HiiiPoWeR

"HiiiPoWeR" is a song by American hip hop recording artist Kendrick Lamar, released April 12, 2011 as the lead single from his independent digital album Section.80 (2011). The conscious hip hop song was released as the first promotional single for the album. While the album itself garnered positive reviews (achieving a Metacritic score of 80, and an XL rating from XXL Magazine), "HiiiPoWeR" also drew significant acclaim for its lyricism and depth. HipHopDX gave it the Verse of the Year award and XXL Magazine called it “one of the finest tracks of the year”. The song, produced by fellow American rapper J. Cole, contains samples from Pharoahe Monch’s "Simon Says", Kanye West’s "So Appalled", and Sixtoo’s "Duration Project Part 9". Kendrick Lamar mentions that when he and J. Cole created "HiiiPoWeR", which was their first collaboration, he sat in for about twenty-five mixes of the song. Speaking on J. Cole’s work on the song, Lamar says, "His production is crazy, man. The first time we locked in, he played about 10 beats. I wanted all of ‘em." The song features vocals from late singer-songwriter Alori Joh.