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Most of the starry names associated with Dreamville’s Revenge of the Dreamers III project were well known by the record’s July 5 release, but one A-lister caught fans by surprise. An uncredited Kendrick Lamar shows up for the chorus of opener “Under the Sun,” sparking widespread speculation about how he wound up on the project, which Dreamville president Ibrahim Hamad answered on Twitter.
Lamar joins J. Cole, DaBaby, and Lute on the song, which is produced by Pluss, Christo, and Nice Rec. On Twitter, Hamad explained that Kendrick originally did not intend to appear on the track, and was at first just supposed to come and listen.
Despite much social media coverage of the star-studded Dreamville sessions, which took place this january in Atlanta, there were virtually no rumors about Lamar appearing on the project. Lamar and Cole have a history of working together on songs like “Forbidden Fruit” and “HiiiPoWeR,” but have not released music together recently.
On “Under the Sun,” Lamar offers just two bars, bragging about his success and questioning someone’s allegiances. He raps:
I woke up for some money, ayy, lil' bitch
Too many opps in here, tell me who you with, ayy
Recently, Lamar has made something of a habit of popping up on songs without being formally credited. He did so several times on Black Panther: The Album, a compilation he spearheaded to coincide with the Marvel movie’s release. Lamar also appears on ScHoolboy Q’s “5200,” contributing uncredited vocals on the intro.
Genius broke down the meaning behind the ROTD3 track “Down Bad” in the episode of Song Stories below.
Read the full lyrics to “Under the Sun” and the rest of Revenge of the Dreamers III on Genius now.
