Trending on Billboard
Top Dawg Entertainment president Terrence “Punch” Henderson recalled a conversation with Jay-Z ahead of Kendrick Lamar releasing To Pimp a Butterfly in 2015.
Punch joined Elsie Not Elise for an interview Monday (Oct. 20), during which he opened up about the convo while seeing Hov at a studio session for Beyoncé that SZA was writing in.
“While we were working on To Pimp a Butterfly, me and SZA would go to Beyoncé’s sessions, and she was writing for her. Jay-Z was there every night,” the executive said. “So, I had a chance to talk to him and I told him, ‘Yo, we getting ready to drop this album that’s going to piss off the whole fanbase.’”
At the time, Punch believed the Grammy-winning project could turn off Lamar’s fans, as he thought it was a sharp creative pivot from 2012’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City.
To his surprise, Jay-Z gave his stamp of approval. “His response was, ‘Good, do it now, so they can’t never put you in the box.’ And that stuck with me, for sure,” Punch continued. “It gave me more confidence, like, ‘Yeah, we on the right track, for sure.’ That’s always the thing is, rules are set, the geniuses know when to break those rules.”
To Pimp a Butterfly, which arrived in March 2015, was a massive commercial and critical success on the back of standouts such as the politically charged “Alright,” “King Kunta,” “The Blacker the Berry” and “I.”
The set topped the Billboard 200 with 324,000 album units earned. Dr. Dre served as an executive producer while Thundercat, George Clinton, Bilal, Anna Wise, Snoop Dogg, James Fauntleroy, Ronald Isley and Rapsody made guest appearances.
Watch the interview below. Punch recalls speaking with Jay around the 21-minute mark.
