In May 2024, the head-to-head dis track shoot-out between Drake and Kendrick Lamar escalated sharply. Drake released “Family Matters,” lobbing accusations of infidelity and abuse — but Compton’s finest was ready. Twenty minutes later, Lamar dropped the blistering “Meet the Grahams,” a 6-and-a-half-minute surgical dismantling of his foe.

The release caught one particular listener by surprise: The Alchemist, who had produced its eerily methodical beat. “I was getting a haircut,” he says on Zoom from his Santa Monica, Calif., studio, framed by shelves teeming with records. Though the descending piano sample pairs perfectly with Lamar’s dead-eyed calm on the track, the 47-year-old veteran producer says he sent the beat to the rapper well before the battle began — and had no idea Lamar was pre

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