Man at the Garden
2024 song by Kendrick Lamar
"Man at the Garden" (stylized in all lowercase) is a song by American rapper Kendrick Lamar from his sixth studio album, GNX (2024). It was produced by Sounwave, Jack Antonoff, Craig Balmoris (of Best Kept Secret) and Tyler Reese Mehlenbacher, with additional production from Matthew "M-Tech" Bernard. The song contains an interpolation of "One Mic" by Nas.
Composition and lyrics
The instrumental is composed of a "lush, moody synthscape". Lyrically, the song revolves around Kendrick Lamar's conviction that he deserves all of his accolades and material rewards, as he details the accomplishments, hard work, sacrifices, trials and tribulations of his life and career, repeatedly declaring the phrase "I deserve it all". He additionally expresses anger and resentment at his enemies: "I did it with integrity and niggas still try to hate on me / Just wait and see, more blood will be spillin', it's just paint to me". Lamar ends the song with the rhetorical question, "Tell me why you think you deserve the greatest of all time, motherfucker?"
Critical reception
Michael Saponara of Billboard ranked it as the seventh best song from GNX.
Personnel
Kendrick Lamar – vocals, writing
Sounwave – producer, programming, piano, synthesizers, arrangement
Jack Antonoff – producer, programming, bass, keyboards, synthesizers, engineer
Tyler Reese – producer, drums, keyboards, bass, synthesizers
Craig Balmoris – producer, drums, keyboards, bass, synthesizers
M-Tech – additional production
Sam Dew – background vocals
Ray Charles Brown Jr.
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This entry incorporates text from “Man at the Garden” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.