The one Kendrick Lamar song RZA loves: “He liked the rawness”
Kendrick Lamar has been a leading figure of hip-hop for such a long time now that it’s easy to forget that, once upon a time, he was just a young man with big aspirations. He wanted to emulate the successes of those who came before him, and, fairly swiftly, he started to catch the attention of the very best.
Back in the early days of his career, Kendrick worked with someone called DJ Fricktion, who lived in London. Fricktion was also a collaborator of Wu-Tang leader RZA, who, even at this early stage, took an instant interest in Kendrick’s sound. In fact, he liked Kendrick so much that he was willing to send him over a vocal recording that, should he want to, he could use in a song.
Although he isn’t credited for it, RZA’s voice appears on the Section.80 song ‘Ronald Reagan Era,’ which was quite the coup for Kendrick. Having never previously released an album before, getting RZA on board for his first was quite the statement. If nothing else it proved how serious an artist he already was.
As Kendrick explained to Complex in 2011, DJ Fricktion was crucial to making the collaboration happen. “My man DJ Fricktion overseas, he worked with RZA,” he said. “RZA liked my music, he liked the rawness and the feel of it.”
RZA had previously laid down a vocal, but nothing had ever come of it. Having listened to Kendrick, though, he felt like his little recording might suit the younger man’s thing. So, communicating through Fricktion, he offered it up.
“I been talking back with my dude DJ Fricktion,” Kendrick recalled, “and he said RZA was sitting on some vocals over there and that I could flip them motherfuckers. I’m like, ‘You’re telling me I could take some RZA vocals and I could flip ’em?’”
For a young artist still finding his feet, this was a remarkable offer—so Kendrick had to take it. “He gave me authorisation for that and I’m finna run with it,” he said. “I been sitting on this shit for a long time. I was just waiting on the right time to find the right record to put it over.”
The song that he felt worked best was ‘Ronald Reagan Era,’ which, as Kendrick explained, was neither simple nor over-the-top. “And I didn’t want nothing too plain, I just wanted something real subtle,” he said. “And that’s how I used it.”
RZA, apparently, was very happy with the end result. “It came out dope and I got his blessing,” Kendrick said proudly. “So it was ill. And my dude Dave Free told me that [RZA] loved the record.”