Jason Merritt
/
Getty Images
Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly has no shortage of guest appearances from legendary musicians, and as Pitchfork has spotted, it almost had one more: Prince on the album's “Complexion (A Zulu Love).”
The Grammys recently published An Oral History of To Pimp A Butterfly, tracking the album's development with the artists involved (Kendrick is nominated for 11 awards, and The Grammys are releasing Oral History features for all the records nominated for Album Of The Year.)
Read Next: Prince’s Purple Rain to be adapted for stage
Lamar says in the interview that while Prince loved “Complexion,” they ran out of time for him to appear on the finished song.
“That’s true. 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.”
In October of 2014, Kendrick Lamar appeared onstage with Prince at Paisley Park to perform the artist's “What's My Name.” This caused rumours of possible collaborations to peak, but nothing has appeared yet. But Prince or no, Kendrick Lamar still believes it's really important that To Pimp A Butterfly wins a bunch of Grammys.
