Mustard, the producer behind Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” is breaking down just how he produced one of the year’s biggest hits.
In case you missed it (or live under a rock), Kendrick’s “Not Like Us’ is a smash hit. The rapper’s final song in a string of diss tracks aimed at Drake, the song has smashed various streaming records, including becoming the fastest song to surpass 100 million streams. In a major feat, the song debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, earning the most coveted spot for a song on the Billboard charts.
In a recent interview with Billboard, producer Mustard gave viewers a peak behind the curtain on how the hit song came to be. The producer kicked off the segment by clearing up a rumor that he sampled the beat from Nas’ famous diss track “Ether.”
“One thing you may not know is I did not sample the “Ether” beat,” he explained, saying he “definitely” saw people saying that. “I didn’t sample a Nas song.”
Mustard was inspired, however, by Dr. Dre, saying that when he was making the beat he thought to himself, “What would Dr. Dre do if Lil Jon was in the studio and they were just clapping on the beat? That was my thought process.”
And how long did it take Mustard to craft the addicting beat? 30 minutes, he revealed to the outlet. Mustard also shared that he only heard the finished product of the song when the rest of the world did, as he was not in the studio with Lamar when he recorded it.
He explained, “I didn’t know he was gonna gas that beat like that.”
Check out Mustard’s full video interview with Billboard below: