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Kendrick Lamar · S5 E1
After the Grammys
Macklemore texts an apology. Kendrick says nothing publicly, then goes to the studio
January 26, 2014, Staples Center. Kendrick Lamar sits in the audience as Macklemore & Ryan Lewis accept the Grammy for Best Rap Album, and the camera catches his face for half a second: nothing.
Flying Lotus, Never Catch Me ft. Kendrick Lamar (official music video, 2014). While the rap world debated whether Kendrick got robbed at the Grammys, he was already somewhere else entirely. Directed by Hiro Murai, this video follows two children who rise from their own funeral and dance through the streets. It's the first glimpse of where Kendrick's mind was headed: jazz-laced, death-haunted, completely untethered.
Never Catch Me, Flying Lotus ft. Kendrick Lamar (2014)
Flying Lotus builds the track on cascading jazz piano, thundering drums, and bass that pulses like a heartbeat. Kendrick raps about outrunning death and legacy, his flow shifting mid-verse from locked-in precision to loose, almost conversational runs. Listen for how the beat drops out completely before his second verse: silence, then re-entry. That structural trick, tension through absence, would become a signature on To Pimp a Butterfly.
Sources
Flying Lotus. "You're Dead!" Warp Records, 2014.
The Verse That Changed Everything
Five months before the Grammys, in August 2013, Kendrick had already declared war. His guest verse on Big Sean's "Control" named eleven rappers he intended to bury lyrically: J. Cole, Drake, A$AP Rocky, Meek Mill, and seven others. Over twenty response tracks dropped within days. Kendrick never acknowledged a single one.
Sources
Big Sean. "Control" ft. Kendrick Lamar & Jay Electronica. Hall of Fame, 2013.
Complex, "A Complete History of Kendrick Lamar's 'Control' Fallout," August 2013
In his infamous 2013 "Control" verse, how many fellow rappers did Kendrick call out by name?
“He called me and said, 'I don't want to rap over loops. I want real instruments, jazz, funk. I want it to feel alive.'”
— Terrace Martin on Kendrick Lamar starting the TPAB sessions, Revolt TV, 2015
TAP TO REVEAL: Kendrick doesn't appear in the "Never Catch Me" video at all. So what is it about?
Institutionalized, Kendrick Lamar ft. Bilal, Anna Wise & Snoop Dogg (2015)
The fourth track on To Pimp a Butterfly. Kendrick takes his friends to the BET Awards and watches them pocket the silverware. It's a song about what happens when the kid from Compton makes it but his world doesn't change with him. Snoop Dogg's calm outro contrasts with the chaos of the story.
Institutionalized, Kendrick Lamar ft. Bilal, Anna Wise & Snoop Dogg (2015)
Read the lyrics while you listen. Notice how Kendrick switches between his own voice and his friend's perspective, blurring the line between narrator and subject. The line about pocketing the silverware isn't a punchline. It's a moment of genuine heartbreak: the realization that leaving Compton doesn't mean Compton leaves you.
The Transition: By the Numbers
Kendrick has the anger and the ambition. Now he needs musicians who can match it. He picks up the phone and calls a saxophone player, a bassist, and a pianist who've been waiting their whole careers for this moment. Next: The Jazz Sessions.
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