Mustard Reveals Kendrick Lamar’s Super Saiyan Reaction To ‘Hey Now’ Beat

Mustard had Kendrick Lamar feeling like a Dragon Ball Z character when he first heard the beat for what would become the GNX track “Hey Now.”

Ahead of the 2025 Grammy Awards, where he’s up for multiple nods, the decorated producer reflected on the beats he sent K.Dot for the chart-topping new album with the Academy’s official website.

“I had heard ‘Hey Now’ during the ‘Not Like Us’ video shoot; he played me a snippet,” he told Grammy.com. “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 shit on your beats, it brings out something else in me, so I just did whatever I felt.’ I was like, ‘Wow, that’s crazy.'”

Mustard initially made the beat in 2019 and as he told People earlier this month, he actually offered it to multiple rappers before Kendrick – but each person turned it down for one reason or another.

“I played it for YG… I was trying to make a West Coast version of ‘Grindin’.’ That’s why it’s so empty like that,” he said. “That’s why it’s just weird sounds. [H]e didn’t end up doing it.”

Then, Mustard continued, he let a Migos member get a crack at it.

“After YG, And I played it for Quavo and I’m like, ‘Quavo man, if you get this, if you can connect to this song, I’m telling you,’ he’s like, ‘What the hell you want me to do to it? You want me to whisper on the beat?’ And I’m like, “Alright.” So I didn’t force it on him.”

After that, the beatmaker said he played it for Ty Dolla $ign. While Ty made it into a song, Mustard said, “I never was all the way there with it.”

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Back in early December, “Hey Now” was one of two of Mustard’s GNX contributions to make it to Billboard’s top 10. That track was at number five, and “TV Off” was at number two, during the week of the album’s debut.

At the time, Mustard shared his reaction in a post to his Instagram Story.

“I’m just getting started #2 and #5!” he wrote, with waving hand emojis.