Kendrick Lamar's Engineer Reveals The "Amazing" Process Behind Drake Disses

BYGabriel Bras Nevares16.1K Views
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Kendrick Lamar music video shoot for "Not Like Us"
Watts, CA - June 22: Kendrick Lamar smiles alongside Jay Rock, center, in between filming for the the music video for "Not Like Us" at Nickerson Gardens on Saturday, June 22, 2024 in Watts, CA. (Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Unsurprisingly, the turnaround time for Kendrick Lamar's tracks was almost non-existent, and Nicolas de Porcel loved the high pressure.

The world still hasn't gotten enough of the Kendrick Lamar and Drake beef, as there are still plenty of unanswered questions to ponder over. Moreover, one aspect of the battle that people would love to learn more about is the actual recording process behind these songs, as they came out so quick and with a lot of big names attached in the studio. Thanks to engineer Nicolas de Parcel, K.Dot's mastering engineer for his disses, we now have more of an idea of how it all went down. He spoke to EngineEars (founded by Kendrick collaborator MixedByAli) and revealed how simultaneously intense but also exciting these sessions were.

"It was a little crazy," Nicolas de Parcel recalled about mastering Kendrick Lamar's tracks against Drake. "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."

Kendrick Lamar's Engineer Speaks On Intense Mastering Process For Drake Diss Tracks

Specifically, the Kendrick Lamar tracks that Nicolas de Parcel engineered (per the credits) are "Euphoria," "Meet The Grahams," and "Not Like Us," the three individual disses that he released on streaming services. "6:16 In LA" only came out via Instagram, but it stands to reason that he could've contributed to that as well. Nevertheless, de Parcel has also worked with Pharrell, Killer Mike, André 3000, Future, 21 Savage, and many more hip-hop titans. So the resume certainly speaks for itself, but this historic moment is probably something that no studio wizard would soon forget even with such a lauded career under their belt.

Meanwhile, fans eagerly await what's next, and most of them hope that Kendrick Lamar and Drake just continue to drop great music for themselves and not for anyone else. With the battle behind them, it's time for them to move on and drop more amazing material, with both MCs supposedly dropping albums this year. That's just speculation, but we know that they're on a creative hot streak right now. Will they live up to the moment with incredible hip-hop that doesn't have to go at each other's necks or is "Wah Gwan Delilah" indicative of the complacency they will chase moving forward? We shall see...

About The Author
Gabriel Bras Nevares is a music and pop culture news writer for HotNewHipHop. He started in 2022 as a weekend writer and, since joining the team full-time, has developed a strong knowledge in hip-hop news and releases. Whether it’s regular coverage or occasional interviews and album reviews, he continues to search for the most relevant news for his audience and find the best new releases in the genre. What excites him the most is finding pop culture stories of interest, as well as a deeper passion for the art form of hip-hop and its contemporary output. Specifically, Gabriel enjoys the fringes of rap music: the experimental, boundary-pushing, and raw alternatives to the mainstream sound. As a proud native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, he also stays up-to-date with the archipelago’s local scene and its biggest musical exponents in reggaetón, salsa, indie, and beyond. Before working at HotNewHipHop, Gabriel produced multiple short documentaries, artist interviews, venue spotlights, and audio podcasts on a variety of genres and musical figures. Hardcore punk and Go-go music defined much of his coverage during his time at the George Washington University in D.C. His favorite hip-hop artists working today are Tyler, The Creator, Boldy James, JPEGMAFIA, and Earl Sweatshirt.
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