One of the defining scenes from the second season of HBO’s Succession was when Kendall Roy (played by Jeremy Strong) decided to honor his father Logan Roy at a 50th work anniversary celebration with a song. The song, of course, was a cringeworthy rap titled “L To The OG.” The scene was an instant hit with fans, and now, months after the episode first aired, a full studio version of the song has been released.
Strong said in a recent interview that he really went to bat against the song at first, but eventually came around to the idea:
“We were doing a table read in Glasgow, Scotland, and got to the point in the script where we were at the tribute for my dad. Some painfully awkward lines read: ‘Kendall does a rap. ‘Yo MC, kick it.” And there was a lyric that sounded like it was from a bad Bar Mitzvah. I lobbied hard to cut it. I thought it was going to be stupid and let’s think of something else. […] It was amazing and serious. I said to Nick, ‘I love hip-hop and it seems in the idiom of Kendall and the show.’ I had to pull it off.”
He also noted that his performance actually got some love from Frank Ocean: “It became apparent when people were dressed for this thing as Halloween, and I did get a text from Frank Ocean that said, ‘L to the OG’ with a crying face emoji. I took it as the highest possible compliment because he’s one of my heroes. It was small props but it meant the world.”
Listen to “L To The OG” above, and revisit the original scene below.