Mustard Reveals Kendrick Lamar's Reaction To Hearing 'Not Like Us' Audio

Mustard topped Kendrick Lamar's hit “Not Like Us,” which gave the Cali producer his first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit. 1.

The Los Angeles native pulled up Billboard News recently to put the whirlwind of the past two months into perspective. Mustard was wondering how he would get his album buzz before the Drake-featuring “Not Like Us” seemingly fell from the sky in May and gave him an ace in the hole.

Mustard has long wanted to land a spot with Kendrick Lamar to the point where he's been pushing the Compton rap official five beats at a time some days.

“I say it all the time and I can't say it enough — it has to be God,” Mustard says, attributing a higher power. “What will I do to find myself again? … How are we going to spark where people are, “I want to hear Mustard again.” … Then the song came out. Here's my traffic.”

He continued: “I've literally been trying to get a song with him for years… Before I even made that beat, I got to a point where I was like, 'I'm going to send five beats a day.' I was maybe sending him five beats a day for maybe three months. I'm still doing it right now in case he wants to record something. I sent him that beat and then I think that day I would just make it a point to go into the studio to make some beats to send to him.”

Mustard cooked up the “Not Like Us” beat and sent it to Kendrick in early April before running to his manager's birthday dinner.

“I started cutting it and I sped it up and I did the drums and I was like, 'This is fire.' … I sent him the beat and I was going to my manager's birthday party and that was on April 6,” he recalls. “He never answered until 12 o'clock at night saying, 'This is fire.'

Mustard admitted, “I don't think I even realized how big it was until it went No. 1 (on the Billboard Hot 100). I was like, “This is the biggest song I've ever had in my life.” I just wanted a song with Kendrick.”

The 10 Summers Records boss is out on his upcoming album, Faith of a mustard seed, which he revealed was named after the late Nipsey Hussle. He followed up the album release last Friday (June 21) with the release of “Parking Lot” feat. Travis Scott.

“When I did Perfect TenI remember the last conversation I had with Nipsey, he was telling me to name this album Faith of a mustard seed,” he added. “We talked for hours that night and I always kept it in the back of my head.”

Watch the full 20-minute interview with Mustard below, which also finds him touching on his recent losses, what it's been like working with legends like Mariah Carey and Rihanna, and more.