Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball franchise is one of the most influential anime and manga franchises in history, and it turns out that even Kendrick Lamar said he felt like Goku when helping to craft one of the tracks off his latest album, GNX. Dragon Ball is now celebrating the 40th anniversary of the late Akira Toriyama’s franchise first hitting the pages of Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, and it has been the perfect occasion for fans to see just how widespread of an influence Goku and the other Z-Fighters have been over the decades. They really have broken through to pop culture unlike any other.
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Dragon Ball has been one of the biggest anime franchises of all time, and it has been especially true for its relationship with the Rap and Hip-Hop communities. Not only do many see themselves within Goku and the others as they fight against tyrannical superpowers, but Goku going to the next level and breaking beyond his limits is something that anyone can channel when the time is right. And for Kendrick Lamar, it turns out that he “felt like Goku” when crafting “Hey Now” on his recent GNX album.
Dragon Ball: Kendrick Lamar Feels Like Goku
Speaking to the GRAMMY.com ahead of the 67th GRAMMY Awards this coming Sunday, GNX producer Mustard opened up about working with Kendrick Lamar on the album. When asked about whether or not he continues to send Lamar beats, Mustard reveals that he sent him a few that Lamar had picked from, “Even after ‘Not Like Us,’ I continue — still to this day — sending him five or six beats a day. We have this folder where I just drop new stuff in. The first half of ‘tv off’ and the second half are two different beats that he connected; I didn’t send it to him like that. It was just like, out of those five beats, he picked two.” But the real surprise came when Mustard heard one of the tracks.
It turns out Mustard was completely unaware that Lamar was going to shout out his name during the track “tv off,” and it was because Kendrick revealed that he “felt like Goku” when he had heard the beat in “Hey Now,” “I didn’t hear the song until it came out. I had heard ‘Hey Now’ during the ‘Not Like Us’ video shoot; he played me a snippet. I asked him, ‘Man, what made you do that?’ And he said, ‘When I heard the beat, I just felt like Goku or something.’ I was like, ‘What?’ And he explained, ‘Yeah, when I hear certain s— on your beats, it brings out something else in me, so I just did whatever I felt.’ I was like, ‘Wow, that’s crazy.’”
Super Saiyan Is Anime’s Biggest Transformation
It’s no surprise to see that even Kendrick Lamar knows who Goku is as Dragon Ball is one of the most far reaching anime franchises ever. Not only was it the first major anime to really break into the mainstream with fans, but it was also popular in the early days of the Internet. That made it easy for fans of all ages and kinds to celebrate their love of the series, and share their hopes for the future (all while trying to look for spoilers for what Goku form would be popping up next).
In fact, the whole shouting “Mustard” during “tv off” became a fun anime meme of its own. Fans had edited the shout together with Dragon Ball scenes, and that very primal sensation must have been what Lamar was feeling in the moment all during the creative process of GNX as well.
HT – GRAMMY.com
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