Kendrick Lamar has been enjoying the pinnacle of his commercial successthus far as the first week numbers for his most recent album DAMN rolled out. Not only did that project sell north of 600,000 copies to become the single-week best-seller of 2017 so far, the record’s pre-release single “Humble” also shot up to the top of the charts to become K. Dot’s first-ever No. 1 hit. According to the song’s producer, Mike WiLL Made-It however, Kendrick very nearly missed out on the song.
“With ‘Humble,’ I knew that beat was going to capture a moment,” Mike told NPR. “It just felt real urgent. I made that beat [last year] when Gucci Mane was getting out of jail. I made it with him in mind. I was just thinking, damn, Gucci’s about to come home, it’s got to be something urgent that’s just going to take over the radio.”
For whatever reason, Mike kept the song and later let Kendrick test it out and he liked what he heard enough to throw down some vocals. The way the producer tells it though, the song was originally planned to make it onto his most recent project Ransom 2. “He was about to give me “Humble” for Ransom 2. I love that song so I was like, ‘Man, hell yeah.’ Then he told me that his team was saying he should keep it. And I told him, ‘Bruh, you definitely should keep it, and you should use it as your single.”
In a twist of fate, both Guwop and Kendrick ended up together on Ransom 2 anyway, throwing in a verse along with Rae Sremmurd on the song “Perfect Pint.” All’s well that ends well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQf12wkUbtk_
