Top Dawg Entertainment President Terrence “Punch” Henderson has shared a conversation with Jay-Z ahead of Kendrick Lamar releasing his “To Pimp a Butterfly” album in 2015. He recently recalled the eye-opening convo with Hov at a studio session for Beyoncé, and fans have been reacting.
Speaking during an interview with Elsie Not Elise, Punch said that he told Jay-Z about how Kendrick’s album was going to annoy his fans because it sounded like a sharp creative pivot from his “Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City” 2012 project.
“While we were working on To Pimp a Butterfly, me and SZA would go to Beyoncé’s sessions, and she was writing for her. Jay-Z was there every night.
So, I had a chance to talk to him and I told him, ‘Yo, we getting ready to drop this album that’s going to piss off the whole fanbase.'” he said.
The music executive stated that he was shocked when Jay-Z gave his stamp of approval, saying that it’ll send a message to Lamar’s fans that he cannot be boxed.
Punch concluded by saying that Hov’s response made him more confident that Kendrick’s rap career remained on the right track regardless of his bold creative decisions.
“His response was, ‘Good, do it now, so they can’t never put you in the box.’ And that stuck with me, for sure.
It gave me more confidence, like, ‘Yeah, we on the right track, for sure.’ That’s always the thing is, rules are set, the geniuses know when to break those rules,” he added.
“To Pimp a Butterfly,” which was released in March 2015, was a massive commercial and critical success on the back of standouts like the politically charged “Alright,” “King Kunta,” “The Blacker the Berry” and “I.”
The set topped the Billboard 200 with 324,000 album units earned.
Dr Dre served as an executive producer while Thundercat, George Clinton, Bilal, Anna Wise, Snoop Dogg, James Fauntleroy, Ronald Isley and Rapsody made guest appearances.
