Kendrick Lamar‘s mastering engineer Nicolas de Porcel has detailed the intensive process that went into perfecting the Compton rapper’s Drake diss songs.
Speaking with EngineEars (which was founded by Kendrick’s former engineer MixedByAli), de Porcel said: “It was a little crazy. I got a call and it was like, ‘Stay on call, you’re gonna be working.’
“I would get the song and like six minutes would elapse and they’d be like, ‘How we looking?’ It was very high pressure. As Dot was releasing these records, it was like, I was turning in the masters [and] it would drop like 12 minutes later. It was amazing.”
Nicolas de Porcel has engineering credits on three of Kendrick’s four diss songs aimed at the 6 God: “Euphoria,” “Meet the Grahams” and “Not Like Us.”
He has also worked with many other Hip Hop heavyweights including Future, André 3000, 21 Savage, Pharrell and Killer Mike.
@engineears @MillionDollarSnare talks about what it was like to be apart of the @chamagnepapi and @KendrickLamar battle on EngineEars Live! Could you handle the pressure? Comment below! #AudioEngineering #AudioProduction #Mixing #Mastering #Instagram #DreamBig #EngineEars #KendrickLamar #Drake #MillionDollarSnare #EngineEarsLive #Community ♬ original sound – EngineEars
Kendrick Lamar has been keeping a low profile since releasing the video for the chart-topping “Not Like Us” and celebrating his perceived victory over Drake at his historic Pop Out concert in Inglewood.
While K. Dot has not yet commented on the outcome of the beef, many of his Hip Hop contemporaries have been offering their thoughts on the high-profile battle.
“I think that [the battle] was important, because these brothers are at the top of the game, and revered Hip Hop,” he said in an interview with Billboard following the release of his first album in 15 years, G.O.D’s Network – REB7RTH.
“You know, a lot of people in that position won’t accept no challenge, because they got too much to lose. So, it was dope that these brothers put the mainstream success down and said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’”
He added: “The battle put a lot of things in perspective — because it showed the difference between real Hip Hop and mainstream Hip Hop. Younger artists now know that there’s a difference. A lot of them didn’t even understand that.
“They just listened to the majority, not knowing that a lot of people don’t categorize what they were hearing as real Hip Hop. The battle was very needed for the genre. I tip my hat to them brothers.”
Fellow rap legend LL Cool J also recently discussed the beef and agreed with the consensus that Kendrick came out on top.
“Kendrick won the battle. I mean, come on. That’s obvious. That’s a no-brainer,” he told Hot 97’s TT Torrez. “And listen, I like Drake. I love his music, he’s a cool dude. We don’t know each other but I like his music. I’m happy for him and everything.”
He added: “But, you know, Kendrick… that might have been a bad choice.”
