MC Eiht Speaks On Collaboration With Kendrick Lamar

West coast rap legend, MC Eiht recently spoke on how he ended up on Kendrick Lamar's "Good Kid, M.A.A.D City" album. He was featured on the M.A.A.D City track, and I have to say that that is one of the best songs on that whole album. The story telling, and creativity on the song is classic. For those that don't know him, he is from the early 90s, and he did some cool acting back in the days too...Menace 2 Society. It is great that Kendrick would get him on that album, it really gives Kendrick a good look in the eyes of fans of old school west coast rap. At 45, MC Eiht did a great job on the track.



Read up on how Kendrick Lamar got MC Eiht on "M.A.A.D City"



"Well, Kendrick’s the young generation. And I wasn’t really up on the young generation with Rap, because of the style and the direction they were headed—no realism in the music. So I wasn’t too keen on a lot of these newcomers. 

But, Kendrick reached out to me, through family members. So I thought from just that was respect. He coulda went and got anybody. C’mon, let’s face it, him being on Aftermath and affiliated with Dr. Dre, he coulda went and got Snoop, he coulda went and got Game or Quik or whoever. So, for him to come to me, I just felt [that respect]. 

When I talked to him about the direction of where he was trying to go with the song, and how he was saying his album was basically telling the story of his life in Compton, it was a perfect match. He was like, “When I thought about the song, and I thought about growing up in the city, the first thing people said was you need to get with Eiht. He’s a perfect storyteller. He ain’t never strayed off the path of realism in his records. He’s always represented Compton in that type of light.” So, we got in the studio, and he explained it to me, and then I just came up with my verse. And, it happened to be one of the best songs on his album. 

I appreciated that he came to me. ‘Cause, like I said, he coulda went anywhere but he came here. That was a significant stamp. Because, with him claiming Compton and saying I’m coming from Compton, people look at our type of music as [connected]. (hiphopdx.com)

It was a good look. It worked out good for both of us.