Any stories of this? I think I read somewhere Kendrick will already have songs ready and just waiting on the right sounds to match his lyrics/ideas

I know he wrote the hook to God without a beat and they tried it on different beats to find the right fit.

2nd half of DNA beat was made around the lyrics

Any other examples? Or even other artist? I know Eminem sometimes writes to no beat, same with Nas (which Ken could of learned from)

KanYe wrote Mommas Boyfriend to no beat and had producers create a beat around it

Source or link for Kendrick writing God with no beat?

Travis wrote Astrothunder to a different beat.

The Weeknd wrote a Starboy verse, Low Life verse/bridge, on a diffetent beat.

The f*** this got to do with anything

🤣🤣🤣

Read OP dumbass, he said "other artists?"

Edit: really thought you had one

He said without a beat nit on a different beat.

spin.com/2017/04/dj-dahi-interview-damn-kendrick-lamar

DJ Dahi recalled the story of the song to Spin:

"You know, he'd been saying he was just saying that in the hook just walking around the studio for a long time: 'This what God feel like. Laughin' to the bank like a-ha.' He was doing it on different types of beats. So it was a matter of we just gotta make the beat that fits that record, you know? It was just kind of an idea he kept cookin' up. It was probably one of the last few records we were working on.

"without a beat" dumbass

What you think with Kenny? Sounds possible to me. Especially how they say he be having songs damn near ready to go just doesn’t have a beat and will spend the time picking the perfect sound to go with what he has.

Kinda sounds like he already has the direction (maybe even the song written) mapped out and makes the instrumental match him. Rather than how most rappers wait til they have an instrumental to figure out what they gonna do from there

It’s crazy whenever you read about Kendrick’s process from albums to videos to individual tracks most of his collaborators say he already has everything planned out. It’s almost like a mad scientist. I would love to one day see him in that creative space.

The making a song without a beat is pretty common for other genres I think but in rap it’s definitely rare to see.

So it’s not far fetch to believe he has a lot of the lyrics planned out/written before any beat?

I know in other genres most writers will write with a piano or guitar. I guess with rap it’s rare because flows and being in pocket is such a big thing

But I read somewhere that if you’re truly a great rapper you are naturally rhythmic and have an “internal metronome” meaning you can formulate flows and dope lyrics and have it all be in pocket without a beat playing.

I kinda picture that from Kendrick. It’s like he hears the entire thing in his head first then creates it second.

Wesley’s Theory

Or it was some track off TPAB probably not wesley’s theory

It’s in the kixedbyali interview where he talks about mixing the album

@Choose_a_username nvm he didn’t write it without a beat

but wesley’s theory originally had a different beat, and then they made a new one from scratch building the beat around his vocals

“ he had started with doing a vocal to a beat by DJ Quik. Sounwave then later created a new beat to match Kendrick’s vocals.”

I think jay, nas and wayne do this a lot

Kendrick has talked in interviews before about getting ideas and writing bars down on whatever he can if he doesn’t have paper on him. Similar to what Eminem does.

It’s not far fetched to assume he has song ideas in his head or maybe even a hook and he searches for a beat to match the vibe.

Eminem wrote forgot about Dre and brought it Dre like that. Dre then did the beat

My Name Is was written before hand too

Ye during LR and MBDTF session also

Def not far fetched. The best musicians have said Kendrick is very hands on in production as well. He probably has some or most of the song done and also an idea how he wants the beat to sound.

That’s pretty insane. Both on em and Dre’s part because they beat fits perfectly.

Tbh i think any artist with that type of prod is very hands on bout the product/sound

Em wrote it to the Jigga what beat tho

Where did u see that? I remember seeing Em mention this in a couple different interviews