Chike is stepping into his debut album with some of the most respected ears in hip-hop guiding the process.
The Los Angeles artist has confirmed that Kendrick Lamar and producer Soundwave were deeply involved in shaping the project, going as far as rearranging the tracklist and cutting songs they felt did not serve the album’s overall vision.
Soundwave’s involvement began early. Soundwave has been with me since I started the album,” Chike said.
Their focus was not simply on beats or production credits but on the structural integrity of the record as a whole. Before any contributions were offered, the standard was clear: the foundation had to be solid first.
Two weeks before speaking publicly about the project, Chike was still in sessions with both Soundwave and Kendrick. We just arranged the whole album,” he said, describing their approach as rooted in intention, sonic awareness, and what he called music IQ. “How many moments you having in a song, how sticky it is,” he explained, “it’s all these things.”
That process was not without friction. Chike recalled arguing to keep a song on the album, one that featured a collaborator he was excited about.
Kendrick and the team pushed back, telling him the record was redundant given what was already on the project. When Chike resisted, Kendrick made his point by referencing his own cuts.
“He said, ‘You know how many money trees and cartoons and cereals I had to take off my album,'” Chike recalled, “and after that he had me beat. I didn’t have nothing else to say.”
Kendrick’s own role on the album remains officially unconfirmed, though Chike’s responses made the implication difficult to ignore.
Asked directly whether Kendrick appeared on the project, Chike smiled and deflected, saying only, “That’s my boy. That’s all I’m going to say. That’s my boy, man. I love that dude.” He added that the situation remained fluid, describing Kendrick and his circle as “very intentional” and “so spontaneous,” with much still potentially subject to change.
Mixed By Ali handled the album’s mixing in full, adding another key member of Kendrick’s extended creative circle to the record’s credits.
Chike also spoke about the musical homework that informed the album’s more personal moments. He was directed to revisit classic rap records, including 50 Cent’s debut and DMX’s catalog, as reference points for vulnerability and directness.
Those definitely played a big part in the vulnerable records on the album,” he said, crediting those listening sessions with giving him confidence in how to approach his own life on record.
One track, titled “God’s Favorite,” was originally placed at the back of the album. Kendrick heard it and immediately moved it up to track three. “He like, ‘They going to want this from you for sure,'” Chike recalled.
The song is described as ratchet and unapologetically so, a side of Chike that his collaborators felt needed to come earlier rather than be buried.
The album arrives with considerable anticipation and, by the sound of it, considerable scrutiny from some of the most exacting creative minds working in the genre today.
