Dedication (feat. Kendrick Lamar)

Nipsey Hu$$le is assisted on this throwback tune by his fellow LA native Kendrick Lamar. Both rappers deliver incendiary rhymes over Rance and Mike & Keys / MyGuyMars' warm and soulful instrumentation. It is the first collaboration between the two Los Angeles rappers.

The final part of Kendrick Lamar's verse was inspired by a real conversation he had with Nipsey, Snoop Dogg and Top Dawg during the premiere of the 2Pac biopic All Eyez On Me: I'm at the premiere politicin' with Top, Nip, and Snoop Damn, Pac watchin' the way we grew, from dedication Nipsey told Zane Lowe on his Beats 1 Show: "I felt like he killed it. He actually talked about something that happened the night of the 'Pac premiere, if you really listen to his verse. He's talking about me, Snoop Dogg, Top Dawg, and himself, we really had a conversation about just L.A. street s--t and about how the time might be right for us right now to use our influence to evolve how we exist. He speaks about that in his verse."

Nipsey Hussle raps at the beginning of the third verse: This ain't entertainment, it's for niggas in the slave ship These songs is the spirituals I swam against them waves with He told NPR: "I meant that in my spirit, and I never was able to articulate it. I got major support for this album — we spent millions on marketing — and that line is on it. As somebody that looked at our position in America and had an opinion about it, I feel like I did my job by being able to get that line off. And that means everything to me. I was really proud that it came out like that 'cause I ain't write none of these lyrics; I just went in the booth. So it was in my gut and it was in my spirit to say that. That's a really important line to me."