untitled 03 | 05.28.2013.
Kendrick Lamar
Throughout this song, several minorities (Asians, Indians, and Blacks) give Kendrick “a piece” of themselves—advising him on how to live his life better. However the majority (the white man) takes “a piece” of Kendrick—to devaluate and capitalize off his talents. Likewise “a piece of mines” talks about the “white man” taking a piece of you to become a famous artist.
The original version was performed along with Thundercat, Bilal, Terrace Martin, and Anna Wise on one of the final episodes of The Colbert Report in December 2014. According to Martin, the song was written the day before the performance as Kendrick didn’t want to play his then-latest single, “i.”
Though Martin claimed there were no plans to release a studio version, one was released as “untitled 03 | 05.28.2013.” on untitled unmastered., a collection of untitled tracks, several of which were also performed on late night talk shows.