Duckworth (song)


"Duckworth" is a song by American rapper Kendrick Lamar, taken from his fourth studio album Damn, released on April 14, 2017. The fourteenth and final track on the album, the song was written by Lamar and record producer Patrick Douthit, known professionally as 9th Wonder, and produced by 9th Wonder, with additional production by Bēkon. The song's title is Lamar's actual last name.
The song tells the true story of Lamar's father meeting Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith years prior to Lamar getting signed by his record label.

Lyrics

The song uses storytelling to tell the connection of Lamar with his father, known as Ducky, and his label boss, Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith. Specifically, the song tells the story about Tiffith's previous encounters with Ducky, Lamar's father, years prior to Tiffith signing Lamar to his label.
More specifically, it tells the story of how Anthony "Top Dawg" was a gangbanger. When he was younger, he frequented the KFC where Ducky worked; this is the same KFC that Top Dawg had stuck up a few years ago, when he killed a manager, and maybe even a few customers. Ducky found out about this, and made sure he was on Anthony's good side: giving him free chicken, extra biscuits, etc. When Anthony did eventually hold up the restaurant again, he and his friends made sure not to kill Ducky. If it weren't for this happening, Kendrick wouldn't be the rapper he is today, and could've even died at a young age.
The song, like "Fear", another track from Damn, incorporates "backwards vocals", also known as backmasking.

Critical reception

Teddy Craven of The Daily Campus described "Duckworth." as Damn's "strongest song" and "ends the album with a fantastic philosophical mic-drop." Craven compared the track to "Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst" from Lamar's second studio album good kid, m.A.A.d city, a song that also tells personal stories about the unexpected consequences of Lamar's music.

Samples

The song contains samples of "Atari" by Hiatus Kaiyote, "Ostavi Trag" by September, "Let the Drums Speak" by Fatback Band, and "Be Ever Wonderful" by Ted Taylor.

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from the official Damn digital booklet.
  • Kendrick Duckworth – songwriter
  • Patrick Douthit – songwriter, producer, mixing
  • Bēkon – additional production, additional vocals
  • Kid Capri – additional vocals
  • Derek Ali – mixing
  • Tyler Page – mixing, mix assistant
  • Cyrus Taghipour – mix assistant
  • Zeke Mishanec – additional recording
  • Brendan Silas Perry – additional recording

    Charts

Certifications