Nov 12, 2015 Hey, I'm a musician in a rock band who recently (1-2 years) got into hip hop, and I got very curious about the process behind making an hip hop album. Particularly the complex ones, such as Kendrick's 'To p---- a Butterfly'. In rock the process is usually quite straightforward - Songwriter writes songs, plays it to bandmates, they rehearse and come up with an arrangement and their parts (sometimes with a producer), than record it, sometimes adding more parts in the studio. However, I don't quite see the hip hip equivalent. TPAB is such a complex album, with so many precise musical moments, I'm just wondering who's the mastermind here. (I'm using TPAB as an example but it really applies to any album that's more than rap+beat). I assume it begins with Kendrick writing at home. Does he only writes lyrics? Does he come up with melodies, arrangement ideas as well? There's could be 10 writers for each song, 'Blacker the Berry' has 8 writers and 3 producers... how does it work? Kendrick writes the basic and a lot of people cowrite? I thought that's those are his personal lyrics... Each song is produced by someone else - who decides who does which song? based on what? How is it even possible to have like 20 different producers on a record and still make it sound consistent? Who's putting everything together? Some songs have a live band, some are programmed, who decides who does what? The live band ever rehearse the song with Kendrick? or just record in the studio? Who comes up with the musical ideas? such as the transposition in the King Kunta verses? The breaks? Who has the final word on how the song is mixed? I'm honestly curious. I love this record but have no idea how it was made. How big was Kendrick's role in all this? A lot of this is attributed to his personal genius, while in reality there's dozens of producers, writers and players working here. What's the process in creating an album with so many people? who does what? I'll appreciate any answers/relevant links. Thanks a lot.
Nov 12, 2015 Welcome to the forum! I'm not an expert on this, there probably are a few on the forum. Perhaps in the Creative section. When it comes to Kendrick's lyrics, he does have a lot of people credited as writers for this song. But a lot of them are the singers from samples he used (e.g Tupac on Mortal Man). But I'm pretty sure Kendrick would write his verses and would have some assistance on the hooks. For the production I'm not sure. But Dr Dre, Top Dawg and Dave Free are the executive producers and probably would have the final say. I'm not sure if it was done on this album but some producers don't even hit the studio with the artists and just send them a beat they made at home.
Nov 12, 2015 Your First post is long as f--- I imagine they bounce ideas and lines off of each other to make it flow nicely into another bar. Or King Kendrick is a fraud
Nov 12, 2015 You get together with a group of really talented people, lock yourselves away for 2 years, make up to 50 songs the best you can, cut it down and release it.
Nov 12, 2015 Kendrick is the mastermind. He is the conductor. Some other projects with a ton of people to check out... 1. Dr. Dre- Compton 2. Kanye West- Yeezus Every process is different.
Nov 12, 2015 You record a bunch of songs. You find a direction and begin writing in that direction/message you want to convey to your artist. if you want it to be a concept you usually structure it out so it has a concept.
Nov 12, 2015 Welcome to the forum. Quality post. The wiki should contain what you're looking for. A lot of people never think to look in such an obvious place.
Nov 16, 2015 Hmm, thanks I guess...? The wiki was a good read but still not really detailed enough. Nobody from the sessions came out with stories about how the album was made? Like Wesley's Theory, I knew that's a Flying Lotus beat. But apparently Thundercat - who's all over the track - was added later. So basically all FL contributed was the drum beat? What about the strings, the breaks (claps after 'my first girlfriend'), the backing to Dre parts, the bass soloing, the backing vocals all over it, there's so much going on in this song - who came up with that? Kendrick? Flying Lotus? collective effort?
Dec 28, 2015 I think the idea is to work hand in hand with your producers & other artists... found this article: Sounwave Details the Making of Kendrick Lamar’s Landmark ‘To p---- a Butterfly’ http://www.spin.com/2015/04/sounwave-interview-kendrick-lamar-to-p-----a-butterfly/ It's worth noting that Kamasi Washington & Bilal helped in the jazz & soul composition...but later in the making process. Kamasi also said that kendrick allowed him to do his own thing on the album. He said listening to the demo of TPAB was the most beautiful thing he had ever heard but he was afraid that his ideas would be muted by Kendrick and his team. Instead of that they let him arrange strings & playing saxophone in a way to make the sound more jazzy & complex and similar to the jazz records from the 60s.
Dec 28, 2015 This further feeds into my suspicion that tpab is heavily inspired by kanye's creative approach to yeezus!
Dec 28, 2015 Also Bilal said that kendrick was singing the melodies of the beats, he was telling them exactly what he wanted the songs to sound like. I can't find the original article but I found another interesting one (for Bilal's contribution): The creative process: A lot of this is Kendrick's genius. He kept speaking about having a big sound, aParliament type of thing. And I'm all about that because George Clinton is my favorite artist. For a lot of the material, Kendrick had a sketch idea of what he wanted. He would sing out the melody and some of the words, and I would just interpret what he was telling me. On the songs where I added backing vocals, some of it was freestyle; just adding color to make it a fuller sound. Why Butterfly resonates: It's a different style than what's going on. Kendrick brings musicians to light on this project, letting Thundercat, Terrace and the others stretch out. That's very good for music as he marries a lot of sounds together. Message-wise, he's really no-holds-barred about what he says. As far as he was willing to dig musically, he also did that lyrically: just going totally against the grain. It's thought-provoking -- and I miss that in music. http://www.billboard.com/articles/c...ck-lamar-bilal-to-p-----a-butterfly-interview
Dec 28, 2015 yeah, I read that in another terrace martin interview, he said that Kendrick and his team were working on the colors instead of the "sound"... this is exactly what Kanye said during an interview with sway, he said that when he listens to music, when he makes music, he sees colors and he tries to develop this idea/concept.
Dec 28, 2015 You should view how Michael Jackson made his albums. Apparently he would make a song but with a ton of different versions and dwindle it down to the EXACTLY what he wanted the beat to do or sound. A perfectionist if you will. But otherwise basically they'd come up with a thought process, a message they want to convey and write. Could be influenced from stories or experiences in life which usually occurs. You hear artists go on trips to places in the world and it helps them to open up or to write about different experiences. One thing is for certain, it's not rushed and well thought out. But experimentation and being open to different sounds help. This is why Dr. Dre's sound is so good, he doesn't just listen to hip-hop that's one dimensional. He listens to a different blend of genre's to see what works and what doesn't.
