying that he wasn’t really “outside” or up to speed on everything else that was happening. “Obviously, when that dropped, it was such a monumental thing that, like, people were texting me as if I knew what they were talking about. I didn’t know… They probably assumed I knew beforehand. I didn’t know. So yeah, it was trippy. I was thankful, man.”
He added, “That was a beautiful surprise to get like that. I have so much respect and admiration for Kendrick.”
Kendrick Lamar’s Kamasi Washington Shout Out
He and Kendrick Lamar’s work dates back to To Pimp A Butterfly, but Kamasi Washington left his imprint on the biggest song off of GNX, “luther" and "tv off."
Kamasi Washington also shared some insight into the creative process behind how he contributed to GNX, and his reaction to the Super Bowl performance. Check out the full clip above and sound off in the comments with your favorite lyric from Kendrick’s GNX.
