Producer 9th Wonder reveals that the outro to Kendrick Lamar’s “Damn” album
went by a different name at the beginning than “Duckworth.” The RapRadar podcast
sat down with 9th Wonder and fellow producer, Young Guru, where they revealed
a story of how 9th Wonder met Kendrick Lamar and the details of how “Duckworth
was produced.
“It was a crazy day in Los Angeles,” 9th recalls. “At 1 o’clock that day we went to see
Snoop Dogg. At 6 o’clock that day we went to Dr. Dre’s studio… We saw Kendrick at
like 11 o’clock, and I’m like, ‘That’s the West Coast.’” After providing Kendrick with
about 20 beats that day, 9th received a text message from Kendrick in June 2016
containing a brief snippet of what would eventually be “Duckworth.”
“Free hit me like, ‘Hey man, I need the samples for these two songs,” 9 th said. “I’m
like thinking, ‘Oh I got two beats that made it. Then he hit me back and said, ‘There’s
a third beat I need the sample information on. ‘ And I’m like, Oh, OK, I got three.’” 9 th
said he thought that the beats were for 3 different songs, but Dave Free clarified it
was just one: “He’s like, ‘Nah, it’s one song,’” 9th recalled. “He’s like, ‘Yeah man, it’s
the greatest story Kendrick ever told.’”
“The original name of the song was, ‘Life Is Like A Box of Chicken,’” 9th would say
around the 8:55 mark.
