You know that feeling on Christmas morning when you would run downstairs and see all those presents waiting for you under the tree? The “This Week in Hype” podcast is exactly like that, except not at all. 

This week, I had to convene a little emergency podcast. I broke the story about the official tracklist to Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly, and the wrath of the Illuminati (not really, but kind of really) came down upon my head. The behind-the-scenes story says a lot about how music and the media work in 2015, so I told it. 

Discussed This Week: 

• As always, shouts to Tino for that dope theme song. You should follow Tino and hear Tino’s story in full on the podcast.
• No big intro this week, I get straight into the Kendrick tracklisting drama by bringing on @LucasDJBooth for the full conversation.  
• You’re just going to have to listen for the full breakdown, but we’re talking about a story that runs all the way from Kendrick to TDE to Interscope to Universal Music Group to IFPI. Also, a lot of Breaking Bad references. 
• This week’s closing song, Rick Ross’ “Devil is a Lie,” because Illuminati. 
• The podcast is also on iTunes, SoundCloud, Podomatic, Audiomack and now, Stitcher! So yeah, it’s kind of a big deal. 

[Nathan S. is the managing editor of The DJBooth and a hip-hop writer. He also occasionally talks in podcast form and appears on RevoltTV. His beard is awesome. This is his Twitter.]