(AllHipHop News) Nipsey Hussle is in album mode. His debut studio LP Victory Lap is set to arrive on February 16, and the California spitter spoke with Beats 1 Radio’s Zane Lowe about the project.
In particular, Nipsey was asked about working with Kendrick Lamar for the “Dedication” single. He recalled how the collaboration came togther.
Nip stated:
Truthfully, I sent him a record that’s on the album also. It’s called “Keys 2 The City 2.” My original concept – just based on us both coming out of L.A. County, him being from Compton and me being Crenshaw and Slauson – I thought the concept of “Keys 2 The City 2” really hit a bull’s eye for Kendrick. One of my producers, by the name of Axel Foley, works with Kendrick real closely. He did “The Heart Part 4.” He just snuck the record to Kendrick. I told my whole team, send the one that I thought he should be on, and they just didn’t listen and they sent “Dedication.” I saw Kendrick at the Tupac [All Eyez On Me] movie premiere as he was parking. I just hopped out, “what’s up bro?” and shook his hand. He’s like, “Yeah, expect the record back pretty soon. I laid something to it.” I’m like, “Alright, bet. The “Keys 2 The City 2” record?” He’s like, “No, ‘Dedication’.” I’m like damn I ain’t even send that. But he sent it back and when I heard the verse I was really inspired. I felt like he killed it. He talked about something that happened the night of the Pac premiere. If you really listen to his verse, he’s talking about me, Snoop Dogg, Top Dawg, and himself. We really had a convo. We had a conversation about just L.A. streets and about how the time might be right right now for us to really try to use our influence to evolve how we exist. From Bloods and Crips, just the tribalism that’s going on out there. We were just wondering. We just had an honest convo like, “What y’all think? Is it time for us to really start that narrative off?” And he speaks about that in his verse.