Robert Glasper Says Kendrick Lamar Made Him Play Nine ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’ Songs In One Sitting

Jazz musician and producer Robert Glasper stopped by the Uproxx offices to chop it up with Talib Kweli for the latest episode of People’s Party, dropping knowledge on working with Lauryn Hill, the hidden musicality of Mac Miller, and how Kendrick Lamar got him to work on so many songs on To Pimp A Butterfly. Check out the full episode above.

At the 38:25 mark, Robert reveals that initially, he was only supposed to work on one song (“For Free? (Interlude)”), but that upon hearing him play, Kendrick asked his engineer to queue up song after song, eventually making Glasper play on nine songs in one sitting. Glasper also reveals that the piano solo on “These Walls” wasn’t planned either. Instead, it turns out that Terrace Martin, the multi-instrumentalist who first plugged him in with Kendrick, was recording Glasper’s warmup, and “they ended up cutting my warmup into the song and using it as a solo.” He also admits “I didn’t hear it until the world heard it.” The result netted him his third Grammy.

Robert Glasper recently released his mixtape F*ck Yo Feelings with features from Andra Day, Buddy, Denzel Curry, Herbie Hancock, Mick Jenkins, Rapsody, SiR, Terrace Martin, Yasiin Bey, and YBN Cordae.

People’s Party is a weekly interview show hosted by Talib Kweli with big-name guests exploring hip-hop, culture, and politics. You can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and/or Uproxx Video on Youtube.

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