Last night Kendrick Lamar’s new album To Pimp A Butterfly became available on iTunes a week before its scheduled release date 3/23. Fans, critics, and TDE executives reacted to the surprise release, but so did some of the album’s key collaborators, including experimental producer Flying Lotus. Responding along with the rest of those lucky enough to be awake last night for the leak, the producer first details the story of how Lamar landed on the concept for the album:

Was helping out with @kendricklamar live visual show when he did the yeezus tour…

— FLYLO (@flyinglotus) March 16, 2015

I was really surprised how he gave zero fucks about the media circus surrounding the tour. Was real low key trying to create, the whole time

— FLYLO (@flyinglotus) March 16, 2015

I played him a folder of beats that I was keeping close for my next @xCaptainMurphyx project. Gave him all the beats like fuxk it.

— FLYLO (@flyinglotus) March 16, 2015

As a producer himself, Flying Lotus clearly respected the way Lamar pulled together and executed the concept for his album. Most people give Dr. Dre the credit as a driving force behind Kendrick’s sound, and while that’s obviously part of it, K.Dot deserves respect as a producer too:

Later that night he told me he had the concept for the album.

— FLYLO (@flyinglotus) March 16, 2015

He gets no credit for being a producer but he had a vision for this album. Dude gets involved w the whole process.

— FLYLO (@flyinglotus) March 16, 2015

But the beats in the folder that Flying Lotus gave Lamar didn’t all get used, and that kind of loss has to be tough to wrap your head around:

Sad thing about that folder of music is I heard he recorded to every one of those songs. Probably never gon hear those. Ooof

— FLYLO (@flyinglotus) March 16, 2015

I produced a version of "for sale" that will probably never come out.

— FLYLO (@flyinglotus) March 16, 2015

I'll probably use those beats for something else but damn. It could have been.

— FLYLO (@flyinglotus) March 16, 2015

He also shared the specifics of how “Wesley’s Theory” came to be, revealing that it was his dream for George Clinton to be on the album’s first track:

Now that the word's out. I produced @kendricklamar "Wesley's Theme" ft. @Thundercat and @george_clinton #topimpabutterfly album is a classic

— FLYLO (@flyinglotus) March 16, 2015

When I played him that beat he asked me who I imagined on it. I laughed and said @george_clinton . I never thought it would actually happen

— FLYLO (@flyinglotus) March 16, 2015

That's already a dream come true

— FLYLO (@flyinglotus) March 16, 2015

Lastly, he shouted out the prevalence of his frequent collaborator Thundercat on the entire record:

This fool @Thundercat is pretty much on the entire album. ????

— FLYLO (@flyinglotus) March 16, 2015

So maybe some of these unreleased songs will end up making their way out of that folder after all. All bets are off these days given the total disregard for the 3/23 release date, right?

[Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images.]