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Kendrick Lamar · S6 E3
DNA.
Two beats, one song. Mike WiLL Made-It's production slams like a car crash at the halfway mark
Halfway through DNA., the beat changes without warning. Mike WiLL Made-It's drums hit like a car crash and Kendrick starts rapping like he's outrunning something.
Baby Keem ft. Kendrick Lamar, family ties (official music video, 2021). Kendrick's most ferocious guest verse in years, on a track produced by his cousin. The video, directed by Dave Free, captures the same unhinged energy as DNA.: two rappers pushing each other to rap harder, faster, and angrier than anyone else in the room.
family ties, Baby Keem ft. Kendrick Lamar (2021)
Baby Keem, Kendrick's cousin, opens the track with his own section before Kendrick enters and detonates. The beat shifts when Kendrick arrives, mirroring the exact trick Mike WiLL Made-It used on DNA.: a controlled first half giving way to pure aggression. Listen for how Kendrick's cadence accelerates across his verse until the words are barely separable. The family connection isn't just a credit. It's the entire point.
Sources
Baby Keem. "The Melodic Blue." pgLang / Columbia, 2021.
The Switch
DNA. was the first song most listeners heard after the BLOOD. gunshot. Mike WiLL Made-It built two completely different beats for it: the first half is tense and coiled, Kendrick listing his heritage over a restrained groove. Then everything detonates. The second beat is louder, faster, and meaner, and Kendrick matches it bar for bar.
Sources
Kendrick Lamar. "DAMN." Top Dawg Entertainment / Aftermath / Interscope, 2017.
“We had two different ideas and Kendrick said, 'Why not both?' So we cut it right down the middle. No transition, no warning. Just a straight drop.”
— Mike WiLL Made-It on producing DNA., interview, 2017
TAP TO REVEAL: Who interrogates Kendrick in the DNA. music video?
Who produced the beat (and the famous beat switch) on DNA.?
XXX., Kendrick Lamar ft. U2 (2017)
DAMN.'s most politically charged track. A friend's child is killed by gun violence and Kendrick's first instinct is revenge, not prayer. The production splits in half, just like DNA.: grimy chaos gives way to a U2-produced anthem. Where DNA. channels aggression into identity, XXX. channels it into the moral contradictions of American violence.
XXX., Kendrick Lamar ft. U2 (2017)
Read the lyrics while you listen. Kendrick tells the story in first person, admitting his gut reaction to a child's murder is the same violence he condemns. The U2 section in the second half reframes the personal tragedy as an American one. Watch for the line where Kendrick's hypocrisy becomes the entire point.
DNA.
DNA. proved Kendrick could still hit harder than anyone. Now he needs to prove something else: that the hardest rapper alive can make the simplest, most undeniable hit of his career with just two words. Next: HUMBLE.
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