Kendrick Lamar Debuts 'Untitled 2' on 'Tonight Show'
Before he heads to the Grammys next month, Kendrick Lamar took the stage for his first televised performance of 2016 on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on Thursday (Jan. 7). But instead of performing something off his Grammy-nominated album To Pimp a Butterfly, the Compton rapper debuted a brand new song called “Untitled 2.”
Wearing a flannel shirt and hoodie inscribed “With Love,” he performed the jazzy song, which includes lyrics from his verse on Funkadelic’s “Ain’t That Funkin’ Kinda Hard On You?”
Before building to the explosive ending, he called TDE the “mafia of the west,” nicknamed himself “Korn Row Kenny,” and rapped about making “a million a show.”
In addition to serving as musical guest, Kendrick sat down for an interview with Fallon and discussed his 11 Grammy nominations, which is one less in a year than Michael Jackson’s record-breaking 12 nods in 1984. “I wouldn’t want to go past that, though,” said a humble Kendrick. “I can’t fathom being as great as Michael without putting out the work, so 11 is perfect.”
This is not Kendrick’s first time doing something unreleased on television. He previously performed an untitled song with Bilal, Thundercat, Anna Wise, and Terrace Martin during the series finale of Comedy Central’s “Colbert Report” in December 2014.