Kendrick Lamar Was A Major Influence On David Bowie's New LP

It's a beautiful thing when the music legends of one generation resonate with another, and in the case of Kendrick Lamar and rock icon David Bowie, there's more in common than meets the eye (or, perhaps, ear).

For those a bit behind on their Bowie news, the music legend is prepping a new studio album entitled Blackstar (stylized as '★'), which is set to drop on January 8, 2016. Speaking to Rolling Stone, producer Tony Visconti, who worked extensively on the record, stressed that Kendrick Lamar's recent work was a major influence on ★. "We were listening to a lot of Kendrick Lamar," Visconti told the magazine. "We wound up with nothing like that, but we loved the fact Kendrick was so open-minded and he didn't do a straight-up hip-hop record. He threw everything on there, and that's exactly what we wanted to do. The goal, in many, many ways, was to avoid rock & roll."

That live instrumentation process of throwing "everything on there" appears to have made a direct impact on David Bowie's new work--★ reportedly features jazz drums star Mark Giuliana, saxophonist Donny McCaslin and session bass king Tim Lefebvre. Read the full interview over at Rolling Stone and listen to the album's title track and first single below.