The video for Kendrick Lamars DNA.
begins with the rapper sitting in an empty interrogation room.
Then, Don Cheadle, looking stern and suspicious, walks in.
Credit: KendrickLamarVEVO/YouTube
Cheadle makes it look easy, but theAvengersstar wasnt exactly confident when Lamar gave him the assignment.
I listened to the track, and I was like, Youre out of your mind.
Like, have youheardhow you rap?'
Cheadle tells EW, laughing.
And though the DNA.
clip marks the first time theyve officially joined forces, Cheadle plays a very important part onDAMN.
;he just didnt know it.
Its very poetic, and its not linear, necessarily.
Everybody just made it comfortable.
Nabil, the director, made it great.
All that back and forth we were doing was just completely improv, which was fun for me.
I was like, Oh, you wanna improv?
Between takes, I said, Dude, this is where its at.
you’re free to do this.
I said, Im going to cast you in something, and youre going to have to say yes.
He owes me one.
Was he seriously considering being inMiles Ahead?He thought about it.
To his credit, hes like, Im not going to do anything that I cannot do well.
And Im not going to come in there and do it halfway, and I dont think Im ready.
And he was working onTo Pimp a Butterfly.
He had to go make an epic project.
But since that time, weve just stayed in touch.
So we talk about a lot of stuff.
One of my favorite tracks onTo Pimp a Butterflyis For Free.
Him being a horn basically soloing over a straight-ahead jazz track, Ive never heard anybody do that.
[Laughs] Thatwasdope.
To get someone like Wynton to be into that, thatshuge.
For me, Im just into innovators.
Thats why I love [Miles Davis] so much.
Just do something interesting.
And thats all in his brain.
These different time signatures?
Hes like, Yeah, thats all in my head.
Im like, Okay.
Youre a cool, sick individual.
When are you going to work together again?Itll probably be something organic like this was.
You played Kenny inRush Hour 2,and Kendrick references Kung Fu Kenny a bunch on the album.
So he says, Okay, come, itll be dope.
And Im going to have a little surprise for you.
So I came, I saw him perform, it was dope.
Crazy-great kung fu movie.
We ride back, we actually ate at P.F.
So I texted him.
I said, Is Kung Fu Kenny me?
Hes like, Thats what the surprise was.
I was like, Oh, I didnt get it at all.
[Laughs] Hes like, Yeah thats what the surprise was, so… surprise.
And this was after the Coachella set, correct?Yeah, the next day.
I had no idea.
I texted him back, and he was like, Yeah, that was the surprise.
I said to my wife, I wonder what he was thinking the whole time.
Like, is this dude gonna say anything?
Oh, is he mad?
Because he has to remember that he played that part, right?
Its like, No, Ive been doing this for too long, Im too old.
So you are Kung Fu Kenny.
That is confirmed.He confirmed it.
