Kendrick Lamar Explains First Linking With Dr. Dre

Kendrick Lamar says that Dr. Dre sought him out on the strength of his grind and talent.

Kendrick Lamar and Dr. Dre have been putting in work together in the studio, most recently releasing the collaborative single “The Recipe.” During an interview with Power 105’s The Breakfast Club, K. Dot explained how he initially linked with the Hip Hop veteran, stating that his buzz caught his attention.

“Man, after years of putting in work, I started doing shows, setting up shows in L.A. Came on this side, started setting up shows. It just finally caught the attention,” he said. “I was with Top Dawg Entertainment, independent company, for years. Just the grind and putting out tapes, he saw one of my YouTube videos, ‘Ignorance is Bliss.’ I was on the road with Tech N9ne at the time, with Jay Rock. He called the phone, called my engineer’s phone, said he was looking for us. We thought it was fake and whatnot.”

Kendrick said that he finally linked with the management the following week and hit the studio with Dre for a little over a week to knock out some cuts for Detox. Dre wanted to see if he had the talent to back up his music.

“Finally got in touch with management the next week and locked in the studio with him for eight, nine days. We were just banging out records for Detox, and he was like, man, you got the potential to really do something. The whole thing was, he wanted to get me in the studio and really catch a vibe. … He said the chemistry was there and he wanted to go all the way with it.”