Punch Reveals Crucial Role In Making Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp A Butterfly”

Punch is a talented wordsmith in his own right. The man born Terrence Henderson is best known for running Top Dawg Entertainment alongside Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith. That said, Punch has dropped guest verses on Kendrick Lamar and Ab-Soul albums in the past. Punch reflected on his musical output via Instagram on August 21. He not only revealed that he was involved in the making of Lamar’s seminal album To Pimp a Butterfly, but he was crucial in the resolution of its narrative concept. The way Punch tells it, the album would have been very different had he not been working alongside Dot.

The closing track on To Pimp a Butterfly is “Mortal Man.” Kendrick Lamar reads a poem to Tupac, referring to said poem as something a “good friend had wrote.” Punch told Instagram followers that he was the “good friend in question.” The poem he wrote effectively lays out the thesis and title of To Pimp a Butterfly, which is something he claims Lamar struggled with. “I remember K. Dot was feeling a bit lost in the concept,” Punch recalled. “It happens sometimes when your in the thick of the battle. It’s easy to kind of lose sight of the original purpose as new ideas and thought enter in.” The TDE boss claims that Lamar asked him to write a poem that would help snap the narrative into place. He obliged.

“I thought about it and wrote some words and sent it to him,” Punch added. “He said ‘thanks’ and we kept moving with business as usual.” The TDE boss noted that weeks went by with no mention of the poem. It wasn’t until Punch sat down to listen to “Mortal Man” that he discovered Lamar had used the poem as the album’s capper. “I realized these were the words that I sent Dot months before! I had no idea he was using it for the album,” he recalled. “Even when we played it back during the process he never played that section.”

Punch doesn’t have a credit on “Mortal Man.” However, he remains grateful to Lamar for involving him in such a notable piece of music. “This will always be a special moment for me,” he concluded on his IG post. “Because of our connection and understanding and also being apart of that masterpiece in that way.” It’s difficult to imagine the end of “Mortal Man,” and by extension, To Pimp a Butterfly, without Punch’s poem serving as the cherry on top.