Kendrick Lamar was the fourth rapper to hear 9th Wonder’s beats

Three other “rappers-everybody-knows rappers” had checked out the Duckworth beats before Lamar. None of them used it

In an interview with Complex and via a Twitter post last week (15 April), 9th Wonder revealed that before showing Lamar a series of beats – which the rapper later used for Duckworth – he had shown it to three different rappers.

He says, “And these aren’t three different everyday rappers. These are three different rappers rappers—rappers-everybody-knows rappers.”

He continues, “I played him like 15 beats in the studio one night.”

After months with no communication from the iconic rapper, the Kung Fu Kenny texted back. “Out of the blue last summer, he sent me a text of just a short video of him playing part of the song that you now hear as Duckworth. I knew the beat was mine. I heard the words, and I was like, ‘What’s this?’ He just put back, ‘LOL.'”

Three of the beats have been fused into the one track Duckworth, which features as the final track on Lamar’s highly-anticipated DAMN. Read up on its eight talking points here.