AUSTIN, TX – OCTOBER 01: Recording artist Kendrick Lamar performs on the Samsung Stage during day two at Austin City Limits Music Festival 2016 at Zilker Park on October 1, 2016 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Rick Kern/Getty Images for Samsung)

Kendrick Lamar nearly worked with Lil Wayne all the way back in 2008.

Kendrick Lamar nearly landed a star-studded collaboration with Lil Wayne years before the release of his breakthrough project, Section.80. While co-hosting The Bigger Picture for HipHopDX, DJ Hed revealed that Lamar originally performed a hook on Jay Rock’s 2008 song, “All My Life (In the Ghetto),” which features Lil Wayne. Instead, his part got switched out and replaced by will.i.am, who did his own hook on the track.

“Fun fact about this record: K. Dot was originally on this hook, and I actually have that record. But it can never see the light of day,” he said. “He was doing a whole different hook. The song was called ‘Ghetto’ but it had a different hook on it that K. Dot did.” The song ended up on Rock’s project Follow Me Home three years later.

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Kendrick Lamar Films “Not Like Us” In Los Angeles

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Watts, CA – June 22: Kendrick Lamar dances during the music video shoot for “Not Like Us” at Nickerson Gardens on Saturday, June 22, 2024, in Watts, CA. (Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

From there, Hed explained that Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith felt Wayne’s verse was too long and decided to rearrange the song. “I probably shouldn’t say this but when Jay Rock did this record, Wayne gave them this long-ass verse and they cut it up,” Hed said. “Wayne was doing that at the time. Glasses Malone had a song called ‘Haterz’ and he did the same thing, it was like a 32-bar verse. In this song, Top was actually brilliant — and shout out to will.i.am, too — in arranging the song to where Wayne [and Jay Rock], it sounded like they were going back and forth.” Both Lamar and Rock were signed with Top’s now-iconic imprint, TDE, at the time.

DJ Hed Speaks On Kendrick Lamar

Eventually, Lamar did end up collaborating with Wayne. He appears on his Tha Carter V track, “Mona Lisa.” Check out Hed’s full recollection of the story above. Be on the lookout for further updates on Kendrick Lamar on HotNewHipHop.