DUCKWORTH.

Kendrick Lamar concludes his DAMN. album with a true tale of a chance encounter back in 1984 between the rapper's father Kenny "Ducky" Duckworth and his label boss Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith before the two men knew each other. He recounts how the future Top Dawg Entertainment CEO nearly killed Lamar's dad when he was planning on robbing the KFC drive-thru spot that "Ducky" worked at. Whoever thought the greatest rapper would be from coincidence Because if Anthony killed Ducky, Top Dawg could be servin' life While I grew up without a father and die in a gunfight Anthony could never have imagined the consequences when he spared Ducky's life. Now, each of the three individuals discussed in the song are living a much different lifestyle. If Lamar's father had died, the rapper wouldn't have had a male role model and it is likely he would have been sucked further into the cycle of gang crime. Meanwhile, Anthony would have been holed up in jail rather than starting his label and signing a certain 16-year-old Kendrick Lamar.

Lamar recalled to Zane Lowe on Beats 1, the day that he learnt of the story: "About a year after I met Top Dawg. I met him when I was sixteen. My Pops came to the studio after I'd been locked in with him for a minute, and... we got a relationship now, bring my Pops through. He heard I was dealing with Top Dawg, but my Pops personally don't know him as Top Dawg, the industry know him as Top Dawg. Before he was Top Dawg, he was another name. So when he walked in that room and he seen that Top Dawg was this guy, he flipped. Still 'til this day, they laugh and they laugh and they trip out and they tell the same story over and over to each other."

The ethereal funk-laced beat was supplied by 9th Wonder, who first collaborated with Lamar on the 2011 Actual Proof posse cut "Super Genius."