Prince Was Almost on Kendrick Lamar’s “Complexion”

With the Grammys less than a week away, all eyes are on Kendrick Lamar and his album To Pimp a Butterfly, which leads the pack with 11 total nominations. While Kendrick himself has released a number of short videos in the lead up to the Awards, the Grammys published an oral history of To Pimp a Butterfly on Monday (Feb. 8) revealing, amongst other things, that Prince was supposed to be featured alongside Rapsody on "Complexion (A Zulu Love)."

"He said he wanted to talk about the beauty of black people. I told him to say no more," Rapsody, who lends the album its only featured verse, says of the song. "What tripped me out is Kendrick originally said that he didn't want to do a verse on there. He wanted me to do two verses and Prince to do the hook."

"That's true," Kendrick follows up saying. "Prince heard the record, loved the record and the concept of the record got us to talking. We got to a point where we were just talking in the studio and the more time that passed we realized we weren't recording anything. We just ran out of time, it's as simple as that."

To Pimp a Butterfly is up for Album of the Year, with "Alright" also in the running for Song of the Year. Kendrick has gone on record saying that he wants to win all 11 awards, a sentiment perhaps fueled by the fact that his good kid, m.A.A.d. city lost Rap Album of the Year to Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' The Heist in 2014. The 58th Annual Grammy Awards will air on Feb. 15 with host LL Cool J and performances by Kendrick and The Weeknd.

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