After teasing the collaboration last month, Anderson .Paak and Kendrick Lamar join forces on the new single “Tints." The song debuted as Zane Lowe's World Record on Beats 1. Stream .Paak's latest, produced by himself and Om'Mas Keith, below:
In his interview with Zane Lowe, .Paak detailed the process of collaborating with Lamar. “He’s the most humble, selfless, amazing, focused young gentleman I’ve ever met," the rapper said. "Some people you can trust to just send it and they gonna send it back and it’s gonna be flames. I just knew that would be the case with him."
The two rappers have long been friends and mutual admirers. “I talk to Kendrick frequently, we text a lot," .Paak told Complex in 2016. "We met right after [Dr. Dre's]Compton came out, just sharing stories and different things from working with Dre. He's really cool and I met the whole camp—I work with Schoolboy Q a lot." 2015's Compton had three Lamar features and saw .Paak contribute to six songs.
Earlier this year, Lamar recruited .Paak on Black Panther: The Album to link up with Ab-Soul and James Blake for “Bloody Waters,” produced by Lamar, Sounwave, and Robin Hannibal.
"Tints" is the first official single .Paak’s upcoming Oxnard album, his first release under Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment. "I loved how the west coast growing up in Southern California we used to have a real sound and we just wanna bring that back," he told Lowe when discussing the forthcoming project. "That’s what the record feels like, sunshine, good weather, beautiful women, great food, at night you know the freaks."
Dre and .Paak finished mixing the new album last month. In addition to Lamar, it'll also feature Pusha-T and J. Cole. On Beats 1, .Paak called this project his "best work," largely thanks to the mentorship and help of Dr. Dre. "I’ve done it so many times but to do it with a producer of this calibre from top to bottom," he said. "It’s not like I did the album and he was like 'alright cool' - this dude was invested. I’m talking about nights, weeks, he was mixing, mastering, producing, writing, making the music he wanted to do and putting everything into it."
On Oct. 31, Anderson .Paak will join Chance the Rapper, Earl Sweatshirt, and more to celebrate their late friend Mac Miller. "He was a selfless, generous dude," .Paak said of his late friend. "He didn’t have to do none of the things he did he was always like what’s mine is yours. That was just his natural being. I never knew no one like that. He was a very special person and I think about him every day. I miss him so much."
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