Producer Mike Will reveals some of his DAMN. secrets.

Mike Will Made It reveals some interesting facts about working on Kendrick Lamar’s new album DAMN., including that he originally made the ‘HUMBLE.’ beat for Gucci Mane, in an interview with NPR.

The star producer said the beat was originally inspired by Gucci Mane, whose release from prison was imminent at the time.

“With ‘HUMBLE.,’ I knew that beat was going to capture a moment. It just felt real urgent. I made that beat when Gucci Mane was getting out of jail; I made it with him in mind,” he explains. “I was just thinking, damn, Gucci’s about to come home; it’s got to be something urgent that’s just going to take over the radio.”

Later he played the track for Lamar who nearly recorded it for Mike Will’s recent mixtape Ransom 2, before considering using it for DAMN. instead. The producer was more than happy to give up the track saying, “Bruh, you definitely should keep it, and you should use it as your single.”

He also touches on the other tracks he producer for the album, ‘DNA’ (“Dot went hard on that shit.”) and ‘XXX’ (“That was Dot’s vision”). The latter had many scratching their heads over U2’s involvement, something Will himself admitted.

“I kept trying to imagine U2 on the first half of that beat, cause at first that was the only part to the song. And I was like, ‘Dang, he put U2 on that?’ I couldn’t figure out what that would sound like,” explained Will, who notes that he’s a fan of U2. “But when he let me hear the whole thing with the different sections, it came out dope.”

Read the full interview here and watch the video for ‘DNA’ below.