Kenny and “thaaaaaa Kiiiiiid.” One of the most pleasant surprises of Kendrick Lamar’s Damn. LP is the out-of-nowhere appearances by Kid Capri, who used his hype and charisma to introduce several songs on the universally acclaimed album.

“It’s a blessing,” Capri said via phone on Friday on the way to Syracuse, NY for a party. “It means something. Because at the end of the day, it shows that the younger generation understands where the authenticity come from. Not only that, I stay in tune with everything going on, so because of that, they respect me for that.”

Capri said that Kung-Fu Kenny reached out two to three months ago and asked him to come by. The two talked for a bit, and Kendrick already knew what he wanted Capri to do. Only some of what Capri did made it to the final version of DAMN., which is expected to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with an estimated 475,000 album equivalent units.

DAMN. is expected to debut at no. 1 on the Billboard 200, with an estimated 475,000 equivalent album units.

“I came in, did everything quick. There was a couple of times where he needed me to do extra things and he hit me on the FaceTime from the Westside and I would record in my studio and send it off to him. And he would make it happen,” Capri said. “I’m the host of the album. If you listen to my last album Soundtrack to the Streets or read the reviews for my last album, their whole thing was I didn’t concentrate on trying to make it sound like a mixtape or a DJ screaming all over the album. I gave accents to certain things in it. On Kendrick’s album, I didn’t really want to oversaturate it. I wanted to do accents in spurts but in a narration type of form. So I’m pretty much the host of the album.”

This likely won’t be the last time you hear from Kendrick and Kid Capri. He said he did more with Kendrick than what made the final version of DAMN., which may make it onto another project. He also might be touring with K. Dot.

“I did a bunch of things in the studio. He used what he wanted, placed what he wanted to place,” he said. “I think what he’s going to do is use what he didn’t use [this time] on another occasion for other things. He’s got a tour coming up. He’s got stuff coming up. We talked about further things too.”

With his busy work schedule, it had actually slipped Kid’s mind that DAMN. was dropping on Friday. But he was quickly reminded when his phone started ringing off the hook.

“My Twitter and my Instagram blew up,” he said. “Crazy. I was wondering what the hell is going on. That’s when I looked up at and realized,” he said. “[The album] is dope. I’m just happy. It brings the East and West together too. I know it is hitting home because my joint is blowing up crazy over just me speaking. ‘Kung-Fu Kenny!’ Imagine if I start rhyming on the joint.”