Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly - Full Explanation and Analysis

the album opens up with the song wesley's theory firstly the title was in reference to the actor wesley snipes who was involved in a tax fraud case in the early 2000s and as a result ended up serving three years jail sentence from 2010 to 2013. the theory part in the title is in relation to the term tax protester theory which was the method that snipes was accused of using to get out of his charges this instantly lets us in to what the overall theme of this album will be it will be about race and the prejudices that african americans face in the united states this phrase is used to show black pride which shows similarities to other songs on the album like i as well as this there is metaphorical imagery in the statement in relation to the title of the album by showing that a downtrodden caterpillar can sprout into a butterfly this shows us the image of the butterfly breaking out of the cocoon and almost being thrust out of the fantasy land of black pride into a harsher darker world it's kendrick's love and passion of the rap industry being personified it would make sense with lyrics like bridges burned all across the board destroyed but what for meaning kendrick is putting so much effort into making his album as good as possible that he burns bridges with old friends simply due to him not having enough time in between his work in this verse kendrick actually explains what he means in the opening bars let's get into the first song wesley stein yeah you know and i look at this house look i track this before i going i ain't know where you was i was like who's wesley yeah yeah yeah yeah and you go in and it almost feels to me like you're playing this character when i get sound homie i'mma hack a fool yeah yeah these this is one of my favorite records off the joint um first off the lyrics is is is me going back to that feeling of what i wanted to do when i got signed these these are actually real thoughts right uh you go back to that same mentality when you get some money you know what i mean i'm gonna do this for the homies um i'm gonna take them around the world let them see things they've never seen before you feel me and and that was the energy i want to everything was a time capsule i just couldn't put it out you know i mean that was a time council that was a moment but the overall theme of the record why i love it so much is because it talks about something that we weren't taught in school when we get this this this money i spent all my time in school and escaping prison and escaping uh the system so you mean to tell me the moment i become successful and i get some money and i don't know how to manage my money that you're going to throw me back in jail for taxes well he says how the bars are a capsule of thoughts from the period where he first got signed and was given a big chunk of money it links to how other black artists before him fell into the trap of getting lots of money and spending it on menial things and losing touch with their goals and what they wanted to accomplish when they started off essentially being pimped by the music industry the other bars in this verse share the same theme of kendrick's thoughts on what he wants to spend his money on once he gets signed to a record label these bars are presumably written from the perspective of a kendrick before the huge success of his previous album good kid mad city the next bar's mentioning reminds us of kendrick's song ronald reagan era where kendrick shows an obvious distaste of the man in question this would come from where he was mostly seen as a villain by mostly black and hispanics due to criticism that he flooded the ghetto with drugs via the iran contra affair and that his deregulation of the economy and tax cuts for the rich have caused those in poverty to suffer more and the gap between the rich and poor to increase the line i'ma put the compton swap meet by the white house republican run up get socked out this is linking back to kendrick's love for compton and the roots of where he came from by saying he wants to set up the compton swap mate which is essentially a flea market outside the white house this also has the same kind of attitude he uses throughout the first verse of the somewhat cliche rapper persona by saying he's gonna get lots of money and spend it on things like cars whereas here he's saying he wants a more powerful role by putting his love and passion outside the white house also the line republican run-up gets sucked out may be a general overall dislike to political figures or maybe just the republican party in the next line tells us that kendrick wants to meet the president obama at the time and show somewhat of a lack of respect or maybe a protest against the system by wearing his chains in front of the president ironically kendrick did end up meeting with president obama shortly after the album's release but didn't wear his cuban link to the meeting the final line refers back to kendrick's concern of the school system and more likely the specific schooling in and around the compton area it's a sort of sarcasm by saying yeah i may be dumb and not know anything about the world but who cares i got money then comes the refrain sung by thundercat and george clinton the phrase is from the well-known rick james sketch originally seen on chappelle show that phrase mixed with go back home makes us think of the racist judgmental people of not only america but the world immigrants constantly suffer these same racist remarks from these people saying that they don't deserve to be in a certain country simply due to the fact that they weren't born there this is very common for black people and may also remind us of the back to africa movement set about by jamaican publisher marcus garvey as well as this the line is also a callback to one of kendrick's fellow rappers absol in his song tree of life in the song we also hear a similar phrase it then goes back to the chorus before bringing us into a break where dr dre is addressing kendrick over a voicemail this interjection from dr dre introduces the next key part of the narrative the temptation that comes with fame and success you can have all the good intentions in the world but if you lose sight of yourself it can quickly fall apart kendrick's mind and talent are a threat to the fearful uncle sam introduced later in the song who lures kendrick away from his beliefs and good intentions with materialism dre reminds kendrick that artists can blow up just as quickly as they become irrelevant fame and fortune may seem easy to fame and fortune may seem easy enough to attain but not becoming a pimped butterfly like so many others is harder than making it in the first place then in the next verse we are introduced to the character of uncle sam the first two lines instantly lets the listener into the type of attitude this uncle sam character will have he's offering kendrick a variety of things extremely quickly and is leaving no thinking room all these choices also represent certain themes for example the house and car represent the materialistic things that kendrick described in the first half of the song the 40 acres in a mule linked back to kendrick's love to compton and his roots in a symbolic way 40 acres and a mule was the reparations given to the former slaves in the aftermath of the american civil war however the order merely created a false expectation that only served to worsen the blow of the poverty that immediately followed the emancipation this again links back to themes of trust and betrayal that have now been introduced with uncle sam finally the piano and guitar represent kendrick's love for music uncle sam is leading kendrick into a full sense of security in which he can exploit kendrick for his status money and talent for his own monetary gain in the next lines the character of uncle sam was the mascot of world war one and two for america with the posters that said i want you for the army he is a distinctly white old man dressed in the colours of the american flag this image contrasted with phrases like i'm your dog just makes us feel uneasy as we can tell that this character is ungenuine and is just trying to relate with kendrick before exploiting him this manipulation continues as we can see that uncle sam is deceiving kendrick into spending money on expensive brands and products without carefully considering costs and taxes for example in the line where those gates this is an expensive product that you asked kendrick to consider buying it's implied that kendrick responds to this by saying he doesn't have enough money at the time and uncle sam simply replies pay me later the way uncle sam is performing these lines as well as the stuff he's saying is portraying the man as a manipulative money-hungry figure this lyric also brings the idea of the massive debt that can be included not only by rich people who frivolously spend their money but also normal working people who get manipulated into spending their money by figures like uncle sam the next line he implies that we're encouraged to say these cliches by capitalists so that we don't examine criticism leveled us about the rampant consumerism that he listed in previous lines also a minor detail is uncle sam being subtle in the lyrics he's portraying himself as a nice and kind guy while also speaking to the stereotype of black people being the kind of group to spend money at high rates in the next few lines uncle sam is again subtly convincing kendrick to spend his money on menial things by saying things like he can see the baller in him another somewhat cliche stereotype from the bling era of the wrapping community and also the line refers to a standard white-collar job with a contract that uncle sam knows kendrick has never done before we see uncle sam try to manipulate kendrick's thoughts by sympathizing with the situation by implying he's not going to force kendrick into a contract that he can't get out of although that is his actual plan in the next big chunk of the verse kendrick talks about the horoscopes and specifically the gemini which is represented by the twins this sets up the idea of the duality theme we will see throughout this album this is uncle sam pressuring kendrick again to buy menial things like cars and jewelry for no other real reason than he has money for it however we also know this is not true due to the previous lines of saying pay me later which shows us kendrick getting into an even more of a financial hole than he was previously in the final phrase the darker side to uncle sam is revealed when he says oh wesley snipe your ass before 35. bringing the title and man himself wesley snipes to the forefront of the listeners mind who we know previously was sent to prison over tax evasion the way he phrases it by saying wesley snipe shows that uncle sam is actively targeting kendrick so that if he financially slips up even once he'll have to pay the price like other countless artists like michael jackson for example we are then brought back into another bridge the first phrase of looking down and when you're good on top is kendrick realizing where he is now financially and popularity-wise and that he's looking back down on compton and realizing that now he has to be very cautious as one slip up could lead him straight back to where he came from with nothing left the final line is symbolic of the mantra that you should look both ways before you cross the street again emphasizing the cautious attitude kendrick now has to take now he's in the place where he's at we are then brought back into the previous refrain when the phrase taxman's coming fades in at the end this phrase is said with fear to paint the tax man as a dangerous and fearful person this again links to the other themes of the severe debt that kendrick could get stuck in this ends wesley's theory which ends with the saxophone playing which brings us directly into the next song for free [ __ ] you [ __ ] firstly the title was a link in this line kendrick uses a metaphor telling us how america as a population has been eating posh food and fine dining compared to kendrick who has to eat their leftovers and raw meat this represents the hard times that kendrick and his population he's speaking to has to suffer it is also shown in this line that kendrick seems to be angry at how other people judge him this can be shown in the lines where he's saying looking at me like it ain't a receipt like i never made ends meet kendrick is painting this character who i believe is uncle sam as someone who is in disbelief that kendrick is living a lavish life that they're even questioning his receipts as they can't believe the expensive stuff he's buying the next lines living in captivity raised my cap's salary tells us how the experience of living in poverty made kendrick have an increase in self-worth when he got more money he feels ready to spend as much money as he wants due to his previous experiences celery telling me green is all i need evidently all i seen was spam and raw sardines these are metaphors for different levels of income the green is representative of a lot of money as well as celery which is a healthy fresh food whereas the spam and sardines are grey and common for low-income households so this tells us although kendrick was only seeing the low-income spam and raw sardines now he realizes once he starts eating healthy he will be able to not only afford celery but also anything he wants this line goes in detail to tell us that kendrick is being smart and is telling this girl that he's not ready to start a family until he's financially stable the way he phrases the things he's saying at the start may also tell us that this is what he was saying at the start of the track when talking to the woman this is now the second time kendrick has mentioned the 40 acres and a mule reinforcing the idea of racial tension between him and america as well as that the 40 ounce in a pitbull line is symbolic of the typical things you would find in a hood lifestyle in places like compton first the line matador matador is kendrick telling us that uncle sam is the matador and kendrick is the ball he's comparing the way america sells black men a fake notion of success to the way a matador misdirects a ball then the lion had the door knocking let him in who's that genitals best friend is the idea of kendrick not mattering who is at the door if it's a woman he's gonna have sex with her kendrick makes the point that people don't care who they're having sex with as long as they are having sex kendrick is using the woman as a metaphor for america telling us how many people look at america as the perfect place and ignore any negatives such as poverty or shootings the good looks of america has now gone to kendrick's head and it seems he's starting to lose perception of where he originally came from the bad [ __ ] that kendrick is talking to is the american dream personified in his lust to have her he's metaphorically watching porn this metaphorical pawn is perceived to be him imagining himself in a position where he's actually attained said dream the relationship between a desire and a poor man's way to get it without really getting it watching porn isn't the same as a sexual relationship but they give it to you so that you believe your desire to fulfill that destiny is fulfilled with what is actually just a cheap placebo kendrick doesn't apologize for looking at porn or being obnoxious because it's not his fault it's the metaphorical girlfriend's fault this is shown in the next line this tells us kendrick previously used the act of sex as an escape from the troubles of his previous poverty-stricken life again linking back to how it's not his fault kendrick again is standing up for himself and his black population by saying being paid isn't enough and he also wants interest on top of it due to all the previous generations of black people that worked without any compensation the other line matter of fact it's nine inches is kendrick somewhat reassuring himself that his dick is worth the price of a mission this could also be a metaphor for kendrick's growth in confidence as having a big dick in some cases may be referring to the idea of lots of self-confidence kendrick uses alliteration here to emphasize his points he's telling us that the music industry and corporate america does not see kendrick as an artist they only see him as a new vessel to suck cash from these corporations are shown as not genuine and liars which will use kendrick to get as much money as they can until he becomes irrelevant or dies where they'll move on to the next big artist they can drain money from kendrick is telling us this to show that he isn't falling for their schemes and that he knows what's happening behind the curtains of these corporations and just a little afterthought it also shows a back and forth between kendrick and uncle sam see like where it says matter of fact see our friendship based on business that's uncle sam speaking pension more pension you're pinching my percents uncle sam saying pension more pension kendrick comes back with your pinching my percents it's been relentless [ __ ] forgiveness that's all kendrick and then uncle sam comes back with [ __ ] your feelings it's like throughout this whole verse it's a back and forth between the characters of kendrick and uncle sam kendrick attacks the media for claiming their sources are fact when in reality they are heavily distorted from the truth they continuously attempt to [ __ ] kendrick only to abort their mistakes this line again sticks with the same theme of going in pursuit of money kendrick is telling us by that not associating with america and the businesses in america kendrick is left with less endorsement deals and a smaller paycheck however he's willing to make less because he recognizes that more money also comes with more problems kendrick uses the letter d in endorsement dormant dusted doomed and disgusted form a big alliteration of the letter d which also ties back into the dis dick ain't free line kendrick continues this alliteration now with the letter p whilst also referencing again his fellow rapper absol by almost quoting when he said pressure either burst pipes or creates diamonds kendrick is explaining that choice is destroyed and is now merely an illusion linking back to wesley's theory in that song uncle sam leads kendrick into a full sense of security which is similar to here where it seems like this time he's leading kendrick into thinking he's in control however the choices that kendrick would make would later be found to have already been set in motion as well as this kendrick mentions the horseman which has been a motif in various folklores in this scenario it symbolizes america's contribution in further worsening people's living conditions kendrick again ends off the song by using a man and woman to represent the conflict between him and america saying how he picked cotton and made you rich calls back to the extreme slavery we saw in the 19th century up until the early 20th century this again links to the pimping of african americans however in a different context from how the music industry is pimping kendrick now in the final line kendrick stands up to america once more he won't give in to the temptations of success and confidently states how no one can take advantage of him then in the outro the woman says which shows us this woman is being led into the trap of believing the musings of uncle sam as well as this by denying kendrick the title of a king is a way of keeping african-americans like kendrick down this also leads us into the next track king kunta i got a bonus firstly the title king kunta is in reference to the character kunta kinte who was in the 18th century novel roots written by alex haley this character is used to represent kendrick's ongoing resilience against the pimping uncle sam and the record industry is doing this is because of the resilience kuntikinte shared by doing things like rejecting the name toby that was given to him by his slave masters kendrick labelles this character as a king to provide a feeling of empowerment as well as contrasting the different levels in society this is also an oxymoron as the downtrodden slave of kunta kinte is matched up with the prestigious title of a king the song immediately opens up with kendrick wrapping the intro this is showing us kendrick being braggadocious about where he now is in the rap industry after the release of good kid mad city by saying he doesn't want people sitting in his throne again is a call out to other rappers at the time like kanye west or drake that took the limelight away from kendrick and the period between goodkid and the making of t-purp the line i'm mad is a reference to james brown's song the payback that is also mentioned later in the song as well as this the line i've got a bone to pick may also tell us kendrick sees the other rappers as a mere nuisance almost like a bone stuck in his teeth it ends off with the line true friends one question which brings us into the chorus this is addressing the people that weren't interested in kendrick before it starts with [ __ ] where you when i was walking now i run the game got the whole world talking which is kendrick saying how he was ignored before and was never given a chance it may also be a representation of how he had little money but now that he runs the game and has a lot of money the people who weren't interested before come out of the woodworks and want to either befriend kendrick or use him for an ulterior motive kendrick also mentions how everybody want to cut the legs off him which is in relation to the part of the novel roots where kunta kinte gets caught trying to escape the slave plantation which leads to him having his right foot cut off this may be symbolic of the jealousy people now have towards kendrick as they want to cut the legs off him as in stop giving him a platform so he can't run the game anymore as mentioned in the previous lines the chorus ends off with when you got the yams what's the yam this line includes an allusion to ralph ellison's invisible man the unnamed narrator is walking down the streets of new york city when he smells yams triggering memories of his hometown in the south yam is used as a symbol of authenticity the protagonist famously declares i am what i am here kendrick is declaring his own authenticity unlike the rappers he disses in the rest of the verse yams are a key ingredient in african cuisine and have a significance in some parts of africa as a sign of social status in his novel things fall apart chinua atybay begins by documenting how a man's worth in igobo society was largely determined by his yearly yam yield when kendrick says he's got the yams he means he has attained money power and prestige big butts on healthy ladies and balloons filled with drugs particularly heroin are also colloquially known as yams this leads us into the next verse the i can dig rapping line is another quote from james brown's song the payback in this part we can see kendrick showing an obvious distaste towards people that use a ghostwriter to write their lyrics kendrick also cleverly uses a dual meaning of the word bars by referencing the bars written in a rap verse as well as bars that would be in a prison cell kendrick comments on this in his interview with rob markman giant you you do have one line though that when you call out say i could respect rapper yeah yeah yeah with a ghost rider man yeah what yeah um there was a time when having a ghost ride in hip-hop was a no-no like you your career was done if that was found out and i think this generation we've grown more accepting of it and it seems like hip-hop has gotten past that yeah but you seem to draw a line in the center i was wondering what all the time all the time um i got in the game ghostwriting you know and i know how much work and how much effort you know ethnic ethic you need behind that so at the end of the day it's really about respecting that respecting these writers but also as a new artist you have to stand behind your work man and you have to really truly honor the the code of hip-hop as a new artist you know i'm not mentioning the other guys that already laid down the foundations and have the accolades and things like that the new kids that's coming in generation we want we want to talk that you know we shouldn't be taught that just because the time is new you need to go in there and be creative as possible be creative as possible and if you do if you do have help acknowledge their help you know who you seeing with a ghost rider can we talk about that no i can't say who i see with a ghostwriter but i knew he wasn't going to answer that but yeah yeah no but it just but it's even like a newer generation it's not it's not even about who is this it's the new kids we got to stand behind that pen and honor your pen because because growth is everything the first line something's in the water is kendrick again being cautious about the strange behavior he's seeing this could be towards the previously mentioned ghostwriter situation or another callback to the shady things going on behind the scenes of the music industry the other lines tell us that kendrick will not brown-nose anyone or any corporate entity in order to get some gold he's claiming that if he gets to that point he'd rather be a bum back in compton rather than a corporate vessel that is just doing things for money's sake this reminds us of the title of the album that we can now see the meaning of more clearly kendrick is the butterfly that the record industry is trying to pimp however kendrick is not falling into their manipulative tactics and is standing for what he believes is right we are then brought back into the chorus and back into the second verse where kendrick continues to elaborate on the yams by saying the yam brought out of richard pryor is kendrick reminding us of the event when richard pryor set himself on fire after using cocaine as we established before this analogy is appropriate as the yam can be representative of drugs as well as big asses this leads to the second line of manipulated bill clinton with desires which reminds us of the famous situation when bill clinton had a supposed affair with monica lewinsky this juxtaposition illustrates that everyone from hood rats to powerful celebrities and political figures can be corrupted by power and addiction it shows us that although both lifestyles may be drastically different people always fall for the same things this is kendrick telling us about the amount of effort he's putting into his work for two years now that his time has come he considers going back to his hometown of compton solely to show people how successful he is and more primarily the rivals he may have had back in compton and the people who previously doubted him we are then brought back into the chorus and then brought into the third verse this line may be a homage to the classic dog pound track smooth in jamaican patois to be goat mouthed is to be jinxed in standard english this line might be you goddamn [ __ ] but a mammy is not a simple mother the mammy archetype is a familiar and powerful one in american culture the black women who often took care of white children in the american south famous examples include aunt chloe and uncle tom's cabin and hattie mcdaniel's character mammy in gone with the wind goat mouth mummy [ __ ] is also a modified version of the monkey mouth [ __ ] called out in the verse kendrick's telling us how he was willing to kill other rappers careers if they try to get in the way of his objective of being the king of rap the next line explains how kendrick doesn't even need to do this as by the time he's ready to diss them they've already shot themselves in the foot by not stepping up their game in the wrap industry the first line tells us kendrick thinks that writing his own bars and rapping in general is an elementary grade level of difficulty for him it also has a link to the famous sherlock holmes catchphrase but how do you know about them elementary watson this man has been dead for at least two hours as well as that bouncing to the left could be in relation to how kunti kinte's right foot got cut off therefore he could only bounce to the left this is kendrick boasting how after he released goodkid and left his mark on compton it has put compton back on the map as a location of young rap talent he claims that he should probably run for mayor due to the support he's given to compton as well as the newfound support he's found for himself kendrick references the speakings of martin luther king and malcolm x who often spoke of 20 million oppressed african americans this isn't the first time kendrick has referenced the number 20 million as in the song hole up kendrick says i probably die in a minute just bury me with 20 [ __ ] 20 million and a countdown fit it hold up the first line is showing kendrick's obvious distaste of the legal system by saying [ __ ] the judge this is also supported by the album cover where we can see the dead judge lying on the ground in front of the white house kendrick then reminisces on how he made it past 25 which was claimed as uncommon in the compton area as well as this tupac famously died at age 25 making it a more significant year for kendrick to make it past this brings us back to the mantra that was introduced in 4-3 that the meaning of life is sex kendrick is showing himself as ignorant but intentionally so this idea of [ __ ] things is also linked back to how he wanted to [ __ ] over other rappers this is in reference to the lyric and michael jackson's song smooth criminal the reference seems pointless now other than to just reference an artist kendrick likes however jackson has brought up for a more meaningful appearance later in the album in the final line kendrick is telling us the different stages of his career so far he started off as a peasant in section 80 turned into a prince and good kid and now was a king in the release of teperb by saying he's in the belly of the beast is kendrick telling us that now he's popular it makes him a bigger target not only for fellow rappers but also the media and the industry we are then brought back into the chorus but this time with a change kendrick being cut off by the gunshot tells us that the only way kendrick's rivals would be able to take him down is through the act of violence just like a bullet breaking the sound barrier kendrick is hitting us with the funk before we can even realize it we are feeling the music before we hear the sound it is already inside us as a society he is just making us realize it the song ends off with the line we want the funk repeated over and over this is in relation to the famous parliament song give up the funk where they also repeat this same phrase finally we hear the start of a poem that will be gradually revealed throughout the album i remember you was conflicted misusing your influence though confusing at first each new part of the poem that's revealed represents the theme that kendrick will be taking in the next song for example the line misusing your influence tells us that the next track institutionalized will be about this topic and what relation it has to kendrick the song opens with the lines i feel this is another interaction between uncle sam and kendrick where kendrick is asking him why bring up money when he still doesn't even know what to do with it he's telling us that he doesn't even know how to handle this newfound fame in the rap industry this is kendrick again looking back on his time where he grew up in compton he uses phrases like trapped and institutionalized to give us the impression that living in this ghetto was sort of being like trapped in a prison kendrick tells us that previously he would have been embarrassed about where he grew up by saying he's not proud to admit it however we see now that kendrick has grown up and turned into a famous rapper this embarrassment is now gone and he says he keeps running back for a visit kendrick then repeats the same line adding emphasis to this phrase this is a line that is brought up again later in the song the black of the berry is telling us that no matter how famous kendrick gets the hood lifestyle he got from living in compton is so deeply embedded in him that he could easily slip back into the role of the ghetto lifestyle kendrick again is telling us the kind of things he would do for his friends back in compton if and when he got into a high position of power however by mentioning the president it also brings kendrick's mindset into question as a president you would have to look at the bigger picture of the whole country's problems and sort them out accordingly however with kendrick he talks about paying his mama's rent and bulletproofing chevy doors in the grand scheme of the usa these are trivial things to focus on as a president showing us that kendrick's thoughts and aspirations are institutionalized in the ghetto lifestyle the final line master take the chains off me again brings up this theme of slavery in the united states however this line is in relation to kendrick having a self-awareness of his institutionalization he wants to see and change things beyond the gay lifestyle but he can't seem to kendrick references the film forrest gump and uses the metaphor life is like a box of chocolates which is used to represent the randomness of life this may tell us kendrick is still unsure about the future of his rap career and the challenges he has coming with uncle sam as well as this he also uses the phrase quid pro quo which again fits into the box of chocolates analogy meaning to take something good with the bad although you don't know what you'll get in the first place this line might be referring to anyone that tries to copy kendrick's bars and style of rapping once they bite his style they can be identified as salmonella positive the first line tells us that kendrick is going to take stress off the rap industry by revitalizing the rap game and making it bigger than it was before then in the second line to be lactose intolerant means unable to consume dairy products to milk something means to exploit it and to reap it and this is precisely what kendrick has been doing with the rap game never lactose intolerant means that he will continue doing it he doesn't hesitate to milk the game up in these lines kendrick brings up the idea of not having a real education kendrick is just stating how although he didn't have a real education or a scholarship he learnt all of his life lessons on the streets of compton kendrick is bringing the common mantra of anything is possible but also shining the realities of the situation onto it this would link back to the ghetto lifestyle kendrick faced in compton and all the kids he would have been around that had dreams and aspirations but never followed them purely because they either couldn't be bothered to put any effort towards them or because they thought they were hopeless due to the area that they lived in in these lines kendrick is talking about his friends back in compton kendrick is bringing his loyalty into question with his friends which shows a contrast with the previous song king kunta the line truthfully all of them spoiled may allude to uncle sam's musings getting into kendrick's head and making him think twice before helping a friend out unlike before when he would do anything for him this is a line that's brought up later in the song where kendrick now was a respected artist is invited to the bet awards and brings one of his homies with him we'll see how the situation unfolds later in the second verse again kendrick uses a double meaning here not only talking to his friend but also uncle sam in the record industry once again kendrick's homie looks at the artists like their harvests by seeing the jewelry and money they flaunt about at the awards show making him want to steal from them but at the same time uncle sam in the record industry is no better than kendrick's homie as they both share the same lack of care towards these people and only want to harvest them for monetary gain as a part of the institutionalization of the black man he is stuck in the mindset of wanting a rolex or rolls-royce both symbols of success and wealth he is expected to aspire to as part of black culture he will do anything to have these items including kill other black people he's also talking about the homie that he brought to the bet awards the homie wants to rob every rolex he sees almost like he's pre-programmed to think that way regardless of the generosity kendrick is showing these two lines again reinforce the point of kendrick's friend stealing from these artists at the awards show which leads us into the chorus the chorus which is sung by belial is from the perspective of kendrick's grandmother this links back to the line of dream only a dream if work don't follow it by telling kendrick that nothing's gonna change unless he gets up and starts working hard for what he wants to achieve this also links back to kendrick's friend where even after having kendrick giving him what they want still go back to their old ways of stealing expensive things this then leads into a bridge wrapped by snoop dogg this puts simply what kendrick has been telling us throughout the song and leads us into the second verse which is wrapped from the perspective of kendrick's friend at the bet awards a walking lick is someone who has a lot of wealth and valuables on them making them appealing to seal from kendrick's friend is lamenting to him about all the rich and famous people at the show he's essentially breaking down due to seeing all of the lavish lives at the award show knowing full well that he is a long way from getting to any such position of power and wealth in these lines kendrick's friend is listing off all of the things he sees and hears people discussing at the awards show now the first line is probably my favorite line out of all the songs i've analyzed so far and let me explain why kendrick cleverley writes these lines with his homies thoughts of the rich people at the awards show to parallel with uncle sam in the record industry however just at a much smaller scale whereas the record industry wants to play the long game and pimp kendrick for millions of dollars kendrick's friend simply wants to steal jewelry from the rich artists at the awards show as well as that the other two lines link back to the instincts in the hood lifestyle it shows the attitude of not asking any questions but just seeing the opportunity of money and pouncing on it quickly out of instinct kendrick's friend is angry at the fact that poor people in the ghetto and such have to deal with the complications of a recession whereas rich artists can just blow money on anything and everything they want and still not be affected at all by the recession in fact some are so rich that they won't even know a recession is happening at all kendrick's friend is posing the question of how come everyone else is suffering but they aren't and in the second line he finally has enough and has reached his boiling point so starts thinking of how he could attain this lavish lifestyle this again leads back to the institutionalization of a black man being stuck in the mindset that the only way to get what you want is to steal or kill someone for it the word per diem is a specific amount of money an organization gives an individual often an employee per day to cover living expenses when traveling to work this would mean a lot to someone living in the ghetto and they would protect their summer money at all costs however seeing someone put their money on the floor with no care for it makes kendrick's friend angry and makes him want to rob them even more with his 4-4 he's telling kendrick that it's going to take a lot of money and time for him to get out of this addiction of stealing from people more wealthy than him these lines tell us that kendrick's friend isn't going to go through the effort of planning how to steal from these celebrities however if the opportunity presents itself in front of him he simply can't control himself and it's only a matter of time when the watch lands in la tille goes and steals it kendrick's friend brings up the idea of robin hood a famous fictional outlaw who stole from the rich and gave back to the poor it's been debated and continues to be debated if this is the right course of action to take but in this case it's irrelevant he simply uses this idea to try and convince kendrick that this idea of stealing from his co-workers is okay because it will benefit his homies back at compton this then leads back into the chorus and the final bridge from snoop dogg which again sums up the song very well this final line reinforces all of the ideas i presented earlier in this video it tells us how although kendrick is now famous he is now confused on how to actually handle this newfound fame he thinks by taking his friend out the hood he's doing a good deed however he has to now know that his thoughts and opinions are naturally just starting to change from the hood lifestyle that his friends are still living the hood lifestyle was so engraved in his homies that no matter what kendrick does and where he takes them those hood instincts will always follow with them it ends telling us how kendrick took his money he got from the awards and stashed it in a now closed speakeasy the song opens with a continuation of the poem mixed in with a woman moaning it's unclear if this moaning is from a place of fear or pleasure the song starts by seeming like a love song however as it continues we start to realize that this is another metaphor the song continues with the first verse this whole verse is quite basic pretty much only telling us about how this girl at a party wants to be with kendrick we then go to the chorus this has more sexual references where we realize the walls kendrick is talking about are referencing a vagina [ __ ] i'm a child as well as lines like i can feel your rain when it cries meaning he can feel her sadness during sex the song so far seems to be very lustful but also understanding from kendrick this then leads us into the second verse in the first lines this is again another reference to sex telling us that the woman is using her body to make kendrick please her sexually this is kendrick telling us that although the woman may be enjoying the sex he can see it's only being used as a way to fill a void in her life that's filled with pain and resentment the woman needs someone to live in her walls to take her mind off things and relieve tension from her life a tenant is someone who rents out a space from a landlord for a certain amount of time however also doesn't expect a permanent commitment the girl in this song has a man of her own who has been incarcerated so while kendrick knows this girl will be available for a while he knows it won't last forever these lines are referring to how kendrick investigates every nook and cranny of this girl's interior pink walls whereas this is obviously another reference to sex it could also be referring to the pink walls of the brain interrogated being the standout word it shows that although kendrick is partaking in the act of sex with this vulnerable individual he's also trying to find out what's wrong and the ulterior motives behind why she wants to do this the first line may be in reference to how kendrick thought either this girl or every girl in kendrick's life up to this point didn't want to sleep with him stating that the wolves want to cry tears as well as being a reference to the vagina again also refer back to the frail vulnerable state that this woman is in this leads us back into the chorus before entering into the third verse in these lines kendrick now introduces the theme of religion which if not clear from his previous work has very close ties to kendrick and how he lives his life due to this reference to religion it's likely the phrase knocked these walls down as a reference to the religious biblical story of the walls of jericho a story in which israelites marched around the walls until they fell down through their faith in god kendrick has credited god's favor as the reason he was able to escape his rough upbringing he believes his career is divinely inspired and that he was called to a greater purpose this line is about kendrick potentially about to orgasm but his mental strength allows him to continue this could also be a reference to the music industry themes from before as it would make sense for kendrick to start feeling suffocated by the newfound fame he has before accepting it and catching a second wind by making this album this is kendrick telling us that he feels contempt within the walls of this woman either meaning how long till he climaxes or until her man gets back out of the jail kendrick also tells us he's been looking from the outside in telling us that the thought of being with this girl has been on his mind for a while again all these lines could easily be referencing the fame he desired when getting into the rap industry and how he feels now that he's part of it kendrick is talking about women who claim to have the cleanest walls meaning to have slept with less men in their life using the phrase same old song as well as following up with i beg to differ shows that kendrick thinks these women are lying about this kendrick doesn't want to be involved or related to these other people who invade these women's walls kendrick ends off this verse with almost the same phrase although changes the words demolition might crush to demolition gong crush showing the more he gives into his vices the more it becomes a matter of inevitability instead of possibility this once again leads us into the chorus before the instrumental starts to break down into a sea of ambient keyboard chords smooth brass and manic keys i think this was done in a way to separate the two themes of the track in the next verse kendrick will break away from using the woman as a metaphor and make his message more blatant what i haven't mentioned up until this point is that the woman kendrick is referring to is the girlfriend of the man who killed kendrick's friend which was previously mentioned in the song sing about me from goodkid mad city the man killed kendrick's friend and then ratted to the police after capture kendrick retaliates by having sex with the killer's girlfriend once he achieves his fame this is what kendrick is referring to in the poem about how he's using his power full of resentment whereas before kendrick's verses were focusing on the girl and how he enjoyed his time with her it's almost like kendrick was also using this sex as a form of coping the loss of his friend and now that kendrick is focusing on the man who killed him the song takes a much more somber and darker tone this is kendrick now fully addressing the man who killed his friend by juxtaposing the woman's rules to his by saying your walls like a different person has been introduced kendrick's telling him that due to his actions his fate is already sealed in prison it's his destiny and he has to accept it burning the accessories would be in reference to the man potentially ratting out his other gang members that were involved with the crime this is brought up again in a lyric coming up on good kid mad city the recipe was a track about women weed and weather here he rejects the vanity of sex for spirituality kendrick makes a distinction here from the man's wall in prison to the outside world and the women's walls this wall is telling the man that commissary is low meaning that the man is running low on his funds in prison to spend on things like food and hygiene items the race wars inside prisons especially some in america are very common and often escalate however kendrick's telling the man no calling co meaning the correctional officer as this would make the man appear as a snitch to the other prisoners he also can't run to his mother anymore let alone even cooler as phone calls in prison are allowed within limits and are few and far between the word irreputable is a word kendrick has used before in the track charade however it follows more closely with the word disreputable meaning a lack of respectability and reputation which can be shown in these next lines sammy the bull gravano is a world famous snitch responsible for bringing down boss of the gambino crime family john gotti gravano himself was responsible for multiple murders but ended up serving only five years in prison because of his cooperation informing or snitching in many cultures is viewed very negatively but it's especially taboo in organized crime even the walls of a prison consider snitching to be [ __ ] behavior this tells us that kendrick's investigation of the woman as mentioned earlier has led to her revealing other secrets about her man to kendrick that weren't previously known this is referring to the man's thoughts after realizing the harsh realities of prison life hoping that the warden would afford an appeal for him to provide him a gateway out of jail kendrick uses the word sentence as a double meaning reinforcing the previous line he just said as well as reinforcing how important it was that this killer got the sentence that he deserved the walls in this scenario are referring to the walls of this man's mind and his guilty conscience kendrick's retaliation was done and was strong enough when writing sing about me as kendrick knows he will always haunt the man who killed his best friend kendrick tells us straight up this time of how the man killed his homeboy and got spared by god although karma retaliated back to the man as he ends up getting imprisoned on the same night of the shooting this is now confirmation that this song was basically all a ploy to get back at the man who killed kendrick's friend he's now telling the man to rewind the first verse almost like it will have a different meaning to him now that he knows it's about him all of the lyrics were kendrick's way of getting into the man's head and making him have dreams and nightmares about the prospect this tells us how the woman still cares and thinks about the man but when she meets up with the famous rapper she forgets about him as kendrick takes his place this ends the song as it fades out with the same somber atmosphere this leads on to a new part of the poem which leads us into the song you before diving into the lyrics however first i just want to quote kendrick when discussing this song with rolling stone that was one of the hardest songs i had to write there's some very dark moments in there all my insecurities and selfishness and let downs but it helps so it helps this tells us what the overall theme of the track is about is kendrick looking into himself as he said before looking at his insecurities and selfishness this is likely kendrick's most heartfelt and introspective cut on the whole album also i'm pretty sure the you referred to in this song has nothing to do with any of the previous subjects talked about previously such as the music industry or uncle sam however it will reference something from these walls it could also have some connotations with the rap game however i think the u is mainly referring to kendrick himself just tearing himself apart his confidence at an all-time low the song opens with kendrick screaming leading on from the final line of the poem in the previous song this leads into the repetition of the phrase this likely is referring to tupac's poem love is just complicated tupac obviously being a massive influence on kendrick's work like this song the two-pack poem focuses on the complexities of love and more specifically aspects like self-love and self-worth we then go to the first verse where kendrick is seemingly trying to mimic the vocal inflection of a preacher at a church elongating phrases to emphasize them this is also backed up in the music video god is a gangster where kendrick has seen to be baptized kendrick is looking at himself from a third person perspective telling himself that the blame and shame he puts on himself makes him feel like he's nothing and in some cases makes him feel nothing at all the marble flaws line could also be referencing the money and fame he has gained from his rap career not translating to happiness kendrick is breaking down on these marble flaws with no confidence in himself however this doesn't seem to make sense to him as coming from the poor lifestyle back in compton the sole dream was to be rich with notoriety kendrick has these things now but still feels unfulfilled which has led him to his lowest point in life so far kendrick is seemingly outing his fans here saying these anonymous strangers are claiming kendrick almost like they own him this links back to the several lines referring to slavery in his previous songs and the new type of slavery kendrick feels in the music industry in this line you can tell kendrick is having an internal dialogue with himself one side is telling himself everything is alright and almost putting up a front to show everything is okay however in this depressive state he's found himself in another side of kendrick is revealed this side is self-deprecating seemingly telling him the actual state of kendrick's mind almost bringing him down from the pedestal his fans placed him on telling him his tolerance is nothing special the word convinced is also used which shows that not only is kendrick in this depressive state but also confused about how and why he's feeling like this kendrick again in this self-reflective state is turning the blame onto himself and as we can see from the lyrics coming up kendrick starts to blame himself over things that are mostly out of his control kendrick is blaming himself for his little sister getting pregnant as a teen although it might seem like kendrick is asking where's your patience and where's your antennas to his sister we can see in the next line where was the influence you speak of that kendrick is still tearing himself apart by blaming himself for not having a bigger influence on his sister's life kendrick finds irony in the final line by pointing out that although he preaches in front of hundreds of thousands of fans he thinks his influence never reached or impacted his sister's life which kendrick thinks results in her getting pregnant as a teen with this newfound fame kendrick became a legend in the rap game and thus was seen as being the new torch carrier of the west coast rap scene kendrick however doesn't feel like he has lived up to his previous counterparts and inspirations so again tears himself apart calling himself a failure this line emphasizes the depressive state kendrick is in on this track claiming how he's never liked himself leaving kendrick with a very low self-esteem it's these kind of lines that will be contrasted in the later song i kendrick is again bringing himself back down to earth telling himself the fans that say they need him or the music industry that say they need him for sales don't actually need or want him almost like kendrick is telling himself if he died everyone would move on he's telling himself that his status has deceived him into thinking he matters as much as he did before he was famous here kendrick is telling himself that the previous acclaim and sales on his previous albums are all lies and that nobody actually wants or needs him in these lines it seems like a younger kendrick is talking to him reminding himself of where he came from as we've seen before for a lot of people living in section 8 the idea of making it was to be rich and famous younger kendrick is telling him that getting to this point hasn't changed him and in fact has made kendrick more complacent than he once was he's telling him that the money has gone to his head and that his status has raised his self-esteem so much that he thinks he's above criticism in this bridge kendrick confronts his alcoholism referring to 100 proof describing the alcohol content of a drink for kendrick the alcohol takes his mind off things however only for a temporary period we are then taken to a break where a cleaner is knocking on kendrick's hotel door the distorted and broken instrumental during this part representing kendrick's broken emotional state we are then brought into the second verse the kendrick's depression has come out in full form and has made him second guess everything he cared about he's claiming that he knows he's irresponsible selfish and in denial almost like it's a proven fact while kendrick was busy becoming rich and famous off of his music ordinary people in compton were still dying including his friend chad kendrick feels guilty that although he claims to be trying to improve the situation in compton his career has come between him and the daily struggles of the people he cares for kendrick is taking the perspective of someone who's still backing compton after kendrick left to be rich and famous he thinks their reaction would be to out him and claim that kendrick is not one of their own as shown in the second line it's almost like kendrick sees himself as a sellout for going on his own path and leaving his friends and family back in compton kendrick again brings up his friend chad who was mentioned in the previous song these walls kendrick is again seen blaming himself for not being there to help him kendrick got so caught up with this new rapper lifestyle that he forgot about his roots back in compton and the people who made him who he was kendrick was overseas when chad got shot and was in hospital so rather than going back to see him he instead facetimed him to see if he was okay what kendrick couldn't have known however is that chad would later die in the hospital and because of this kendrick feels like a failure for not going to see his friend in his last days kendrick even brings his religion into the mix by claiming even god wouldn't forgive him and claim kendrick failed between the second and third verse you can hear kendrick quietly sobbing kendrick's conscience is speaking to him to begin this verse kendrick reveals the secret on his mind that he goes through mood swings that include deep depressions the secret may be that kendrick is diagnosed bipolar but to outright say it is still taboo and hip-hop so he leaves it at mood swings kendrick has been excessively stressed lately and has taken up the habit of drinking way more than he used to the pressure of having to exceed the world's expectations and pushing the boundaries of music to its fullest has caused him to drink and cry himself to sleep at night he knows that now he's made it people in the hood will think that he changed he thinks about some guys back in the hood that he's been avoiding lately and knows that if he ever does talk to him there will just beef kendrick's alcoholism is compared to an earthquake showing that kendrick is destroying himself and his mental state this line shows how kendrick became shook meaning scared once he realized some confinement was needed he's scared as at this point he feels like his status has led him to have no form of privacy at this point it seems like kendrick's inner thoughts are threatening him and close to breaking free resulting on the outside as a public breakdown kendrick can be heard feeding his alcoholism during this line it shows how as kendrick is just about to open up about an inner thought or secret he represses it with the use of alcohol it should be said that whilst kendrick is drinking his mind is still evaluating kendrick's situation kendrick uses a double entendre to describe how although kendrick's mind is [ __ ] up it's still not as intoxicated and [ __ ] up as kendrick is he questions whether he is worthy of success with his conscience telling him that he should have filled his black revolver blast a long time ago but instead the blast was empty further pushing kendrick's suicidal thoughts in these final lines kendrick constantly alludes to the possibility of killing himself for example if kendrick looked into a mirror that could talk it'd say you gotta go as in kill himself and kendrick tells that if he broke down and told the world his secrets it's almost definite he'd kill himself letting the world know money can't stop a suicidal thought or weakness this time the song ends without the poem instead just a somber fade out this then leads into the next song all right unlike the previous song you alright takes a more optimistic approach as we saw before and you kendrick essentially tore himself apart over several different aspects the main one being how he blamed himself over the death of his best friend chad in all right kendrick is seemed to be searching for a way to get out of this depressive self-loathing state and as we'll see as we start to look into the lyrics kendrick does manage to find his way for the most part here kendrick is referring to a speech given by the lead character in the 1982 novel the color purple the novel focuses on the life of an african-american woman in the 1930s with the themes of violence religion and most poignantly race with the novel being set in the 1930s it was making commentary on things at the time like legal segregation and jim crow laws in the novel the lead character celie like many other black women at the time is far too often victims of violent crimes committed by white men however as the novel progresses much like kendrick seely learns about the rich cultures and civilizations that existed in africa and takes pride in our ethnic heritage as you can probably tell all these aspects link to the themes constantly being touched on so far into pimper butterfly and as we progress through the song there will be more instances of the self-pride the following lines of this intro and the chorus share relatively the same themes and points so i'll let them play out now as we can see in the first four lines kendrick is looking onto himself as well as others and shouting out all of their problems in an air of confidence and pride he's owning how he felt in you and looks back on it and can now say that his faith in god is going to make everything okay the chorus reinforces the same idea of people's faith in god ensuring them that everything will eventually be okay no matter what kind of hardships one may be experiencing at a certain point of time this chant of wigan be all right became deeply associated with the recent black lives matter movement at the time and can even be seen in this clip being charted by a group of black lives matter activists [Applause] with kendrick's mental health tribulations out the way for the most part kendrick puts his focus back on the record industry which we saw him last mention in institutionalized kendrick is now realizing the reality of the industry he's working in and that kendrick is wanted purely for economic reasons not to do with his personality or actual musical talent when kendrick mentions the phrase pay cut here it's obviously related to how the record industry sees kendrick however it could also be talking about the more common african-american and how the industry and big businesses are always willing to prey on black consumers to get them to buy expensive things here kendrick brings back the theme of race and the countless cases of police brutality in america especially towards black people kendrick goes on with this concept of police brutality in the us and brings up a gun known as the mac 11. kendrick references the attachment of a suppressor that can be equipped the mach 11 to minimise the sound of gunfire this is a clever way of calling out how the truth about police brutality and institutional racism is kept hushed by the media and general public making most people unaware of the casualties of this police brutality especially towards the black community kendrick brings back the themes of you claiming how these drugs only create this temporary happiness he also mentions benjamin which is obviously a reference to one of the founding fathers of the usa benjamin franklin whose face also appears on the 100 bill kendrick here is seen exposing his sexual and monetary temptations kendrick is reinforcing his love for his mother and family but does this because he feels like he's disappointing them for giving in to his vices he also makes the comment of reaping what he sows which is a phrase used to describe getting what you give out most commonly in reference to a person's karma kendrick is looking at the parts of his life where he sinned and assures his mother that he knows that his sinful ways will come back to haunt him with kendrick fearing that this bad karma will deny him from heaven kendrick also mentions the term preliminary hearing which is in reference to the criminal justice system where a judge has to decide whether there is enough sufficient evidence to begin a trial kendrick's using this phrase in a spiritual sense by relating it to how kendrick's karma will deal with him while he leaves his gang out of it however bringing up this term may also be referencing back to the justice system which links to the police brutality themes that we saw previously kendrick wants the world to know that it's already too late for him to change his karma or the way he chooses to now live his life kendrick is telling us that he thinks he's gone crazy and that he's drowning in his vices however he's doing it over this upbeat song with a positive message and even switches up his flow here to insinuate that he's going to actively ignore these problems from now on kendrick is still seen worrying about things like his karma and reputation worrying that people won't listen to him after he drowns in his vices but is contrasting it with this mostly positive outlook the song has had so far kendrick goes back to the race theme by using the idiom wouldn't you know to introduce the material emotional and psychological consequences of being black in america the line looking at the world like where do we go is an authentic question of action that is the primary referent underlying all studies of the african diaspora the african diaspora is a term commonly used to describe the mass dispersion of peoples from africa during the transatlantic slave trades from the 1500s to the 1800s this diaspora took millions of people from western and central africa to different regions throughout the americas and the caribbean kendrick suggests that identity conflicts and a lack of pride are often corresponding conditions he draws a connection between the positive development of black pride and the potential personal social and political revolution that can arise from struggling this line again refers to the constant brutality african-americans face by the police and how this long-standing theme of hatred towards the police in hip-hop isn't unwarranted after kendrick has reflected on his sins he visits the preacher looking for forgiveness it's implied here that kendrick's knees are getting weak due to that act of kneeling which is used as a way to submit to god kendrick has spent so long kneeling and praying for patience that his willpower is forcing him to eventually make an action this leads us back into the chorus before going into the second verse where we see the introduction of the figure lucy here we see the return of the music industry aspects of the album coming back into play with the character of lucy short for lucifer asking what kendrick wants lucifer is simply another name for the devil and as we can see here lucy is trying to entice kendrick with a number of material things like cars and houses in an attempt to get kendrick to lose his faith in god whereas lucy is only introduced here we will see even more of this character in the upcoming track for sale we also see the reintroduction of the same lines that were seen in wesley's theory the 40 acres on a mule we explained what this meant in the first episode but to summarise the 40 acres and a mule was what was given to the previously enslaved farmers after the dismantling of slavery if kendrick were to agree to any of these offers he would essentially be trading his soul to the devil here lucy repeats the exact same line seen in wesley's theory except replaces the name with their own this is a way of saying that the record industry that's trying to pimp kendrick and trick him into doing things for their own motives alone are equally as bad as the devil they both are trying to gain kendrick's trust by saying that they are kendrick's friend however like before kendrick is wise to this kendrick is making a comment on consumer culture by mentioning them all as lucy tries to bargain with kendrick yet again here kendrick comes back telling us that he can see the evil for what it is and that in a spiritual and religious sense it's illegal on top of this the term illegal being used could also be bringing back the themes of police brutality and their illegal targeting of black people while lucy in the record industry is constantly trying to bargain and tempt kendrick he can see this very easily however with the influence of lucy being so strong over kendrick he's actively trying to ignore this evil as he deposits every other zero kendrick is starting to commit evil acts despite realizing this as he is most likely depositing this money to some form of illegal drug trade here kendrick is referring again to these monetary temptations by mentioning a candy-painted regal car kendrick is digging through his pockets that we would imagine would be filled with huge amounts of money however although this is true it puts into perspective that no amount of money will be good enough to satisfy kendrick's greed which is being fueled by lucy it's revealed here that kendrick is actually getting these dollars in order to keep lucy around perhaps in an attempt to make his mind focus on his vices rather than his depressive side seen in you kendrick continuous flow here could be seen as a continuous internal dialogue between kendrick and lucy he breaks this by screaming which could show how kendrick realizes how caught up he is with this greed and how it's starting to take over his entire life kendrick is again reinforcing that he knows what he's doing is not right however he keeps choosing to ignore and not talk about it the phrase every day i seek rule may also show that this is a cycle that kendrick is stuck in under the influence of lucy and his vices kendrick is also turning this money round for a positive reason this time making connotations with the charitable state kendrick is referring back to his homies in compton and how kendrick's money can actually help uplift his friends kendrick looks at this charity as a way to secure his place in heaven hoping that it can make up for any of the sins kendrick previously committed kendrick mentions his cousin pat dogg who sadly passed away during the time of the recording of t-purp as well as mentioning kendrick's homie chadigan members and peers that are affiliated with the bloods habitually replace letters with the c sound with the letter b to represent their affiliation kendrick is telling his dead homies to kick back in heaven while he brings in all the money as if he were in the trap kendrick writes songs about both his good deeds and his sins in order to repent and be morally good with god right with god could also mean right next to god or in other words deceased from here the song repeats the same pre-chorus and chorus before going into the outro sung by kendrick and thundercat continuing from where the hook of you left off kendrick admits it's difficult to love someone as troubled as him when experiencing sudden fame his entire lifestyle and people's perception of him changed which was possibly frightening the fear of not knowing how to handle the resulting stress led him to a depression despite all the hardships kendrick promises that he'll fight his depression and would rather die than to break his promise he doesn't think too highly of himself but people that he admires provides him the light to push forward this helps him keep his head high through his struggles the song closes with the poem again now adding new lines referring to lucy as we've seen kendrick has realized the influence of lucy over his life and knows that the actions he's doing are wrong these final lines set up the next song for sale as kendrick tries to put an end to lucy's influence in his life [Music] in this song we get a much more deeper insight into the character of lucy who was brought up in the previous song alright if you want to hear the introduction of that character listen to the previous episode in this song kendrick tells us what the character of lucy has been telling him as they try to attempt kendrick and try to get him to sign contracts that he knows nothing about lucy is looking to kendrick who has now earned and achieved everything he wanted to and is saying that she thought this is what he wanted referring to the money and status he achieved off of his last album good kid mad city this again brings up the importance of religion in kendrick's life and how the only way to clear your mind and wipe your sins is to go to church and plead to god for forgiveness much like the women kendrick is obsessed with lucifer presented himself in the form of a woman trying to find another way to tempt kendrick into thinking like him lucy is telling kendrick that once she gets him she'll hit the throttle making him lose his faith and turn to sinning like we could see in the previous song alright lucy is trying to find a way to befriend kendrick first as she knows it will then be easier to make him turn to sin it's another way of stopping his creative force and instead making him rest on his laurels and not innovate in a genre of music the offer of doing nothing except smoking all day and throwing about money constantly is tempting to kendrick but he knows that he has to keep pushing forward in a creative manner lucifer is pining for kendrick to give into his way of thinking and affects a woman's voice again trying to tempt kendrick in the form of lust when lucy takes over kendrick's mind and makes him give in to his sins he's gonna be riding dirty because the actions that he'll be doing will be illegal by saying his registration is out of service it shows that once lucy takes over kendrick will be breaking the law even on the most basic of levels like not having his car registered i think this line is more metaphorical as it shows that if kendrick takes lucy's way of living then he will be out of control he'll be drink driving and swerving all over the place but this would also represent the distorted and warped mindset kendrick would have the actions that it will take will not be morally grounded but is still tempting as all the ideas lucy has come up with still live within the realms of pleasure and enjoyment and they're especially tempting in the confused and depressive state that kendrick is in with the mindset that kendrick is currently in he goes to places like the mall and has this constant internal dialogue with lucy wondering if he should go along with her and given to his temptations the evil consumerist that kendrick seems to be so against is being fed by him because his mind is so broken and he's so confused with his newfound fame and huge amounts of money he now has lucy brings up sheraine who was a prominent figure featured on kendrick's previous project goodkid mad city she's based on a real person that kendrick went out with in high school however her name was not actually sheraine lucy is telling kendrick that whatever feelings he felt towards sheraine which was shown in gokid mad city to be an infatuation are nothing compared to what kendrick and lucy could be together kendrick was obsessed with charane and made her appear a lot more amazing than she probably was because at the end of the day she was just a normal girl from compton this makes us think that kendrick will easily get sucked into the temptations of lucy as compared to sharane lucy seems so much more knowledgeable and glamorous the well-known poem roses are red is brought up here to show the youthfulness and happiness of the relationship between lucy and kendrick it's based purely on infatuations of lust rather than anything like knowledge or wisdom bringing up roses may also be referring to a well-known inspiration for kendrick outcast and their song roses that song relates to a similar issue of a desirable woman appearing as glamorous however their personality being terrible and in some cases straight up nasty and all that ends up coming out of that relationship is misery this could relate to this song by telling us how if kendrick goes along with lucy and starts caving to his vices it will force both of them into an even deeper depression than they were in you this can be seen in the second line with the phrase pushing up daisies which is a phrase used to represent someone literally being dead and buried we then go back into the bridge before being brought into the second verse this first line sets up what the second verse will be about and it's gonna be about the first time kendrick was introduced to lucy i love lucy was a popular 1950s sitcom the show's premise was centered around the affable yet clumsy lucy always trying to convince her husband a successful cuban singer and band leader to let her into his show despite her inability to sing this line further links lucy to the entertainment industry in all its shapes and forms kendrick is linking lucy to their industry so the listener understands that lucy doesn't care about the type or quality of art just the monetary gain that can be had from it kendrick is telling us that lucy led him to this point and may have actually gave kendrick the idea to rap in the first place kendrick has talked previously on how hard it is to have a good long life in areas such as compton due to the poverty and gang life around it when kendrick got past 25 being led by lucy he then starts to follow the raps that she previously spit leading to kendrick's music career being born again kendrick is telling us how lucy came into his life and is telling us that he actually introduced lucy into his mind most likely from a younger age when a downside of his life was being brought out lucy has come back into kendrick's life because he's currently at his lowest point so far and is being tempted all the time to just give up his creativeness in replace of sitting on the money he has now and stopping entirely usually lucy waits and lets her victims come to her for example like the huge amounts of rappers that start a rap career for the sole purpose of being rich and famous it's the saying of selling your soul to the devil a lot of rappers would happily be perceived as sellouts and lose their integrity just to get more money and status in this case kendrick started his rap career to show off his technical and lyrical talent money and fame were good byproducts of this but the main purpose for kendrick was to show off his musical ability lucy had to switch up her approach for kendrick as he might not have even entertained the idea of going along with lucy's temptations if she didn't come to him first lucy is telling kendrick that if he goes with her she'll always be around due to him selling his soul for record sales and notoriety but will leave him be she's done this with many other rappers so has millions of stories most likely favoring her in order to get kendrick to join her the consequence of telling kendrick this is that it exposes her as a liar even though she just told kendrick that she doesn't usually do this she still apparently has millions of stories where she did the exact same thing as she's doing now these boring rappers that lucy came after are presumably rappers that had little to no status but then were put into the spotlight due to lucy's involvement she's trying to tempt kendrick here again to get him to agree with her way of thinking in another attempt to get kendrick on her side she now starts bringing his family into the matter by saying if kendrick goes with her it will fill his pockets with huge amounts of money giving him the ability to move his family out of compton the temptation of lucy will always be around no matter how long kendrick stays in the rap industry however it's his decision whether he goes along with her schemes and gives her his trust and loyalty even lucy here admits that the temptation she presents is not so easy to avoid and especially when it's constantly being presented to kendrick when she's constantly at these functions now the direct connotations are being made toward lucy and satan she's laying all her cards on the table saying she knows that kendrick's faith towards god is extremely strong but if he goes along with her it will work out better for him in the long run we know this to be not true but it seems like at this point in time kendrick is under the spell of lucy although lucy heard kendrick's prayers and religious side being exposed on his previous albums she's willing to put that to one side as she can see how kendrick can be exploited in order to get him on her side she also has hindsight on her side with the millions of stories she has a lot of them would most likely play out the same way religion is not necessarily a factor that will stop people from pursuing lucy and their temptations although these rappers may follow a religion they hide behind the guise of forgiveness so in their eyes it's okay to sin as well as having the potential to get ridiculous amounts of paper meaning money by associating with these rappers she's also got tons of paperwork from all the rappers that sold their soul in exchange for the paper that lucy is offering in these last lines we see the act of lucy being replaced for the actual evil corporate tone of lucifer he's been following and tracking kendrick's actions his whole life but has only now presented himself as he sees the potential for kendrick to become a huge star that represents sin in the world his intentions become extremely clear here as he stops all the tempting and seductiveness that he was showing when portraying himself as lucy but now he just wants kendrick to sign the contract a contract that would be giving a soul away to the devil we can see that he's getting impatient with kendrick's constant back and forth between siding with him and keeping his faith to god although lucifer doesn't order kendrick to sign the contract as that would make him seem too demanding he instead says if that's possible to try appear best to kendrick hopefully getting him to sign the contract we can obviously see the connotations of this and the constant flurry of contracts that have to be signed when being brought into the record industry no matter how far you get in your music career there will always come a point where someone will say that they'll help you but in exchange for a cut of something whether that be your metaphorical soul or a cut of the money you're making this leads us back to the chorus ending the song before being brought back to the poem we can see here that with the evils of lucy all around him he needed to find a way to get his mind centered and start thinking like he did when he had a clearer mind before he was famous so kendrick decides to head back home this leads us into the track mama [Music] the song opens with an intro from taz arnold with kendrick persevering throughout all of lucy's temptations he's now returned home to where he has this overwhelming feeling of euphoria perhaps going back home has reminded him of the feelings that he felt when starting his rap career maybe reigniting a fire and passion for the music he creates which up till now had been overtaken by the temptations and vices that come with getting money and fame kendrick again refers back to his compton roots by mentioning the black pendleton baseball caps which were popularized within gang culture however he tells the listener to fall back because they don't share the same synonym perhaps relating to the countless amounts of privileged fans that listen to his music who like to put themselves in the same shoes as someone who is in the hood when people do this they don't fully understand the effect this would have on say a genuinely poor black person who has no other choice than to take part in the gang lifestyle the word synonym may also be referring back to race and more specifically the n-word with kendrick telling all of his white fans that they will never be aware of the full extent that word has on their race so tells these fans to just fall back kendrick is reminiscing on his time spent in his earlier years trying to be a rapper and how he was even trying before the internet was around which led to countless famous artists that we know today posting videos online and building a reputation and a following but as kendrick says in the next lines he was still young and lacked the experience not only with his technical rap ability but also in trying to find an appropriate way to promote himself he mentions that even with all 10 of the members from his group top dog entertainment they still had no definitive tactic that would get people to start listening to their music so as a result ended up trying several tactics which still resulted in nothing it's clear by this point that kendrick is essentially talking directly to the listener and is commenting on what he thinks their perception of him is he mentions how he had the mind of a literate writer but that he didn't just show this in his mind but also by putting his pen to paper and writing the lyrically rich and meaningful bars that got him to where he is today he's again looking back to where he came from comparing how he used to think a freestyle cipher would be his peak of popularity however now he's at the point where he can pack out stadiums faster than any other rapper on his level it seems like kendrick is trying to remind himself that what gave him money and fame was his hard work and determination it wasn't just a stroke of luck like we can see in the previous lines it took a long time experimenting with different strategies and tactics before kendrick even gained an inkling of notoriety kendrick describes the extent of what it was like living in compton and talks about how he used to gamble benjamin's benefits referring to things such as food stamps and welfare checks which would be used as gambling chips within the community kendrick at this point has turned his attention back to the present and is showing how he's basically got to where he dreamt to be as a kid with expensive clothing women and lots of money however he now realizes that unlike the previous songs where he saw this as caving to his vices and selling his soul to get these things he realizes that all of these have come from his hard work and even throughout all of his work he stayed true to himself and his economical and spiritual beliefs towards the end he starts talking about how he's managed to pivot rappers meaning that he believes that he's easily managed to surpass other rappers in the game with ease but he also brings up the phrase finishing a fraction which may also show that during all of this kendrick has been very calculated and particular not only with the lyrics that he writes but also in the way he may talk about people in the rap game purposely removing himself from any controversy or drama that is common within it with other rappers constantly writing disses on other people for many of the lines in this verse it could be perceived that kendrick is flexing what he's got now compared to what he had when he was poor however we can see in these final lines that the acclaim and benefits of being rich and famous matter a lot less to kendrick compared with his roots and his home however we can also see that kendrick has made peace with both sides and rather than focusing on the negatives of how status has changed him as a person he instead focuses on positive things like how this status has led him back to his home this chorus is compton personified welcoming kendrick back with open arms it gives kendrick a reminder that whilst he was of becoming an internationally known rapper he still had people back in his hometown cheering him on and supporting him rather than simply claiming that he sold out in order to live a rich lifestyle we are then brought into the second verse where kendrick starts to list all of the things that he knows about life in general in these lines it shows the evolution of kendrick as a person as he starts listing off all of the things he knows about life also bringing up how he knows fatality might haunt you most likely alluding to his dead homies that he's mentioned on previous tracks such as his best friend chad kendrick continues to tell us the myriad of things he's knowledgeable of ranging from compton to lawyers and advertisements showing us that throughout kendrick's career and experiences he's become a lot more aware of a much broader range of issues than the common person as usually people who are involved in such industries such as music and film typically come from a more privileged background so give less focus and consideration to the problems in poor areas such as compton however throughout this it seems like kendrick is becoming quite big-headed with him literally claiming that he knows everything this makes us think of kendrick as a god-like figure possibly showing that kendrick might have gained too much of an ego and has given himself a god complex however as we can assume from kendrick's attitude on all of his previous songs so far there's most likely a reason that kendrick is giving himself a large ego kendrick here claims that he knows that the universe is a conscious being and makes its decisions through a mental process and in the second line kendrick says how the perks of [ __ ] isn't meant for him sharing a resemblance to the line from king kunta if i got a brown nose for some gold then i'd rather be a bum than a [ __ ] baller showing that kendrick still retains the same mindset of not selling out to anyone or anything kendrick here states clearly that he could take or leave being famous however with the situation he's found himself in rather than growing big headed and money hungry he's chosen to be generous to his friends and family he doesn't expect or worry about a reward from doing these things as he claims that it's god's decision whether he needs to be rewarded or not for doing these charitable things in these final lines we can see kendrick make a complete 180 and realize that he doesn't know as much as he thinks he did and for the most part doesn't know much about anything at all this only comes to his attention when he returns back home as he puts all of his previous knowledge into the back of his mind as from kendrick's point of view if he has no knowledge of his roots there isn't a point in having knowledge about anything else returning back home has managed to keep him grounded and resist temptations of ego and big-headedness and instead be more humble this leads us back to the chorus before bringing us into the third verse where kendrick proceeds to tell us a story about a time where he met a boy who resembled his features when returning back to compton kendrick came to the realization that just because he's now successful it doesn't mean everyone else back in his hometowner kendrick sees his younger self within the boy and uses that to reflect not only how much he's changed from being a kid to an adult but also reflect on his position in society compared to the boy after becoming famous this is reinforced by pointing out the hand-me-down sneakers making a contrast between the amount of money these families have in comparison to kendrick however it also brings up the point of unity within the black community with the contrast of wealth between kendrick and the boy not being a problem as both the boy as well as the majority of compton most likely show kendrick the same respect as he does to them for the majority of this verse kendrick is writing from his experience in south africa and how everyone over there was dealing with their poverty-stricken lives here kendrick uses the image of a typical african child having fun by throwing footballs around and uses that to reinforce this theme of unity within the black community showing the struggles of all black people across the world we can see that in the final line kendrick refers back to compton and the typical rules black mothers and fathers teach their children about how to act around the police this lyric again works as a double meaning one being for the african child being genuinely surprised that kendrick knows their native tongue and the other being the boy from compton who is surprised kendrick can still relate to the common slang that people use specifically around these areas the boy brings up kendrick's song [ __ ] don't kill my vibe from his last album good kid mad c and by doing this shows the natural disconnect between someone living in compton and kendrick the boy not only doesn't want to kill kendrick's vibe by mentioning real depressing problems to a famous person but also he thinks kendrick won't even understand the problems on the sole basis that he's now famous the boy here not only reminds kendrick of his journey through his rap career with the boy watching him on channel 5 after the release of goodkid but also reminds him of the struggles of people in compton with his tv being stolen showing that crimes like robbery and theft are still extremely common within the area the boy knows kendrick will only be back in compton for a temporary amount of time so instead of telling him about all the things that are happening he instead tells kendrick to look around and experience what is liking compton right at that moment however the second line also brings us back to kendrick's experience in south africa and how seeing these negatives of how they live is just a new trip and now that he's here he can start learning about his ancestors kendrick looks back on his second verse where he listed all of the things that he thought he had learned and were important and now claims that they were all [ __ ] the boy here now starts talking very intimately with kendrick saying that he knows his life is full of turmoil which makes us think that perhaps the boy was simply a figment of kendrick's imagination the whole time which would also make sense as the boy has kendrick's features as mentioned at the start of the verse meaning that he could again just be looking at a younger version of himself inside his head much like how he did on the song you he's basically outing himself for gaining pointless knowledge and working in the wrong direction and as a result his life is now full of turmoil when before he thought this fame would make his life perfect it also adds to the point of making kendrick seem completely unknowledgeable as it's starting to seem that this young boy or rather younger imaginary version of kendrick has much more truthful knowledge than he does despite his older age which is supposed to make him more wise kendrick feels he's been ruined by all of the grandeur in his life and no longer sees himself as this beautiful messenger the boy is still young and struggling yet still expresses pity for kendrick due to the fact that kendrick has developed a distorted image of himself the boy may live in poverty but he is still pure at heart and has remained true to who he is so he can easily see through kendrick's facade of importance much like a good teacher this younger version of kendrick is offering this advice and this enlightenment of how to effectively move on with his life making him a wiser more knowledgeable person in the process however he also says that if kendrick were to refuse or resist this advice they simply back away and instead not inform kendrick on how to move forward there's no point in trying to teach someone who isn't mentally prepared to deal with the knowledge that would be passed on in the final lines of the third verse the boy tells kendrick that if he decides to choose his destiny of being an artist and as a result leaving his past and compton roots behind he should instead be an advocate and tell his other friends or rather his other african-american fans to come back home maybe in relation to compton but also maybe in relation to africa which as i mentioned before was where this third verse was written this ends the third verse final lyric is met with a large amount of reverb as the song starts to fade out however we are then brought into a second part of the song where the beat has switched up to a much more fast-paced style even sounding like something off of good kid mad city this chant reflects this newfound self-acceptance that kendrick now has upon returning to his roots and looking inside himself once again to try find out who and what he really is and why he does the things he does the you kendrick refers to here is in relation to his self-worth and happiness and how throughout the entire album he's been trying to search for it within different material and mental things like women money or the reactions of the people he's performing to this moment is important as rather than worrying about how he's not happy and how he's in a depressive state kendrick instead is constantly asking himself what he's actually searching for and trying to figure out how to properly get himself in the right mindset kendrick claims that he started losing his mind as during all of his searching for self-worth and self-enlightenment he still hasn't managed to find anything sufficient this leads to his mind having two sides with one tapping into a more depressive suicidal side claiming that all of these things piling up on kendrick makes him want to jump or rather commit suicide and the other trying to keep him pushing on with his journey by doing things like searching for love to try get kendrick's mind back to a place of calm this leads back into the refrain from before but then goes into a full breakdown in the outro in these final lines kendrick is again looking into his mind and trying to figure out why he doesn't feel enlightened or happy despite having all the things he dreamt of the you he refers to here represents his inner thoughts and feelings as he asks where they're at showing that kendrick may think of himself currently as rather lifeless with no direction from himself a parenting figure or even his god pushing him forward he claims that he thought he found this back in the ghetto when he was 17 as he used to carry around a gun for protection reminding us of the stories that were told during good kid mad city he then starts questioning things that the self-worth could be in and also starts debating whether this self-worth exists at all despite having supposedly found peace kendrick now finds himself again in a place of doubt and questions whether he ever really achieves something desperate to find that feeling of security again kendrick searches for it in money and fame only burying himself further kendrick begins to wonder if that idea of happiness he once beheld doesn't actually exist and reasons that keeping that info from him would be pointless since he already is suicidal he's at his lowest point and has nothing to lose but his life as the lyrics start to fade out we hear kendrick claiming that he could be an advocate and preach if he knew what the matter was showing us the line in the third verse about being an advocate for his homies has inspired him to be one however he's still unaware of what the problems and solutions are for these unfortunate people and with kendrick still wrapping these lines the song fades out with the new addition to the poem being left out for this song this leads us into the next song hood politics [Music] the song starts off with a smooth bass line with what sounds like one of kendrick's friends leaving a voicemail this already sets the tone of this song as it makes this juxtaposition to the rest of the album by including a lot of elements from what we saw in kendrick's previous project good kid mad c in that album a lot of the story was told through these voicemails whether it be his parents or his friends this is most likely done here due to the fact that now that kendrick has gone back home and back to his compton roots he's starting to remember and experience again what it was like and how different his privileged life is now compared to the people that still live in these hood environments the person on the end of the line is fearing that kendrick has lost touch of his roots questioning if they've got him on some weirdo rap [ __ ] with no socks and skinny jeans and that whenever he calls kendrick's phone it goes to voicemail the they he's referring to here would be the people involved in the music industry and the more elite members of society that people tend to associate with celebrities and well-known figures hearing these kinds of voicemails we can imagine would panic kendrick as there's already been a few occasions on the previous tracks where he mentions his worries of losing touch with his roots and becoming too big-headed we get brought into the chorus here and as we can hear by kendrick's vocal delivery he's going for a much more higher pitch and nasally delivery compared to the previous tracks on the album this is kendrick entering back into the hood environment and settling in like he had when he was younger he's showing us that he's still aware of all the issues and quarrels that happen in this kind of environments as well as the amount of crime that goes down he's not lost touch with his roots and in fact with the short amount of time he's been back in compton is already getting this kind of attitude that shows that he's still very much in touch with these roots what kendrick is actually saying in this section of the chorus is essentially leading back to the title of the song and touching on the politics that go down in the hood lifestyle the phrase a1 meaning that something is very good and the phrase booboo meaning shitty shows us that kendrick is in fact doubling down on his roots and trying to show the people that thought he was lost in fame and money that in fact he's even more hood smart than they are here kendrick reminisces on his time in compton as a child mentioning how he was in the hood with a juice juice at 14. a juice juice referring to a gun or a .22 caliber to be specific he then says that 14 years later he still got the same attitude as he did back then and reassures us by swearing on his dead homies promising us that he's not lying when he claims these things we then get taken into the first verse in these first lines kendrick says that he's not at all interested in the types of beef and petty disses that can be typically brought up in rap music and tells us he's got more important things to focus his mind on like his dead homie stunner juice or rather his best friend chad who's been mentioned on several previous songs jumping on wax is a phrase referring to the wax that's on a vinyl and having someone hop on a track so kendrick is telling himself that when he's on a track blasting his lyrics and poetry to the world he has to be true to himself and go hard on his music to put his mind at rest and entertain the fans here kendrick uses clever word play comparing himself to a vampire in the context of the rap game telling us how he showed up got deeply involved and interested in the art of creating music and writing lyrics however did it without the typical stereotypes associated with rap such as gold chains he came from nothing and ended up with everything and as a result brought his hood and his name into the rap game kendrick started off small for a long time but over time improved more and more with his music and as a result started to bubble up not only with his popularity but also with the deals that he's getting into he was starting to get money doing the things he loved kendrick tells us that because he stuck to his own scripts or rather his morals and stayed true to himself that's why he succeeded in the rap game you can imagine a lot of other rappers that surrounded kendrick and his youth didn't succeed because they stuck to the script of aiming for solely money and fame rather than appreciating the art of music it gives us a sense of irony as these are the exact people that would love to go cuddle up to benjamin or rather the us dollar however their attitude and their work ethic is the only thing that's pushing them away kendrick mentions some more gross aspects of the ghetto giving this onomatopic description of things that people could do with a white tube sock and also bringing up a sherm stick a sherm stick is a joint or cigarette that has been dipped in liquid pcp which causes extreme hallucigenic effects what kendrick is trying to convey is the sense of this hood lifestyle perhaps showing again that he can still relate with the kind of things that go on around the hood here kendrick references a tattoo that was on legendary rapper tupac showing respect for the message that he was always trying to push with his music in these final lines of the first verse kendrick is playing with two meanings of how you [ __ ] with someone he's referencing all the southern california inland empire la gangs california having the biggest socio-political influence and gangster rap populace out of all the states the intimation is nobody can [ __ ] with southern california's level of criminality and violence the zoo in the previous line is a reference to the mix of races and ethnicities represented by the various gangs we are then brought back to the chorus before entering the second verse kendrick starts this second verse by again reminiscing on his time in the hood however with these first two lines it's almost like he sums up her politics in a nutshell getting his dick sucked in a car before hopping out to meet his homies and then hearing news that rival gangs are preparing to go to war with them in many ways it's almost cliche and this could be the reason why kendrick mentioned at the start that he doesn't like associating with these hood politics because in the end it just becomes stereotypical and dumb however as we can see by lines like this in his youth kendrick did tend to actively engage in these situations and start fighting back against these rival gang members kendrick warns these gang members to stay away because they'll have to run for their lives if they step foot in his hood kendrick continues to describe this hood lifestyle comparing it to somewhat of a tv show with the wordplay saying that after the shooting happens we go slow motion for the ambulance meaning that it takes a long time for it to arrive and during this time there are other people around the hood who take out their cameras and capture the shooting that's been taking place the word shooting also being a double entendre relating to a shooting of a gun and the shooting of a video here kendrick touches more on the kinds of corruption that has been commonly seen in some of the police forces especially when dealing with cases related to african americans he's basically claiming that they tend to be sloppy with their approach gambling with their targets wondering if they should shoot them or not scrambling after them and arresting them and then having them serve football numbers which is a term referencing the amount of years a criminal spends in prison someone who kendrick knew as a youth ratted their group out to the cops giving them a criminal record in gang life being a rat is one of the worst and most disloyal things possible and is looked down by almost everyone involved as having your name down on a criminal record affects important and vital aspects of your life such as getting a job streets don't fail me now harkens the phrase feats don't fail me now spoken by blacks in early movies when spooked it's also an interpolation of the lyrics feet don't fail me now from the funkadelic song one nation under a groove kendrick isn't spooked by ghosts or anything comical instead it's the institution instead of wealthier people who the government protect kendrick only has the streets where he grew up ironically all throughout to pimp a butterfly kendrick speaks of the streets which in good kid mad city corrodes his life as a savior from his new life in fame kendrick again emanates this message of black power saying that the people that live in places like compton which are typically wrongly looked down on have as much a chance as anyone to get into a position of power and as a result some form of justice will be served for these poverty-stricken areas the line democrats and rebludlikans refers to the book by jesse ventura which shares the same name the basis of the book is about uncovering the truth about how corporations have bought the american electoral and legislative process through the power of lobbyists campaign contributions and political action committees it exposes how the two major parties have allowed corporations businesses and politically motivated wealthy individuals to manipulate elections bribe elected officials and silence the average american voter it compares these political parties to a gang-like culture although this line could be talking about the entire economy of selling off illegal guns and drugs the phrasing of this line seems like it's referring to the shady things the government were doing behind the scenes especially during the ronald reagan era which we've touched on previously in the series kendrick again links the way areas like compton and the people that live there have been treated to a sexual act the government can't seem to leave these people alone but they don't even help them either referring back to ventura's book these political parties prefer to make false promises when attempting to get into a position of power however once they reach it they end up never acting upon their promises they don't really care about poor areas like compton but use it as an outlet to take advantage of these people's poverty-stricken lives in order to feed their own motives in this interlude kendrick constantly repeats this line taking the slightly controversial stance of not being completely satisfied with president obama kendrick is aware that having this black person in such a high position of power and being presented as a global figure for america is an incredible feat in pushing the black power movement however as good as this outcome is at the end of the day obama is still a politician even if his intentions are pure there will always be a disconnect shared between kendrick and the people who actually run the country kendrick is sympathetic towards the people who live in these poor areas so although seeing a black man take charge of the country is good kendrick is still aware that this man is incredibly wealthy has a lot of tasks to take on at once and also undoubtedly has tons of confidential knowledge that is held in utmost secrecy we then get brought into the chorus again before going into the third verse in this first line it seems that kendrick has strayed away from the more political side of this song and returned to talking about hood culture picking apart all the gossip that goes on around places like compton by the way kendrick approaches these lyrics we can tell that he has an active distaste for these kind of attitudes he can't tolerate these constant petty quarrels and looks at things like arguments between racial differences and asks why it really matters that much to everyone kendrick is following his previous lines and starts talking about the stuff that actually matters to him and that's the music he notes how ignorant critics tend to be when looking at hip hop but as an extension most of the music landscape they generalize and dumb down an entire sound to what the most popular song in the genre is despite there still being some true artistry and talent if you look even a bit under the surface level he uses well-known rapper killer mike as an example killer mike is one half of the well-known rap group run the jewels and only gain some real notoriety after that collaboration however what kendrick is trying to point out is that he already had tons of songs before with these black empowering lyrics and slick flows however was simply not recognized before kendrick here is essentially talking to the entire rap game saying that lots of artists put their energy towards the wrong message when creating music or writing lyrics they're feeding into the critics by also dumbing down their sound and not getting too lyrically deep or complex at the risk of turning off a huge section of the mainstream audience the priorities are [ __ ] up because they aren't approaching the music with the artistry that it deserves it's lines like this which i find really interesting if you followed the series up to this point you might have noticed a few times where kendrick contradicts himself or talks about a certain message and then promotes an opposite one later i think this is a conscious effort done by kendrick not only to explore new sides of an argument and broaden the listener's mind but also not to seem too big-headed when touching on a subject as an example here i think kendrick does that by first touching on things like gang culture politics and the government but then following that up with the line which describes him getting drunk out of his mind with his memory not serving him well i think it's brilliant the way he does this as it makes you trust his arguments even more because of his humbleness that is shared in the lyrics kendrick doubles down and broadens his view when talking about the gossip-like culture shared by people and this time projects it onto the paparazzi and bloggers he's not interested in discussing his love life or his enemies with people he doesn't even know so just says that it's a waste of time to even attempt to get answers out of him however when asked about his power and influence he's willing to answer most likely referring to how his influence will be used to uplift poverty-stricken communities and other people less fortunate than himself kendrick knows that the torch has now been passed to him by the other old school legendary west coast rappers such as dr dre and snoop dogg so it feels like he has a responsibility to do whatever he can to push not only the rap scene to places it's never been before but also his community in compton in these lines kendrick compares his career to the artifact in greek mythology known as pandora's box the story of that being made into an idiom in modern times referring to how something can be opened and seem like the best thing of all time despite it being a curse in disguise by that account kendrick seems to be telling us that this power he's now got has so much potential to be used for good however with one misstep or mistake it could lead to something terrible happening if we refer back to the button in the previous line with the way he mentions the coast it could also be referring to the conflict between the west and east coast meaning that when kendrick decides to push this button a whole lifetime of racial tension could spill over kendrick's saying that the rappers that he looks at are too sensitive and wouldn't be able to handle the kind of stuff he would throw at them this could be in reference to his verse on big sean's control where he had a whole passage of calling out certain upcoming rappers including drake tyler the creator and asap hop and them rocky should know what time it is and that ghost budget minko big creek ballet pusha t meek mills asap rocky drake big sean j electron tyler macmillan i got love for you all but i'm trying to murder you [ __ ] trying to make sure your core fans never heard of you [ __ ] none of these people responded to him calling them out however it brought other people out of the woodwork making responses perhaps feeling hurt and sensitive that kendrick didn't mention their name in this line it seems that kendrick feels like he's at the level now to start claiming his title as the king of the west coast and perhaps even more much like his biggest inspiration 2-pack if he decided to push the button and go to war with the east coast it could be history repeating itself from the infamous beef between tupac and biggie costing both of them their lives as a result kendrick creates this scene to let us know that he's not willing to start this conflict again at the risk of perhaps costing some of his homies lives so he describes himself and jay-z the rapper who many perceive as the king of the east coast sitting down and discussing these hood politics and how to appropriately deal with them without violence being on the table in this final line of the verse kendrick tells us how jay-z mentioned how easy it would be to [ __ ] up the game by having one of these kings of the rap scene comment on this conflict all of these final lines seem to be referring back to kendrick's verse on control as at the time seemingly all people could talk about for weeks on end was kendrick's verse on the track when it was released it then sounds like we're about to be brought back to the chorus however it cuts off after the first line as we're then brought back to the poem the addition to the poem starts from the line but that didn't stop survivor's guilt and tells us essentially what we've already analyzed from this track kendrick felt guilty when coming back to his hometown because of his new status in society during a large portion of this track kendrick was reminiscing on his time in the hood as a kid and trying to show his community that he hasn't changed and that he's still the same person he was back then we can see at the end that kendrick couldn't stay at his hometown for long despite his loved ones fighting a war not only between themselves but also the constant oppression seen against them kendrick has to keep pushing forward which leads us into the next track how much a dollar cost before we dive into this analysis i think this clip of kendrick talking about the track will help give context behind the message and meaning of the song take a look where was that johannesburg okay johannesburg i always flirted with the with the idea just my imagination you know rolling past people that were that were uh that we considered uh bums or homeless and saying to myself what was what if that was the moment you know this is this is not a human form but this is a mortal form of an angel testing your integrity to actually stop not just giving money but talk to them i'm looking at this guy on the side you know and i'm just ignoring them because from where i come from he's just panhandlers yeah you don't engage y'all on the gauge i know what you're gonna do with the money you're gonna smoke it off you're gonna get some crack or whatever even even if you how much you tell me that you want to do this when i know what you're gonna do so i'm not gonna engage in it but the moment i actually engaged him with him he said god bless you this is your calling and it blew my mind these are moments in my life deeper than just handing somebody a dollar these actually moments of integrity being able to actually talk to somebody me talking to him was simply a thank you the song opens with these dark piano chords creating a bleak atmosphere for the track immediately kendrick enters the track swiftly as he starts by going straight into the first verse kendrick starts off by referring back to the title of the track and questioning the actual value and worth of a dollar we know here that kendrick is taking a more existential view when asking this question asking what people would be willing to sacrifice in order to gain wealth to give an example we can assume that the cost for kendrick would be his place in heaven which as we've seen in the previous tracks he thinks he's already lost during the period where he lost his mind chasing money and status here kendrick might be referring to a variety of things by introducing the metaphorical parasite the parasite needs a host in order to survive and for the host to survive they need to stay healthy which also means feeding the parasite this parasite could be referring to kendrick's continuous worry over this question of how much does a dollar cost it could be in reference to the parasites within the record industry that we've already seen have jumped on any opportunity to leech off kendrick and take what isn't rightfully theirs whatever the meaning is it leaves kendrick with this constant worry in his stomach it's important to mention now that the meaning of this song came from when kendrick was driving down a street with lots of homeless people in a luxury car in johannesburg he tried to avoid conversation and eye contact with them due to the immense guilt that he felt and as we can see here despite kendrick most likely not being big headed he believes that just the act of coming into their town with his luxury car and walking around he perceives himself as big-headed comparing himself to the seven foot two basketball player dekembi mutombo kendrick here describes how he was filling up his luxury car asking the attendant to fill up twenty dollars worth of gas on pump 6. if we think about the meaning and inspiration behind this song with it being from his time in johannesburg it could be making us question the actual value of money again with 20 rand which is the south african currency being equal to around two us dollars it makes us think about aspects of life that we've seem to have gotten used to such as corruption extortion and inflation however when you take a step back like kendrick's doing and take a larger world view when asking these questions it makes you realize just how pointless these currencies are when you really break them down and makes you think about how these pointless currencies tear apart lives and ruin them kendrick asks this dirty marcelles for 20 on 6 again but it seems he doesn't understand what kendrick is trying to say as kendrick describes it's because he speaks the zulu vernacular with kendrick's american tongue meaning nothing to him this can be seen as a comparison to kendrick's constant worry about getting too big-headed and losing touch with his roots although kendrick literally can't understand this man due to the language barrier it also works as a metaphor for kendrick going back to his hometown and potentially feeling like an outsider not understanding the state of the community kendrick notes that this homeless man has a semitang complexion which is an important detail to know when approaching this song having this mixed-race man referring to people of mixed origin who possess ancestry from europe asia and south africa this question kendrick is asking about how much a dollar cost is a universal question that doesn't exclude anyone from the poorest of the poor or the richest of the rich not excluding any ethnicities either most people listening to the track also most likely won't be very familiar with the south african currency of rand so when kendrick stresses the word rand it sounds like it has a similarity to 10 grand as in 10 000 despite his huge amount of wealth it almost seems like kendrick is looking down on this homeless man and makes it seem like he's asking for too much this homeless man is out on the streets stressing about the dry land and incessant poverty however for some reason kendrick is actually buying into his status and thinking he's better than this man obviously this is only within the context of this song kendrick wouldn't think this in reality but he's doing it to prove a point of how some of his contemporaries and other wealthy people like him do genuinely think like this and wouldn't give this struggling homeless man a penny of their earnings to try justify his actions not giving this struggling poverty-ridden man even a dollar of his earnings kendrick says that he knows he would simply use his money to buy drugs kendrick obviously doesn't know this and even when the man starts begging him for any money at all kendrick continues to make these assumptions against this man that he doesn't know a true in the slightest however at the end it seems like even he's starting to doubt himself saying that he'll be contributing money for his crack addiction however he can't get a visual on the pipe the homeless man can speak kendrick's language perhaps showing us that they have more in common than kendrick thinks the man states that temptation is the one thing that he's defeated and just needs a single bill from him it seems strange that this poor homeless man is only asking for a single dollar from this obviously wealthy man however this shows us that it's not just a man asking for money this is a test on kendrick to see if he has really got too big for his boots and won't even give up a single dollar for someone who obviously is much less fortunate and struggling compared to himself with kendrick's religion also playing a large part in this album this could also be referencing the well-known narrative in the bible with the temptation of christ this story saw jesus being tempted by the devil for 40 days and nights which reminds us of the previous tracks where kendrick was resisting the temptations of lucy despite kendrick still not complying and closing his car door on this homeless man these lines referring to the temptation of christ allude to kendrick's true thoughts beneath the surface that we're all sons and daughters of god and that this homeless man is truly equal to him and in many ways in this moment much more spiritual and knowledgeable than him he ends this verse by once again asking the question how much a dollar costs leading us into the chorus the hook is sung from the perspective of god water sun love and air is all you need for nourishment we then get taken to the second verse which takes a much more literal approach to the lyrics it shows us just how great a storyteller kendrick can be and how engaged he can get you into these lyrics after shutting his car door kendrick notices the homeless man is still staring at him in disbelief the guilt starts to eat away at kendrick in this moment and he starts to get aggressive turning on his car attempting to leave kendrick's instincts are telling him to leave however his mind and body are forcing himself to keep his car in park until we can find out why this homeless man is mad at him the fact that he calls himself a stranger as well makes kendrick look unaware of his status in society comparing himself to any other person on the street which just isn't the case for him at this point in his career even in this moment kendrick is twisting the facts to try suit his motive the homeless man has shown no aggression and instead has just pleaded for a tiny amount of kendrick's earnings and when refused showed confusion as he knows fully well by his luxury car that kendrick has lots of money to give the guild eats further into kendrick's mind making him become defensive claiming that he's the innocent and rightful man in this situation however kendrick misses the point that it doesn't matter how much money he were to give this homeless man simply showing the act of kindness and helping a man much less fortunate than him would be the exact thing that would lead him to his ultimate goal of being accepted into heaven the homeless man continues to gaze on at kendrick making him feel uncomfortable and wracked with guilt saying that his eyes followed him with no laser could be referring to a laser attachment on a gun showing that even though on the surface kendrick takes this staring as disrespectful to him in reality he knows there's no real malice or real intention beneath this man's stare simply disbelief however kendrick still can't contain his emotions and doesn't know what to do in this moment so resorts to violence in his mind saying that he'd throw a bat at the man's neck if he had one here kendrick purposely misunderstands the act of being giving and generous and tries to suggest that this homeless man is simply asking for handouts and trying to get as much as he can from kendrick's pockets without doing any work for it his time in the music industry and dealing with people who are genuinely wealthy but still ask for handouts has disillusioned kendrick to the problems of a man who can't do anything about his position in society and is just trying to do the only thing he can in order to survive exodus 14 tells the story of moses parting the red sea and guiding the scared and confused israelites to safety this line is a metaphor describing the power one man can have to leader's people all we ever need is someone in kendrick's position to lead by example moses a humble man who was old uncharismatic and a poor public speaker was an unconventional choice to lead god's people out of egypt and initially tried to shirk the job asking god in exodus 3 11 who am i that i should go to pharaoh and bring the israelites out of egypt nevertheless despite or perhaps because of his humility god chose moses as the great prophesized leader to deliver the israelites from slavery as a whole the book of exodus teaches us that the lord is the one true god and the ruler of all creation and when the lord decides to do something no one can stop him the verse ends with kendrick asking once again how much a dollar costs before going back into the chorus leading into the third verse the guilt has finally broken kendrick down and made him aware of his selfish and unforgiving actions he claims that he's never met another transient who's demanded this amount of attention the word transient being used to describe something that only lasts for a temporary amount of time so in this case the transience is being used in reference to this mortal being kendrick continues to try justify his actions however is essentially having this constant back and forth with himself realizing that what he's doing isn't right however rather than just helping this homeless man out he decides he should just keep his distance from these people in society in the future kendrick demeans the homeless man and tries to say that he can smell grandpa's medicine on his skin that referring to alcohol this could also show a crack in kendrick's mental armor as it seems like he's starting to get more sentimental and relate this homeless man to his own personal experiences with kendrick mentioning on the song swimming pools from good kid mad city that his grandfather had his own alcohol problems kendrick can't rationalize the things he's thinking so instead opts for the approach of calling the homeless man a liar and claiming that they don't need the money from kendrick they would just like it he's really trying to convince himself that this homeless man is trying to fool and trick him even saying that he saw the trick a mile away kendrick out of nowhere becomes really open and honest and just outright says that he's insensitive and lacking empathy the homeless man finally talks again to kendrick saying that his potential was bittersweet telling us that much like how kendrick mentioned in the previous song the power and acclaim he now has can open up so many possibilities to do good in the world however the situation becomes bittersweet when kendrick is stuck in such an unempathetic and insensitive mindset it's at this point in the album where we can really see that kendrick or rather the butterfly has now been pimped out and has resorted to corporate ways of thinking kendrick looks back at the man and says every nickel was for him to keep this unforgiving attitude is the exact thing he was trying to avoid previously in the album however with all of the influences that have been thrown upon him throughout his journey like uncle sam lucy and the record industry it's broken kendrick down as we now see that he's become disillusioned confused and stuck in this mindset which we know that he doesn't really think is right this is a quote by jesus christ of nazareth found in john 8 32 there's a reason for the sheer amount of religious references and phrasings being used in this track particularly which will be revealed in the next lines in these lyrics however we can start to see this grand reveal which will soon be made with the homeless man taking a more authoritative attitude saying that he is the messiah the son of jehovah and the higher power this whole time kendrick was not just speaking to an average homeless man he was in fact speaking to the physical embodiment of god this entire situation was a test on kendrick from god to see if he stayed true to his religious values looking at people less fortunate than him and treating them with kindness and forgiveness and as we can see in this final line kendrick ultimately proved himself to be selfish and unsensitive in this situation losing his guaranteed spot in heaven throughout this album kendrick has fallen deeper and deeper down the corporate dull desolate and in many ways manipulative and wrong lifestyle that was presented to him on a platter after becoming famous off the back of good kid mad city it's finally reached a climax at this point due to the most important thing to him now being tested and promptly stripped away from him kendrick recognizes his lack of humility and greed he's regretful and earnestly asks god what more he must do other than prayer and recognizing his sins to repent he goes on to accept his flaws and begs to turn a new page to right his wrongs starting the path to true redemption the words i wash my hands i said my grace what more do you want from me resemble the words of punitus pilot the roman governor responsible for sentencing jesus to death in the biblical gospel of matthew pilate was not a jew and therefore had no reason to believe in a messiah but upon meeting jesus he is mysteriously compelled and unsettled by him just like kendrick is by the vagrant in this song pilot's unease was shared by his wife who claims to have been similarly troubled by a vision of jesus in a dream desperate but unable to find a way to spare jesus's life before the assembled crowd called for his execution later realizing the gravity of his actions a penitent pilot places a sign at the site of jesus's execution proclaiming him jesus of nazareth king of the jews though pilate attempts to absolve himself of the messiah's death by allowing the crowd to convict jesus he is still part of the system that crucified christ likewise in this song kendrick acknowledges that he's not solely responsible for the death and poverty of homeless but that we as a society convicted them to destitution like pilot kendrick absolves himself of the sole blame but still is part of a system that has led to the abandonment of fellow human beings and with that the song comes to a close leading us into the next song complexion zulu love i'm with this the song starts off swiftly with the banging drums being introduced instantly before we get properly into the track we hear a single vocal passage from pete rock showing us that not only is it inviting us and affirming us that the smooth flow of the track and rhythm is okay to get down with but also that it's okay to get with the message of equality and the process of discussing the complexions of each other's skin and how certain tones get treated in society compared to others throughout the album already we've seen so many examples of kendrick pushing the message of black power and trying to sway what he believes to be the indoctrination in modern society of black people being inferior to whites however as we see in this chorus despite still promoting the message of black power kendrick takes a more measured view on the subject and tries to break down the barriers between black and white completely and replace this conflict with love care passion and understanding between both complexions going into the first verse kendrick starts off with a metaphor comparing black people's complexion to the darkness that's present at times like midnight and contrasting that with white people's complexion being as bright as the sun it speaks to a deeper fear and resentment on people who are not accepting of darker complexions by associating the black people's complexion to the nighttime which can be commonly associated with fear and the unknown and then saying white people's complexion is bright sharing connotations with happiness and contentment kendrick here talks about sneaking through a back window with a flower that he's made out of cotton in order to get this person that he loves as kendrick mentions in this interview with medium.com the idea was to make a record that reflected all complexions of black women there's a separation between the light and dark skin because it's just in our nature to do so but we're all black this concept came from south africa and i saw all different colors speaking a beautiful language this is where the zulu love portion of the title comes into play with with kendrick writing this song detailing his experiences in south africa these lyrics give us the image of kendrick working on some kind of cotton plantation as a slave attempting to form a relationship with a presumably white person living inside the house this again links back to black power where despite kendrick implicitly stating that he thinks complexion doesn't mean anything he's still aware of the social and economical effects that complexion has in the eyes of other people in these lines kendrick goes further in depth to the extent he would go to get this person whereas in previous songs i would typically associate this woman that kendrick is striving for to be a metaphor for money fame or credibility it's less certain in the song what this woman is representing if not anything at all despite this these lyrics continue to push the message of equality claiming that even if kendrick's slave master is listening he would still be willing to get this girl he proves this distance he's willing to go not only in the previous lyric where he said he would sneak through a back window but also here where he says he's ten toes down which refers to the cutting off of slaves toes in order to stop them from running away which was a common practice when slavery was heavily prevalent a key example of this would be kunta kinte someone who had his foot cut off to stop him from escaping we start this verse off with the repetition of the opening lyric of the first verse however as we can see in the second lyric we're given more information and clarity on the situation kendrick and his love interest are in he claims that this girl is brown skinned possibly telling us that both kendrick and this girl are slaves however whereas kendrick defines himself as a field slave this girl would be considered a health slave kendrick then puts a focus on the girl's blue eyes and states that the reason she has these blue eyes is because her mama can't run this can be linked to a euphemism that was used during the time of slavery known as children of the plantation which was used to identify the offspring of slave black women with white men most commonly with those black slave women being raped these blue eyes could also be referring to this girl's sadness at this fact with the colour blue typically being associated with emotions like sadness kendrick then repeats the lyrics from the first verse until he switches it up in the upcoming lyrics in these new lyrics kendrick not only takes a deeper look into the topic of complexion but also takes a more introspective look at his own personal opinions towards the subject from the past and present he starts this off by stating that the subject is vital important and critical for the survival of mankind and then goes on to inject messages of self-love and self-worth by telling everyone that beauty is simply an opinion that is based within the mind of each individual person on this planet kendrick claims that he used to be mistaken by the different shades of faces that other people have most likely getting too lost in the black power movement and looking at white people as the enemy however as we can now see kendrick thinks this equality should be shared by all complexions which is a message that we can see go as far back as his first album with songs like [ __ ] your ethnicity which is a song where kendrick more aggressively shuts down what he perceived to be these petty and meaningless quibbles about other people's complexions something that no matter what complexion you are you really have no choice over after being born here kendrick takes an even further look into his own views on complexion mentioning his girlfriend whitney alford and what she mentioned on the subject of how a woman is a woman and you should love that creation for what it simply is and nothing more in the context of the song the emergence of kendrick's partner in the lyrics is impactful as she herself is light-skinned further broadening his view on the subject that just like how not every white person shares the racist views that were seen with slave traders not every black person should hold all white people accountable and be seen as the enemy for aspects like slavery and racism as that too does not represent every individual's beliefs in this final lyric kendrick mentions the willy lynch theory which refers to a letter which was written in the 18th century discussing the best ways to control slaves by employing tactics like exploiting the differences between each other like age or skin color to make slaves have an internal conflict by doing this the theory suggests that it will lead to all races with all different kinds of complexions to fight against each other and hold unnecessary prejudices against one another the reason kendrick brings this up is that by reversing this theory it would surely lead to everyone treating each other equally and unite together against bigger issues that would impact our lives in a much larger way again all this leads to the point of how concepts like racism and superior types of races and complexions are all just myths and that they shouldn't even be given consideration we then get brought to the chorus once more before leading into an interlude which enters us into the third verse this interlude does more to lead us into the third verse by paring down the instrumental gradually as opposed to saying anything as deep or insightful as kendrick's previous verses the most that we can extrapolate from this interlude is that kendrick may just be possibly thinking over the idea of equality in his head and asking others what they think of his view however at the end of this interlude we hear kendrick shout out to upcoming artist rhapsody and says that instead of him he needs her to speak her mind on the topic of complexion on the third verse rhapsody opens this verse by saying that she wants to talk her stu scott referencing lay espn sports commentator stuart scott who passed away in 2015. rhapsody also mentions the well-known rapper is tupac who's been mentioned several times throughout kendrick's entire discography being a huge influence on him by doing this rhapsody compares what she's about to say in her verse to what these two notable and popular black figures were seen as tupac as we've already mentioned approached aspects like racism and complexion issues throughout his entire career so when rhapsody excuses herself on her two pack she's setting us up for the kind of things she's going to mention in the verse it's not confirmed who rhapsody is talking to in these lyrics however as we can see she thinks back to the concept of eyes which kendrick established earlier in his second verse as well as that she also pinpoints the blueness of the eyes like kendrick did again possibly sharing the connotations of sadness or as rhapsody says the blues that someone with a complexion that is unfairly judged or looked down upon feels towards these final lyrics rap city touches on what is generally considered to be the most common view of what is beautiful in people's eyes which may not be the case for a lot of other people just because the overall majority of people think blue green and gray eyes are the most beautiful doesn't make any other people's eye colors or the opinions of people with a different view any less valid just like people's views on complexion some people look at high high-class gq and vogue models and think they're perfect and others don't think they're beautiful in the slightest it's all simply a matter of perspective rhapsody uses clever wordplay to rearrange the words which refer to african-american abolitionists solomon northup the person who's listed as the primary author of the memoir 12 years a slave this famous memoir listed the experiences that northup went through after being taken hostage and sold into the slave trade in 1841. before remaining as a slave for 12 years until he was finally freed in 1853 this again links to all of the lyrics in kendrick's verses which related to slavery and the experiences of someone who would have to deal with that type of caged up imprisonment and should instill thought and consideration into the hearts of racist and biased people that look down on other complexions rhapsody reflects on her experiences as a young black child considering and worrying about things that no child should be worrying about such as the shade of her skin being too dark and having that not be a positive thing in an interview with mtv rhapsody touches more on the meaning behind this verse i was the darkest skinned person in my family i remember how i used to feel like i wasn't pretty enough or i wasn't good enough i remember i was about eight years old my sister had a little bottle of bleach cream because she had a spot on her leg she was trying to get out but i took it and put it on my body it's something that happens a lot i have a younger niece she's five now i remember when she was about to turn four she didn't like her black barbie dolls judging by the second lyric however we can see these insecurities and worries that rhapsody used to have are seemingly gone as she claims proudly that she loves herself for who she is and no longer lets anyone else's opinion of her affect how she feels or acts she uses cupid as an example of this seen as the mythological god of love who is typically associated with a bow and the power to choose who is worthy of love here rhapsody clearly references george lucas the creator of star wars and contrasts the well-known dark side of those films which represents evil with empowering the colour of her complexion this is a statement to anyone that prejudges or dislikes people with complexions like hers by essentially saying that if they don't like her complexion it won't change anything that she does and in fact would just make her want to promote and enforce the reasons why she loves herself for who she is even more rhapsody puts the message she's trying to convey more bluntly in these lyrics telling anyone who judges or looks down upon darker complexions that just because they have light skin doesn't make them any more superior to them in any way in fact the only times where someone with a darker complexion is seen as inferior is usually down to the judgment and treatment that is imposed on them from people with lighter skin a good example of this is of course the thriving slave trade in the 18th century most commonly using black people to do unpaid manual labor because the white people thought that they deserved it due to their own opinions on what is superior and inferior rhapsody simply continues here to break down the barriers stereotypes and stigmas around black people and establishes how now that we have near enough legally full equality for all races we have such prominent and intelligent figures such as barack obama and neil degrasse tyson rhapsody is essentially speaking to the young black children that like herself at a young age don't see the beauty in their complexion however rhapsody tells them that they simply need to look at the entire situation get educated on it and then find the air beneath the kite meaning to spread their wings and transform into whatever person they personally want to be rhapsody claims there is no need to stress about the derogatory terms that are placed upon people with a different complexion as they should know within themselves that they aren't any different or inferior to those who mock them and should simply look at these racist individuals as narrow-minded uninformed and scared people she also mentions spiking your self-esteem which could be in reference to well-known film director spike lee known best for his films like do the right thing black klansmen and malcolm x all of which are primarily known for their message of black empowerment finally she mentions that the next james bond is going to be blacker than her which is in reference to the speculation that actor idris elba was going to take over from daniel craig and appear as the new james bond this unfortunately never ended up coming to fruition as rhapsody's verse starts to come to an end she clarifies that it's not just the pre-established black and white that she loves but also the different kinds of shades that is individual to each person in these final lyrics it's almost like rhapsody puts the responsibility on all black culture to stand together and know each other within the black community as kings and queens in their own right she ends this first by taking a brief look at gang culture and saying that if you're involved in gang life like this no matter what side you end up on the idea of gang culture shouldn't make the overall message of black power be overlooked because at the end of the day for people living in these environments there are bigger things to worry about and rally against together as opposed to fighting with each other this seemingly brings us to the end of the song however before we transition into the next song we don't hear a new part of the pre-established poem but instead kendrick's shouting out with these lyrics it's almost like kendrick has had his mind open to the hell that people in places like compton have been experiencing and the amount of internal struggle and self-hate that has been placed upon them due to how they've been treated he says he doesn't see compton anymore but instead the land of the landmines due to the amount of hostility and overprotectiveness that has built up in the community and claims that it's become hell on earth which leads us into the next song and possibly most important song on the album the black of the berry [Music] we start the song off slow and eerily with these quiet but screeching synth lines as well as one note being played repeatedly kendrick's mumbled and distorted vocals can be heard right from the start of the track in these opening lyrics we can establish the confusion and frustration that kendrick is experiencing with the prejudice that is still held against african americans in modern day society it almost seems like kendrick has been able to now do this and have his eyes open to the situation due to looking back in songs like complexion and looking at how the overall stance on racism hasn't actually changed however over time aspects like slavery have been eased the resounding judgment still lingers which we can still see holds up as recently as last year with the unfair treatment of george floyd kendrick goes back and forth on this idea of wanting everything to be black before then claiming he doesn't even need black and then tries to compromise by saying something should be white and something should be black before stating again that he wants everything to be black because of how normal it is for kendrick to just have to keep his head down and avoid any unnecessary conflict or interaction with racist yet powerful individuals like certain police officers kendrick has become disillusioned to the entire concept and can no longer decide what he wants to fight for anymore kendrick sets up the theme of this song in this bridge by focusing on what we can generally perceive as a riot situation however if you watch my previous video and saw the lyrics kendrick shouts at the end of the song we can see that what kendrick is describing here is more specifically the hell on earth that he says compton has turned into kendrick claims that people will look at him crazy for stating these obvious problems that are occurring because of racism within the united states and will perhaps try to downplay kendrick's truth by saying that perhaps due to all of the other problems we've seen occur throughout this album he could have his message shut down by someone claiming that he just isn't in his right mind the u kendrick refers to here i believe to be america as a whole this time which would make sense due to how kendrick follows up the previous line with but homie you made me which tells us that not only has kendrick been born and grown up the entire time in these poor downtrodden areas in america like compton but he was also made into an international superstar due to the prevalence of american culture in modern day society kendrick starts off with a controversial line towards himself aggressively claiming that he's the biggest hypocrite of 2015 and that by the time he's finished this song we'll see what he means when he says this notice how he uses the word witnesses to reinforce the message that he's a hypocrite potentially leading us to believe that kendrick is owning up to some sort of crime here the pure aggression from kendrick sends his message out to listeners a lot more powerfully and impactfully than any of the previous songs due to the sheer bluntness speed and force from which they're delivered whereas before kendrick would use intricate word play to convey a deeper message he's decided that the time has come to put all of that to a side for a second to make it very clear that as a black man living in america he does not feel satisfied with not only how he's been treated his entire life but also how countless other black people have been treated kendrick first mentions how this isn't a new revelation and that he came to his senses and became aware of the prejudice placed upon black people from a young age only now where he's managed to play along with the system and give himself a platform to appropriately and powerfully project his message to the world is he shouting out that he never liked american society anyway and no longer wants to accept their petty half-hearted attempts of friendship towards their community most likely knowing that it only serves as a means to an end to just make american society look more socially accepting and equal than it really is he finally shouts proudly that he's an african-american like many other times on the album however this time he retracts the statement and instead says he's just african simply because he's too ashamed with the state of america at this point that he doesn't even want to be associated to it in any way here kendrick proceeds to go back to the dawn of man not only referencing how he himself had to start from the bottom in the environment of compton but also how it's been established by scientific research that all humans descended from africa however as he continues he then makes the distinction between modern day white and black people by satirically listing off these well-known stereotypes that have been placed on black people from a white person's perspective kendrick then starts to point his aim towards everyone his audience the music industry the government simply asking the rhetorical question you hate me don't you it's an important distinction to make as this shows that kendrick still knows that these people can still appreciate his art with the music he creates however in relation to him as a person he's still aggressively asking these people if they hate him he continues to elaborate on this point by saying that they don't only hate him but also hate his people his culture and that their plan is to terminate his culture this black culture that has been created out of things like slavery and racism kendrick believes is externally or perhaps also internally hated by racist white culture even if they appreciate the art that comes out of it these people still inherently despise the place it came from and despise the fact that it came from the mind of a black man as opposed to a white man kendrick claims that these people are the definition of evil and flips this final stereotype on its head and as opposed to retaliating it instead opts to embrace it and try to look at it in a positive light the bizarre correlation between black people and monkeys that racists have developed in their attitude comes from their perception that black people are somehow more primitive ape-like and mentally inferior to white people kendrick knows that this opinion will be held by these racist whites for generations to come as ironically it is those people who are mentally inferior and simply hold on to beliefs as opposed to facts so embraces the derogatory term of monkey that has been placed on them much like the countless other racial slurs and turns it into empowerment for the black community that despite all the hardships and unjust racism that is placed upon them if they can embrace it and in fact reclaim these racist terms and turn it into a piece of their culture as opposed to the whites they will be able to keep strongly pushing forward here kendrick taps into the subconscious in lots of white people and how they appropriate and generalize what kendrick as well as millions of other black people see themselves as kendrick to most people will be distinguished solely as a rapper or a music artist whereas kendrick has established several times that he feels like his lyrics have more in common with poetry than anything else he says that even despite this these people who are witnessing what he is creating can't even take the style from him here we see the re-emergence of this button concept that kendrick first alluded to in the song hood politics he's gotten to the position where he feels that him and his community are under so much attack that he considers the only way out would be to press this button possibly inciting riots mass violence but mainly an overall rebellion against the powers which keep his community in a position that they feel comfortable with after this statement kendrick goes on to say that he's guarding his feelings but he knows that they feel it telling us that despite him going off the rails on this track with aggression and hatred in his lyrics he's still somewhat in check however by saying he knows that they feel it he's saying that the power he has and what he's willing to do with it is not simply going to be slept on by these higher powers kendrick is capable of creating any chaos that he wants but he's keeping it together the best he can at this point as he still wants to find a more peaceful resolution at all costs the sabotage that kendrick mentions here may be referring to the well-known influx of crack cocaine that was found in poor areas of america such as compton all of which has been speculated to come straight from the cia and the president at the time ronald reagan this isn't the first time kendrick has mentioned this topic with it most prominently appearing on his track ronald reagan era from his album section 80. kendrick exclaims that by doing this it didn't only create a killing due to the amount of drug-related deaths that were caused by this influx of crack in poor environments but also that it made him have the mentality of a killer because of the sheer aggression he felt in this time period this pre-chorus repeats the title phrase several times bringing up the well-known saying the black of the berry the sweet of the juice which was first coined in a 1929 novel called the black of the berry written by wallace thurman the meaning behind the line again stems from black empowerment in a downtrodden environment telling us that the blacker the berry or rather the darker the skin color either the sweeter more confident or more insightful or wise the person is we hear this line repeated until the final line where the line is changed into the black of the berry the bigger i shoot a powerful statement either representing the act of racial profiling from policemen who have been shown time and time again to carry more caution when approaching a black suspect in comparison to a white suspect but the statement could also be leading back into the button kendrick mentioned before this time saying that the blacker the berry the more they are willing to strike out and act more chaotic we then get led into the chorus delivered by reggae artist assassin these opening lyrics quite blatantly show the outcry and most outstandingly the confusion that comes from the black community in relation to the treatment they're given they treat them like slaves and have given them lifetimes of pain simply because they're black here assassin cleverly makes the comparison between items like whips and chains to show how far the black community have come to get themselves to a place of equality the chains that would have once held them down to a specific spot so they could perform slave labor are now golden and warned to show a position of power and wealth and the whips that would have once been used to punish slaves for misbehaving leaving scars on their backs are now expensive cars that are parked up on their block assassin ends this verse off by reminding the black community how far they've come in times of slavery it would have seemed like an endless cycle of torture and cruelty however fast forward to today and you have people like kendrick lamar and jay-z ruling the rap industry with millions of dollars as he mentions they had to start from the ground up and intensely work their way up to this position of equality we then go straight into the second verse which opens up with the same lyrics we saw in the first verse reinforcing his point yet again kendrick starts this verse by saying that it's evident that his community and culture are irrelevant to the overall american society perhaps looking at all the expressiveness creativity but also the protests against racism and how all of those things have ultimately led to a tiny amount of progress towards total equality if not any progress at all outcries from the black community like the black lives matter movement seemed to have a huge impact yet only a year ago did we witness the murder of george floyd showing that nothing has truly changed kendrick exclaims that compared to a white person black people are more likely to end up in jail compared to getting a job in a new york times report about this topic they noted that for black men in their 20s and early 30s without a high school diploma the incarceration rate is so high nearly 40 percent nationwide that they're more likely to be behind bars than to have a job in these lines kendrick not only states the blatant manipulation of the black community's minds with white people telling them and prophesizing what they think black people are destined to become which in their eyes would be a slave but he also mentions the misconception of the reciprocation between white and black people that lives in the minds of people who would much rather ignore the despicable actions of the past slave-owning generations we are still living in an era of rampant racism with laws and culture changing but still an overall derogatory attitude towards the black community with these people who are purposely blind to the situation attempting to interact and place themselves on the side of right to have a good public image despite being against the movement as a whole internally in these lines kendrick reinforces the lyrics which were delivered in the chorus about how far they've come in society all through their own efforts and dedication for equality kendrick also repeats the claim here that these people most likely referring to political figures with lots of power internally hate him and his community and that this is all because of their own personal issues with their logic mindset and standards furious at the fact that a black man can be so free to do and say what they want kendrick mentions an important and what would appear to be a contradiction in his logic with all of the oppression and prejudice described against black people in his lyrics it's strange amazing and special that he has been able to climb his way up the industry without being shut down by some of these higher racist powers that he's previously mentioned against all odds kendrick has come out on the other side of this oppression on top and is now using his platform to try help others that are less fortunate than him he also mentions how he has cat skins on his radar cat skin being a brand of high-end seat covers bought to show status and wealth perhaps all of this is starting to build a bigger picture to why kendrick has opened both verses with the lyric i'm the biggest hypocrite of 2015. he ends this verse off with almost the same lyrics as the first alluding to this endless cycle of unfair treatment towards the black community using the emancipation proclamation as an example of how despite aspects like slaves being freed due to this proclamation and slavery as a whole eventually being abolished by 1865 it's always seemed to be a one step forward two steps back mentality towards the entire situation jim crow laws the ku klux klan and the black codes were still all in effect after this period of apparent freedom towards the black community this unfair cycle of pushing black people to their limit so that their only option is to violently rebel out of fear only to have that rebellion used against them to label them as unsafe uncontrollable and violent is still present there's a reason so many people today push messages like black lives matter and why artists like kendrick promote the black power movement because no matter what has happened in the past the war for equality is still not over and to be complacent with the state that is currently in would be to fall back on all of the progress they've made so far before we get to the third verse we first hear the pre-chorus and chorus one more time here kendrick blatantly states what has been established through our analysis of the previous verses that kendrick isn't just looking at the situation from his perspective but multiple perspectives from multiple places in society as well as from different generations of time everything that kendrick has mentioned and will go on to mention can be said with even more detail from people who have experienced this racism firsthand even more severely than kendrick however by mentioning this fact kendrick is trying to draw attention to this reality and is telling his audience to not just take him at his word but instead do actual research into this heated topic and get educated from multiple sources this juxtaposition kendrick makes by stating his blackness proudly against the darkness within the heart of someone with nazi beliefs he's telling people that despite his skin being dark it doesn't make him a bad person internally the skin of a human being is purely the outcome of a chemical reaction when developing into a newborn baby however someone sharing and following the beliefs of a nazi ideology that is truly what represents darkness and evil by referring to these names kendrick once again brings up this casual racism where it's commonly believed that names like tyrone and darius are shared primarily by black people however this is purely just a stereotype with the name tyrone having primarily irish origins and the name darius being persian in these lines kendrick almost opened sarcastically by excusing his french meaning to apologize for the vulgarity of his language however in this context we can assume kendrick is essentially mocking these racist people who look down on his community turning a blind eye to their struggles both socially and economically and immediately continues on to be even more vulgar in the next lyrics almost trying to make these people appear as foolish for thinking he will back down that easily kendrick makes this clarification in the next line where he first says [ __ ] you and then instead clarifies no [ __ ] y'all broadening his view and target not just to one singular person but instead racist white america as a whole in these upcoming lines kendrick slightly strays his view from racist white america and then looks at gang culture with these lines referring to someone who's obsessed with the act of violence idolizing their desert eagle and using it against someone who recently got an expensive chain kendrick once again recounts his experiences visiting and researching africa bringing up the south african zulu and kosa tribes he uses these pure tribes who follow their own rules and beliefs without any outside involvement or prejudice to sway them and claims that it's funny how these two armies could go to war a confusing lyric followed by the addition and clarification on this point mentioning how if these tribes went to war it would simply be two armies that would want to build and destroy now the message and more specifically the comparison kendrick is attempting to make is becoming more clear then in these final two lyrics our suspicions are confirmed where kendrick draws a comparison between these tribes and the compton [ __ ] gangs beefing with pyrus with only death being the way to settle any score appropriately in their eyes he makes this comparison to show the struggles that both of these communities can go through and the actions they may think are reasonable to take because of it gangs in america exist during periods of unemployment poverty and destabilization of the family unit likewise tribes in africa also turn to violence after living in countries that have been robbed of natural resources and stability for well over half a millennia kendrick refers to his early life growing up around rival gangs of compton a topic he explored on his previous album discussing peer pressure and being associated with a gang by others despite not choosing a side as we near the end kendrick becomes more introspective building up tension by saying that despite how much he preaches this message of equality and black power there's something holding him back perhaps we're about to see why he considers himself the biggest hypocrite of 2015. kendrick's lyrics at this point just evolve into racist stereotypes about black culture talking about eating certain foods that have been associated with black people the kind of things black people should be watching on tv and being interested in basketball here kendrick reveals the nature of the enigmatic hypocrisy that the speaker has previously confessed to three times in the song without elaborating that he grieved over the murder of trayvon martin when he himself has been responsible for the death of a young black man when kendrick says i he's referring to the black community as a whole this revelation forces the listener to a deeper and broader understanding of the song's you and to consider the possibility that hypocrisy is in certain situations a much more complicated moral position than is generally allowed and perhaps an inevitable one and with that marks the end of the black of the berry leading us into the next track you ain't got a lie mama said next where the hell said to impress me this track's concept revolves around the act of lying in association with trying to impress a certain figure or be accepted by a certain crowd focusing on the pressures that people put on themselves an uncharacteristic action some people take when their insecurities bubble up and peer pressure becomes present in their lives the song starts off smooth and almost calming bringing us out of the intense barrage that we just experienced on the black of the berry in this intro kendrick sets the stage for the track with the opening spoken word establishing the environment as being presumably poor and downtrodden with the mentioning of the flies that keep coming in through the door most likely with kendrick still finding himself in compton which he first entered on the track mama which was a track all about returning back to his roots after he became disillusioned with the huge amounts of wealth and status that he's now gained from his successful rap career what kendrick sets us up for is found mostly in the first and last lines of this intro the first lines representing kendrick's views on life in general saying that with as much studying and knowledge that you can gain through secondary research it's primary research and experiencing things for yourself that will broaden your mind the most and will open up certain thought processes and understanding that you may not have been able to previously the last line however sets us up for the actual content of this track with kendrick saying that what he's about to rap is a reflection of what his mother told him in relation to kendrick's own personal insecurities largely being centered around his image and his concerns over how people he respects perceive him as we enter this first verse kendrick tells us that his mother apparently told him upon re-entering compton that she could spot him a mile away most likely due to his newfound wealth giving way to more expensive clothing or cars making him stick out like a sore thumb in pretty much any poverty-stricken areas whereas some people would look at this as an advantage and feel powerful compared to the poorer people that surround them it almost has the complete opposite effect on kendrick making him more insecure when inspecting his surroundings and realizing that he doesn't fit in his hometown like he used to this idea has been brought up multiple times in previous tracks most prominently in how much a dollar cost making us aware that this insecurity we see within kendrick most likely stems from guilt perhaps feeling that everyone around him who are suffering due to their lack of wealth are just as worthy of kendrick's position in society and the overall economy kendrick's only problem here is that despite now feeling like an outsider in a place like compton he has no real reason to stress as he would still be embraced by the community due to what he represents as a whole as well as the amount of support he's shown towards compton throughout his entire career kendrick's mother further elaborates on the previous ideas that were just mentioned acknowledging his attitude coming back to his old neighborhood and almost immediately realizing the front that he's putting up this leads us to assume that upon his return kendrick in fear of being an outcast tried to replicate the same attitude and mannerisms he used to have when growing up in compton which can be seen through very easily through the eyes of his peers making his attempt to fit in seem pitiful making him seem even further out of touch with the community than he already thinks he is these lyrics are quite scathing towards kendrick and his character with his mother calling him a circus act leaning more on the side of saying that he's now become a fake person with his message being lost on the people he wants to impact the most and is only attracting other entertainers people who are already on his level in society she claims that kendrick is simply all talk once again truly believing that he doesn't really give a [ __ ] about the things he's preaching and even if he does she implies that the compton community aren't really believing it the verse ends off with a metaphor with kendrick's mother claiming that whenever he's brought up in a conversation they live in the laugh factory referring to the well-known chain of comedy clubs in america quite bluntly showing us that kendrick is almost seen as a joke within their community the exact opposite result of what he wanted when striving for a successful rap career if we remove this solely from kendrick's situation however and look at this situation on a broader scale we can see that kendrick is making a commentary on fake people in general once again looking at people with low self-esteem and numerous insecurities that try to put up a front and give off an image of themselves which isn't genuine much like in kendrick's situation when observing these kinds of people it becomes very apparent quite quickly the reality these people find themselves in so if these people are then questioned and continue to try put up this front it just results in people thinking they're untrustworthy and laughable as we enter this refrain it's almost like kendrick is being mocked perhaps moving away from his lyrics representing his mother and perhaps focusing more on the people he's trying to impress picking up on all of his actions and things he says and scrutinizing them it's claimed that upon re-entering compton kendrick attempted to fit in by saying the kinds of things he would assume to hear in the environment that he once grew up in he only does this however to try and impress the people around him so insecure at the fact he's managed to gain huge amounts of success in comparison with those surrounding him these lyrics follow a very similar sentiment mentioning the specific phrases plug meaning a connection to someone who can provide drugs and jug meaning an illegal money making scheme in the third line kendrick becomes very pitiful and appears very out of touch when we can assume that most of his previous questions have gone unanswered leading him to ask where it's at meaning just the general environment of compton and how things are now being run in the area this only makes kendrick's peers even further upset at how he appears when coming back to compton saying in the final line that he sounds like the feds an impactful line for kendrick especially with him over the course of the album being passionate and furious at how some of the police go about their job this not only means that kendrick is now seen as untrustworthy in his hometown but also someone who would want to be actively avoided in this chorus however we get a more relaxed view on the situation with kendrick's peers straying away from the constant criticism and instead giving him advice on how he should proceed telling him bluntly that they know he's lying and putting up a front but he really has no need to they simply tell kendrick to stop trying so hard to fit in and act like how he used to and he'll find himself being accepted much easier kendrick's insecurities led to him overthinking several aspects of himself leading him to actively change them whereas if he were to just come back into compton as himself despite any of the changes that he's made in the time that he's been gone nobody would have any of these problems or concerns that have been brought up in the track coming into this second verse and what we can presume is kendrick's mother giving advice once again she gives kendrick another harsh reality check acknowledging the environment that revolves around him now and the things that go on around him outside of compton making him once again aware that these people aren't stupid and actively keep up to date on the news and what kendrick's getting up to she says that the world doesn't respect him perhaps referring back to race and how much like kendrick has mentioned throughout this entire album despite all the advances and progress that the black community have made they still come under fire with huge amounts of racism and unfair judgments that are put onto them simply because of their skin colour however added on top of this she also says that this very same downtrodden culture doesn't even accept kendrick because the way he's been acting is starting to make them think that fame and wealth has transformed him into someone that they can't trust and someone who shares the same values as these powerful racist figures that kendrick has brought up previously despite all of that kendrick still looks past all of this and perceives it as love implying that he's gotten lost with the positive experiences that have come with getting famous and started to ignore the struggles that people below him have to go through looking at all the previous tracks we know for a fact that this isn't true but the way he's trying to represent himself to his community isn't particularly helping his case and making him appear any more trustworthy once again these lyrics have two meanings one being another insult towards kendrick claiming that what he's doing is simply a parody of what previous generations of rap have already produced but the second meaning could also be kendrick himself making a grander statement on how he perceives certain type of rappers entering the music scene saying that they themselves are a parody faking everything from their image to their message to their lyrics they do this because they think they're playing the game tapping into certain trends and trying to capitalize as much as possible from them in the hopes of getting either money fame or as kendrick says here women however as kendrick says due to how surface level and unmeaningful these people's approach is when it comes to creating music they only have the chance of having a very short-lived career their 15 minutes of fame being all that they're known for following on from the previous line this reputation that these surface level rappers are striving for which kendrick's mother has misrepresented kendrick as will never truly be gained due to their lack of true interest and passion if you go into an art form like music with the sole mindset of wanting to be rich and famous it's much more likely that you're gonna fail as those particular goals and motivations stray away from the artistic side of creation and leads towards the more capitalist and corporate spectrum as kendrick mentions you have to build up this reputation naturally staying in line with the track's overall message of not letting your insecurities overtake you attempting to manufacture a fake reality and fake perception of yourself will inevitably only lead to people discovering the truth and then abandoning the liar here kendrick mentions different types of complexes referring to the commonly used term within psychology meaning a pattern of emotions and thoughts revolving around a particular theme an example of this would be the term god complex which is frequently used to represent someone's narcissistic and egotistical thought patterns however the complex that kendrick mentions here is almost the complete opposite of what a god complex is perhaps taking an introspective look into his mind and figuring out the constant thoughts that he's consistently having he pins these thoughts down to four key areas being jealousy emotional self-pity and under oath all of which we've seen has been represented in kendrick's lyricism up to this point kendrick is a bit more vague when referencing this complex calling it the loudest person in the room complex however it's clear that he's referring to an inferiority complex this complex follows a pattern of over-compensation in relation to one's actions trying to hide a deeper insecurity within themselves for example it's commonly said that the loudest and most confident person in the room most likely represents that same person as being deeply insecure in private this is a grand generalization and may not apply to everyone however in kendrick's case it most certainly does with him already essentially ripping himself to shreds in his own track exposing his own personal insecurities with the irony being that he's only perpetuating this complex within himself being the loudest voice in the room and doing it on the larger scale imaginable being presented on his album this leads us back to the chorus and refrain once more before eventually reaching a third verse this is where we can see kendrick taking a grander look at the compton environment in a very clever way whilst also staying consistent with the theme of his insecurities when taking a step back and looking at the situation we acknowledge that kendrick is trying to fit in with these gang-infested environments however he does this at the very high cost of perpetuating a cycle that would be an even greater sin to try and keep going and that would be to still get involved with gang culture and gang-related activities despite getting out of them for the entire album kendrick has been preaching about black power and equal rights which is an extremely important aspect to touch on with all of the previous tracks telling us why however what kendrick needs to do now that he has a platform and a more powerful voice in society is not to perpetuate this cycle of violence and lashing out that is commonly present within gang culture but to instead try break that very cycle by introducing a new outlook on the situation much like he's done throughout the entire album the overall point revolves around the black community in general and the perception they want to give off to their powerful white oppressors that we see are still present within our society in many ways the black community as a whole have to stay calm rational and level-headed through all of the unfair scenarios that they found themselves in which i'm sure is an unbelievably difficult mindset to have however by not doing this these racist whites who jump on the opportunity to tear down black people at any time will simply say that they've had their points proven if they notice any violence or illegal activities within the black community this line simply reinforces the message that kendrick has already set up throughout the track pretty much standing up for himself in this latter part of the song saying that even from a kid he's always been a virgin to [ __ ] meaning that he's never minced his words or lied about anything a stark contrast to how his peers in the hood perceived him earlier on the track this line takes us back to the ideas of corporatism in the music industry which kendrick this time portrays as an auction he claims that these large record labels like to entice these upcoming artists by saying that they can live out their fantasy of being a musician making them feel like they'll be their own boss be able to do whatever they want whenever they want and live a happy life however it's only once you start signing off contracts and living that life for a short period of time that the rose-tinted goggles start to fall off with those very same contracts that you were told would give you everything you ever wanted eventually become hindrances in your day-to-day life that's why kendrick asks who your boss is because once you sign yourself up to certain things with legally binding documents you've essentially enslaved yourself to these corporations being able to basically be played like a puppet on a string the time that you thought you'd spend relaxing will be upended at the request of your record label telling you that you need to go to a press conference or do an interview this dream that you once had gets crushed under the weight of the bigger corporations not looking at you as an artist but simply another way of making money the word fugazi is a slang way of saying that someone is fake of course fitting in with the theme of the track however just like how kendrick reflected on himself and acknowledged his insecurities within this track he's not going to take the approach that his mother or any of his peers took in relation to this most likely because he knows how it feels to want to cover up certain aspects of yourself in hopes that it will reflect better on you to those around you kendrick instead takes the opposite approach and is simply trying to encourage people to be their true selves the habitual nature of this cycle of lying and insecurity is also brought up here with kendrick saying that the kids of these insecure and lying parents need to be more aware of this reality that he's preaching as to not repeat the same steps and suffering that previous generations have endured kendrick here touches on the individual nature of every human being once again encouraging his listeners to not take the path he initially took when coming back to compton and trying to fit in with the crowd and be like his peers it follows the well-known message of being your own person and standing out from the crowd because as you progress in life it becomes more apparent that there's a certain nature to how society is set up by the governments and upper elites essentially putting you into a box laying your limitations and extent of potential one thickly as you grow up making you less ambitious and less creative this is not how it should be however with every individual having the potential to do brilliant things it's just whether they choose to cave under the weight of cultural norms and insecurities which will decide whether they can take full advantage of their opportunities coming up to the end of this verse kendrick once again mentions people's tendency to bend the truth in exchange for either emotional or physical gratification from an outside force here kendrick looks at people's personal insecurities in relation to different classes saying that people who are perceived as rich and constantly flaunt what they supposedly have in fact have a low amount of money implying that people who are truly incomprehensibly wealthy in comparison to everyone else don't brag about it most likely having insecurities of their own in relation to their wealth however on the complete opposite side of the spectrum you have poor people being equally as loud about their wealth but instead choose to shout out how poor and downtrodden they are kendrick finds this entire situation ironic and rather amusing seeing that despite these two sides seeing so different on a surface level upon analysis it appears that they have more in common than anyone would think all stemming from their insecurities in these final lyrics kendrick sums up what he was trying to do through the entirety of this track using himself as an example and trying to warn people of the states you can get in and the actions you can take when you cave to your insecurities he's learned throughout his life that being your own person is the true way to enlightenment within oneself even if that means accepting and embracing aspects of yourself that you may think are the worst parts this ends off you ain't got a lie fading away from the smooth rhythms and gradually bringing us into a new environment hearing the sounds of a large crowd talking amongst each other it's unclear within this track what this crowd represents and why they're here however in the next and penultimate track i will find out when looking at the title of this song we can see the immediate link between this track and the track u from earlier in the album with you being all about kendrick's depressive and introspective mindset whilst essentially having a breakdown it makes us think that i could be the flip side of the ideas that were present in that track with this one focusing more on self-love and self-belief kendrick also makes an interesting and controversial choice with this track choosing to purposely make the track appear as a live performance with the crowd and imperfect production and performance adding immensely to the atmosphere that he creates what makes it an even more outlandish move is the fact that the studio version had already been released as a single on the run up to the album's release subverting listeners expectations when reaching the track the track opens by leading straight on from the previous track keeping us in this unknown environment surrounded by a crowd of people the person shouting is ronald eisley one part of the isley brothers who's also featured previously on this album in the song how much a dollar cost he starts off by asking if a microphone is on making us aware that we've been transported to some sort of concert perhaps being performed by kendrick he continues to confirm our assumptions by saying that the performer that's coming to the stage is the number one rapper in the world we already know this will be kendrick however the next line emphasizes how he's traveled all over the world but decided to come back to compton because he cares about the people within the community it's an optimistic thing to hear especially when coming off the previous track which was all about how kendrick felt like an outsider thinking that nobody in the compton community liked or respected him as ronald eisley starts to bring some kids closer to the stage we hear kendrick be introduced in the background presumably coming up on the stage and starting to test his microphone in preparation for a performance as the song starts to form and cut through the crowd kendrick begins to start rapping with these first lyrics clueing us into the overall tone of this track and what he'll be touching on throughout it whereas a lot of the tracks up to this point were solely introspective this track will both be introspective but more importantly retrospective looking back at everything that has happened within the album and all the actions that have led kendrick to this point and finally rationalizing everything taking everything for what it is this new optimistic outlook having a positive effect on both kendrick and those surrounding him in the second line we can also see that religion and his faith to god is a large part of how he's managed to get out of the endless cycle of depression and self-loathing that we saw was present throughout a large bulk of the album here we see kendrick mention the devil wanting to put him in a bow tie which could have several meanings it could be relating to the depressive cycle that kendrick was in making him question his own mortality and cutting it close several times with impulsive and suicidal near-death encounters the bow tie representing the formal attire that would be worn at a funeral however on the flip side of that it could also be relating to the bow tie as once again formal attire but the kind you'd wear when you've got incomprehensible amounts of fame and money this would link to the several occasions that we saw in the album previously where we saw kendrick constantly going back and forth on the idea of working with the character lucy which was a character used to represent the devil or lucifer as they're sometimes known this all revolved around signing contracts and taking deals that will in turn give kendrick more money however staying in line with the moniker of selling your soul to the devil this made kendrick also question his faith with the more he went down the path of fame and materialism the more he lost touch with his true beliefs and true self in the second line we see kendrick hoping for this new outlook that he's gained to not be dampened or forgotten sending him back down a bad path once again looking back at the events through this album kendrick recognizes all the pressures and people that were pushing back against his creative vision almost wishing that he'd fall at any given opportunity this would be primarily referencing factors like the character of lucy and the record industry with kendrick eventually finding his way throughout the album and going against the bad decisions that they wanted him to agree upon the word enemigo is also used here which means enemy in spanish the usage of the foreign phrase may stem from its close ties to the word amigo meaning friend perhaps referencing kendrick's more cautious and jaded mindset after the events that have taken place in the album recognizing that true enemies don't always appear as villainous from an outside perspective but in fact the closer people get to you emotionally the more their true colors may begin to show linking back to how kendrick believes so many people are against him now as that is the way he's been made to feel throughout his entire career so far this line quite blatantly references previous events within the album going back to the song you which as i mentioned is a song where we essentially hear kendrick have a breakdown and chastise himself over every little action he's taken that he perceives as wrong the double mirror metaphor represents the introspective mindset kendrick had during this period of time but also mentioning the fact that it's dirty also shows us his ill-advised and almost brainwashed perception of reality at the time if you've watched my previous videos you'd understand this would be in relation to the incessant bargaining that we saw take place between kendrick and the character lucy one of the most important songs showing this off being for sale kendrick's showing off the mental journey that he's been on over the course of the album pretty much clueing us in that he's managed to get over all the challenges that were present in the album previously and is instead opting to try be the best person he possibly can be and not get as pent up or stressed out about the actions he's making from this point forward as we enter the chorus we recognize that this is arguably the biggest contrast and tonal shift within the entire album it's very much like a wrap up of most the themes that have been touched on in the album so far mentioning kendrick's insecurities his hatred towards police brutality the importance of religion and faith in his life as well as taking everything much more slowly reducing stress and panic in his life this is all performed under the most enthusiastic and joyous tune on the album sampling the isley brothers song that lady it's an incredibly impactful moment to see kendrick self-acceptance constantly repeating that he now loves himself for who he is not having any regrets over past actions and trying to move forward being the best person he can possibly be as we enter this first verse kendrick starts by talking about the general state of the world from what we can assume to be the media's perspective kendrick of course acknowledges that there are many problems that the world suffers spending a large majority of the album essentially giving his take on these very problems and trying to come up with a rational and workable solution to them however he disagrees with how everything is being portrayed by the media and news outlets simply seeing their coverage as feeding into a cycle of fear-mongering and negativity almost as a way to keep the general public under control by telling them how they should feel what kendrick is essentially trying to say is that just like him it would benefit everyone to stay away from this negativity that is constantly spun from the media if you keep looking at the negative parts of the world and the bad things that may be happening you're only going to keep yourself in this pessimistic and hateful mindset towards the general public as you'll start generalizing and thinking everyone and everything is bad breaking out of this cycle and taking things for what they are perhaps not getting too invested in anything and simply doing things that will benefit you positively on a day-to-day basis is the true way to self-enlightenment and self-love that we can see kendrick has discovered this line more bluntly makes us aware of the cycle of negativity that kendrick was referencing previously however in these lyrics i feel like he's referring back to gang environments more heavily with previous tracks on the album touching very specifically on the frustrations that come with living in a hood environment kendrick may be talking about the patience and power of the black community once more he's already mentioned the unfair police brutality within this track so it may be kendrick telling the black community once more to be patient and keep fighting for equal rights and fair treatment however most importantly fighting for it in a calm manner i mentioned this on a previous track but due to how unforgiving these higher racist powers are that keep the black community down if they notice any wrongdoings within the community or any violent outburst rebelling against their oppression this will simply be used to claim that they're untrustworthy and violent as kendrick says it's an incredibly frustrating position to be in having to both be downtrodden mocked and oppressed but also not being able to do whatever you can to help fight back against it linking back to ignoring negativity kendrick tells us of how he ducks out of the way of these negative forces that apparently lives on a fifo farm basis that phrase referencing the giant from the well-known jack and the beanstalk story this may be telling us that kendrick acknowledges that these oppressive negative powers are much more powerful than him from a grander perspective so he's deciding to be more subtle in his approach to rebellion making his inevitable grand statement on the situation seem unexpected and more impactful these lyrics refer to the repression of feelings that both kendrick and his friends have faced throughout their life although kendrick is now tackling these aforementioned problems head on with a clear and rational outlook on life before he chose to simply ignore them and hide from them by doing things like getting intoxicated with substances like drugs and alcohol whereas that could serve as a form of temporary relief from the situation it overall changes nothing the dreams of reality peace will only ever be dreams if you choose to ignore the greater problems and settle for a life which is objectively not as fulfilling or satisfying the final lyrics of this first verse show how personal this song really is making it clear that this song very much represents kendrick's views and perception of reality only this doesn't mean he's blind to the issues that still faces community of course with the previous lyrics showing that clearly but for the first time in a while kendrick has managed to feel optimistic for the future and also happy with the present life that he's living the lyrics sky could fall down wyn could cry now also reference a song from his album section 80 on the song high power the lyrics represent the idea of society and culture collapsing in on itself with the idea of the sky falling being used by many writers to represent the idea of an incomprehensible level of disaster mentioning that here kendrick is showing that he's satisfied with what he's managed to achieve with his community knowing full well that he's truly tried his best to make areas like compton a better place and let black people know that they're worth something despite what these racist higher powers say otherwise previously in the album it seemed like no matter how far kendrick went on this journey he was never satisfied with any of the progress that he was making always feeling like it wasn't enough which in turn made him feel like he wasn't good enough and wasn't worth anything it's nice to see kendrick actually acknowledging his impact for once and have him be embraced by the community he was essentially doing everything for as we enter this second verse we see kendrick's start by standing up against all his doubters that thought he couldn't make it once again touching on the bigger topic of negativity in cases like this any sort of criticism towards a person's character or form of self-expression can often lead to them either doubting themselves or stopping whatever it is that they've been criticized on this all stems from a lack of confidence within themselves not truly believing that they're good enough so instead turn to getting validation from others if they get criticized on whatever it is that they're doing they'll simply follow the beliefs and tastes of an outside force closing gateways to immense possibilities within every individual's minds this was similar to what we saw kendrick go through on the previous track you ain't got a lie which focused on kendrick's insecurities and trying to fit in as an outsider as we can see here despite all of these hardships that kendrick faced he inspires his listeners to not wallow in a depressive state but instead to lift their head up and keep being who they are not pandering to anyone else's expectations but simply doing what they want and living their life on their own terms staying on with this theme kendrick looks at a heavily contested and scrutinized area in our modern day culture which is the fashion industry due to celebrities being seen and reported on frequently within the media landscape aspects like their clothing and appearance occasionally get picked up on with news outlets attempting to make a story around what they're wearing perhaps trying to promote some ulterior made-up motive to get more traction to their articles it does also relate to everyday people however once again with people wanting validation and approval in relation to the clothes that they're wearing as kendrick says though now that he's gained this new outlook and bundles of self-confidence he instead opts to wear his heart on his sleeve instead of trying to pander to any image that is either trendy or what someone else wants him to wear in these lyrics kendrick may be talking about the content he chooses to talk about and seems to almost call out his own fans for wanting more music about his troubled past kendrick recognizes the pattern people have to listen to certain types of music that reflect their presently personal struggles in kendrick's case his previous album good kid mad city was all about his experiences growing up in a hood environment which i'm sure numerous amounts of poverty-stricken kids could relate to as kendrick says the miserable and depressed do love company with his music perhaps being that company that these people need however kendrick has already touched on his early and personal life in detail on that album so to ask for more and more would not only be repeating ideas that have already been expressed but also would be bringing up bad and painful memories that kendrick doesn't particularly want to think about constantly the fact that kendrick uses the word scars here shows that he's well and truly moved on from any of the troubles and woes that may have once plagued his life so all that matters to him at this very moment is to preach his optimistic message as kendrick ends off the verse he more blatantly states what he's trying to say with his lyrics saying how everybody lacks confidence kendrick uses himself as an example claiming how if it wasn't for his confidence he would have never made it to the position he's in today as whilst he was striving to become an artist his true potential was constantly dampened and anonymous to several onlookers at the time only now that he's actually made it would these same doubters change their tune most likely out of jealousy and wanting to manipulate kendrick in order to get something in return finally he mentions all of the promises that are made by higher powers and people who have already made it using the city as an example and exposing how a majority of these promises are never met for a person already born into a fairly privileged life they will be promised that hard work will always result in success claiming that if you don't make it it's simply because you haven't worked hard enough however this rule applies to all classes with people living in places like los angeles being promised numerous amounts of things like fame and money this may be the case for some people but looking at places like compton aspects like that aren't even in the question these places are promised things like good housing and safe neighborhoods which can't be met either before going back into the chorus kendrick tells us that he can promise us one thing only which is that he loves himself once again promoting the idea of trying to look at things in a slightly more optimistic light no matter how bad they may first appear before going into the third verse kendrick brings us to a bridge talking about walking down a valley in his bare feet quite simply this represents the carefree attitude that kendrick now feels with the removal of his shoes being symbolic of how his feelings are no longer being repressed simply letting himself be as free as possible which in turn makes him the most optimistic and happy version of himself in this third verse kendrick talks about going to war at night starting by claiming that he used an automatic weapon to fight but assumedly lost because he says he wants to keep going to war until he gets it right this war is quite clearly one that is being fought inside kendrick's mind taking elements that he's witnessed in reality such as the weaponry that was present in the compton hood environment and using them metaphorically to describe the difficult and strenuous battle that he's facing against his own mental this line confirms the metaphor of the war being one that's taking place inside kendrick's head further elaborating on that idea by establishing how long he's been fighting this war he looks back to his childhood realising the type of graphic things he had to witness when growing up in compton with his previous album good kid mad city taking a hyper-focused examination of these events kendricks had to witness murders both in and outside of his family drug dealing alcohol abuse all from an incredibly young age because of these aspects his mindset was already warped by the time he reached adulthood with all of these events sticking in his mind quite clearly leading him to serious bouts of depression some of which are represented in this album kendrick somewhat beats himself up here however i believe unnecessarily still looking at his past he states how every blessing that came into his life meaning that he could avoid some of the negative things that would warp his mindset he ducked under every single time however it's these kinds of experiences that made kendrick the man he is today who's to say that if he didn't witness some of the things that he had maybe the impactful and inspiring message that's presented in this song may not be as meaningful he also mentions how he could never take the lead or bob and weave perhaps representing how kendrick can't dodge out of the way of any struggles that come into his life choosing to take everything head on coming to the end of this verse abruptly kendrick reinforces what he's been talking about through most of this song taking negativity and doubters out of his life for good as there's been too many times in the past where he's let their opinions get to him and annihilate his creativity from the inside if kendrick were to have given up at the helm of these doubters he wouldn't have been successful and not just successful but as kendrick says himself someone who shot up to stardom at meteor speed representing how fast he's managed to game fame kendrick then begins to go into some lyrics about running into a building and laying his body somewhere however before we can extrapolate any meaning out of the complete lyrics the performance is interrupted and overthrown by what we can presume to be an altercation in the crowd in this interlude we start by hearing the sounds of arguing and rabble within the crowd this quite literally shows the lack of unity within the black community an idea that kendrick touched heavily on in the song the black of the berry due to all of the pent-up rage and frustration the black community has seemingly become divided with everybody having their guards up constantly leading to less peace and love in the community and more caution kendrick intervenes telling the band to cut the music becoming visibly upset and annoyed that this would happen during his performance he makes it clear that he's not going to simply stand by and keep performing when there are clear problems right in front of him a perfect symbolic representation of the album as a whole whilst everyone continues to squabble amongst themselves kendrick calls out to some of his friends within the crowd trying to make a point about how many loved ones the compton community have lost in 2015 alone we don't hear the exact number but with the way kendrick responds we can presume he's had his point proven with the amount of people being lost due to internal issues within the community being more than just one incident as someone who has grown up and lived the compton lifestyle kendrick now has a platform to let these people know that this is unacceptable as we've seen in previous songs throughout the album there are bigger problems that are facing their community so getting frustrated and turning against each other is simply wasting the time they've got to fight back against the greater issues that plague them coming together is the most important aspect to having their community survive and thrive as there are already so many outside factors that are stacked against them keeping with the idea of unfairness in relation to their community kendrick plays on the different meanings of the word time like in the previous lyric he encourages the community to not waste time squabbling amongst each other and instead focus on the bigger issue here kendrick quite literally shows what this bigger issue is unfair police brutality and the overall law system fighting amongst each other will inevitably end up with the police getting involved meaning jail time for whoever is responsible exactly what the racist powers want the black community to be perceived as uncontrollable and violent the amount of time they serve for a jail sentence is then processed through the unfair and unreliable law system america has ultimately delaying the goal that kendrick is fighting for this frustrates him immensely saying that with all of the pressures that are held up against the black community at the very least coming to a concert promoting black power with friends and family should be the prime opportunity to socialize and create unity not to fight against each other as we come up to kendrick's fourth and final verse performed in acapella fashion he finally reaffirms his love for the community telling them that the reason he's so frustrated is because they need to be bigger and better than fighting amongst themselves too many unnecessary deaths have occurred out of this frustration spawned out of the oppression that the black community face and it's people like kendrick that will actually be able to make a change and impact people's lives he then says that they're gonna get back to the show testing his microphone and saying that before they start up again he wants to perform some acapella this is a huge and impactful moment on the album with kendrick finally stepping up and becoming the leader that he needed to be this first line may reference the character dave from good kid mad city someone who died after getting shot by a rival gang kendrick promised to never use phrases that would in any way be offensive towards his community it follows the moniker of practicing what you preach in this scenario focusing on the inappropriate use of the m word which kendrick only thinks damages their community taking them further away from their ultimate goal of equality this is somewhat similar to what we saw on the track you ain't got a lie which showed kendrick contradicting himself by trying to fit back into a hood lifestyle an almost encouraging things like gang banging and drug dealing despite chastising these kinds of activities multiple times throughout the album his friend dave said that if kendrick kept doing this he'd be no better than the samuel on the django and the white man with the slave boats first referencing the character stephen played by samuel jackson in the film django unchained this character was an old house slave who served his white master kelvin candy serving his every need which even involved torturing other slaves quite a scathing comparison to make in relation to kendrick however perhaps this is exactly what he needed a wake-up call that would cause him to soul-search and become the strong and courageous leader that his community needed kendrick then credits his dad for teaching him the truest and most important things in his life as opposed to anything he was taught in schools or colleges run by the government which are set up to tell their own and more favorable version of history with kendrick being so invested in the black community he knew from a young age he would have to discover and learn more about his ancestors not only in compton but all the way back to africa when the slave trade was still prevalent this is the kind of stuff america is afraid to teach in schools almost trying to cover up the incomprehensible amount of unfair and racist treatment that the black community have suffered which in the grand scheme of the world only majorly changed very recently with slavery only being abolished in 1865. with this prospect kendrick knew he had to do his homework on the situation fast before things were either covered up by the government or he was physically stopped talk show host oprah winfrey is well known for her distaste towards the n-word especially when being used in rap songs the mistake she makes which she's been told time and time again by other artists is that by shying away from the word she's giving it more power and holding on to the purpose of it whereas from kendrick's perspective using the word within his lyrics takes back the power from a word which was once used to degrade and control their race this word which kendrick brings up here as he says originated from ethiopia with it being used to describe a king or ruler he's comparing this word to the n-word showing that when used in the right context by black people who firmly stand for the black power movement like himself the n-word gives them a rulership over the oppressors that would have once been holding them down as we start coming to the end of this spoken word passage kendrick really lays in the point that it's how people choose to use the n-word which offends him the most friends family and numerous artists use it all the time but not always in the positive context that is represented from the ethiopian meaning for king or ruler kendrick ends the song off by mentioning oprah winfrey once more whilst also saying that if anyone else disagrees with the message he's promoting in any of his work they can all come and get him not only because he has a firm belief he's doing the right thing but also that if he's not he'll learn and gain knowledge from other people within the black community a win-win situation for kendrick the ending line shows kendrick mentioning himself finally embracing the leader role that he was almost destined to fill and pretty much completing what he set out to do giving the black community some hope towards the future and doing his best to unify them this ends off the song i leading straight into the final song mortal man in the intro of this track we get suddenly brought out of the concert environment that was present on the previous song i and almost get thrown into this dreamlike state with the wavy vocals and atmosphere at the start we get taken straight to the chorus which starts by mentioning well-known anti-racism activist nelson mandela with this song pretty much serving as an epilogue to the album kendrick starts by embracing the leader role that he was almost destined to fill comparing himself and the lyrics that he writes to some of the powerful messages delivered by nelson mandela mandela spent essentially his entire life campaigning for racial equality and famously was arrested and imprisoned at robin island in south africa serving a 27-year sentence simply because he was promoting the ideas of freedom and equality he's one of the most recognizable and well-known figures in the black power movement so when kendrick says that he's the ghost of mandela he not only references his passing which happened two years prior to the album's release but also that not all hope is lost because with the amount of research and experience kendrick has in relation to civil rights and the unfair treatment of the black community he feels like mandela's message and goals can almost be carried on and perhaps achieved by the next generation kendrick also mentions the prior events on the album and the mistakes and depressive states that he fell into when going on this almost spiritual journey that led to him becoming a leader of the black power movement this would be in reference to songs like you where he essentially broke down in a confused and aggressive manner but also songs like for sale which showed kendrick going down the path of selling his soul to the devil and feeding into his vices and temptations as we reach this ending point of the album kendrick justifies that you almost have to make room for these lapses in judgment and oppressive phases because once you come out of them if you properly reflect and have a good moral compass you would have learned something new not only about yourself but also how the world works kendrick now has the confidence which he lacked for a large part of the album looking back on his mistakes and simply taking them for what they are not feeling any regret but seeing them as a necessary part of life in this refrain kendrick plays on the idea of [ __ ] hitting the fan a phrase which is used to describe something going rapidly wrong he uses the word fan to not only represent the literal object of a fan but also the fans of his music this chorus will become increasingly more important and relevant as the song progresses however in this initial part where we hear it first kendrick is touching heavily on the idea of loyalty using fans as an example of a group that have often times been fickle the manner in which kendrick delivers these lines somewhat show that he's aware of how the media works and how people react to hit pieces in the ever-growing cancel culture age however he's asking his fans that if this were to ever happen to him would they stay loyal or would they simply believe the first thing they hear this isn't kendrick saying he'll always be in the right and that you should always trust him but he's trying to tell his listeners to not take things at face value as opposed to jumping on any bandwagon and distancing yourself from something or someone controversial immediately do your research first and come to an educated conclusion before making any drastic actions this chorus and refrain is repeated once more really setting in the points that kendrick has brought up so far before going into the first verse coming into this first verse kendrick expands on the ideas he's brought up already making it clear that the emphasis is primarily his own fan base starting off by asking if they actually believe in him and the things he's saying or if they're simply putting up a front and deceiving him he shows us the pedestal that pretty much all celebrities are put on not only in the eyes of people who favor them but also the ones that detest them kendrick does this by asking questions like is your smile on permanent is your vow on lifetime showing the much higher standards that people in the public eye are held to much like kendrick has shown through this album humans are naturally flawed and almost inevitably screw up and make wrong decisions several times throughout their life it's almost impossible to always be happy and have a smile on your face constantly and certain promises you make are almost inevitably going to be broken the only problem is that when anyone else goes through this they learn from it and move on with their life however chances are that if a celebrity goes through this very same process their public image will be permanently affected with their life and career possibly being at risk of complete collapse it reminds me of what tyler the creator mentioned on his recent album call me if you get lost where the first impression you make on people especially if you're a well-known figure will apparently sum up who you are for your entire life despite everyone naturally growing and evolving as people constantly kendrick worries about his legacy and the message he's been promoting throughout his career and asks if he died after the next line would his fans be able to carry on his message and continue to spread it even after he's gone he also has concerns over the future saying that because of the unrelenting promotion of the black power movement that he's been on through his career the government and racist higher powers which we've heard of throughout this album would try and frame him by doing things like trying him in a court of law cutting him off from the music industry and planting drugs in his car this once again isn't kendrick telling us that you should never question him and his actions however looking at the broader context of his entire presence in the media landscape and what he stands for it would be unwise to all of a sudden turn on him after any accusations like the ones he's just mentioned it once again comes back to loyalty with kendrick saying that if you saw a news headline claiming that he's a drug head would your perception of him be instantly changed or would you still look at him as kendrick lamar the artist who stood for racial equality kendrick claims that he wants to be seen and loved like mandela was finally believing that he's worthy of the praise that's thrown his way because of what's included in his music some people treat kendrick's songs very seriously taking them as less of a song and more as a blessing in disguise because of how intricate his lyricism can get especially when compared to other rappers who only rap about surface level things like money and drugs kendrick's music and his message is the kind that will actually have an impact on people's lives and will be used as a symbol of what the black community is possible of creating all of this praise as well as his own acknowledgement of it makes kendrick compare himself to some kind of new prophet someone who was brought into this world to free people's enslaved minds and and fight back against any unfair oppressive powers he also says however that an essential requirement to being a prophet comes with asking the question when [ __ ] hit the fan is you still a fan taking us back to the refrain showing us that the idea of having faith and actually believing in the prophet-like figure he's turning out to be is necessary in having him actually turn out to be this prophet the refrain and chorus is repeated once more until we're brought into a second verse kendrick starts this second verse relating more to the ideas of love and staying true to your partner in this verse kendrick looks at himself from an outside perspective using the word you instead of i whilst also bringing up the idea of mandela again despite being locked away for 27 years mandela's wife waited for him all that time because she truly believed in what his life goals were kendrick looks at himself and how he claimed he's a prophet and someone worthy of being the ghost of mandela and wonders if his goals and aims would lead to his fiancee waiting 25 years for him like the title of this track implies kendrick starts to focus on his own mortality and questions if it's possible for his message to be immortalized and be as prominent than it already is before he even dies he also touches on what it took for him to get to the position that he's currently in and be able to spread this message and be the prophet he's held as he does this by once again taking himself back to his childhood and looking at his friends and family and how they reacted to him getting out of the hood and moving up the music industry whereas a lot of them had a supportive mindset and actively encouraged kendrick to get out there and become a famous artist you could assume that there were also other friends that became extremely bitter and jealous of this prospect wishing for him to fail despite this being hurtful this was an important thing for kendrick to learn knowing that as much as you think you can depend on people even those who share the same blood as you ultimately it all needs to come down to your own self-belief as much as it's nice for people to be there and come in clutch when you need the most there's always the chance that when you need the most they won't be there and will abandon you so you need to be ready to know how to cope when there's no one else there coming back to mandela kendrick references his forgiving and calm mindset when being released from prison after becoming president of south africa in 1994 people expected that he would go against his attitude up to that point and perhaps try seek vengeance on those that did him wrong and got him incarcerated however mandela did the exact opposite and chose to forgive any of these people who took the wrong actions instead focusing on the more pressing matters and not getting caught up in any kind of revenge or redemption kendrick is trying to replicate and carry out this very same attitude that mandela had keeping his head together and integrity intact and chooses to turn this offense and prejudice that is thrown his way into art kendrick also alludes to the parable of daniel whose belief is tested when he's thrown into a lion's den after his friends betray him daniel's true enemies are not the lions or the king who placed him in the dungeon but rather his peers who betrayed him this is stressed by the unnatural hissing of the lions as if they were not lions but snakes in disguise kendrick toys with this concept of loyalty being tested his den is fame and the lions he's trapped with the music industry kendrick once again brings up mandela's forgiving mindset an aspect that i'm sure many people strive to have but is very difficult to actually achieve the grudges people hold in relation to small petty things in their life is already too common let alone being held in prison for 27 years for trying to promote equality and doing the right thing people focus too much on revenge justice and coming out as the winner of a situation with kendrick being all too privy to this reality with his own past experiences the important part is that he's aware of this and is actively calling himself and others out on their vengeful mindset no matter how bad the burning of the bridge is the idea of being as peaceful calm and loving as a figure like nelson mandela is exactly what kendrick is trying to become in these final lines of the verse kendrick really sets in the point of what he wants to achieve but also mentioning how he's not quite there yet he wants to walk in mandela's shoes but hasn't done enough yet to cause as big an impact as mandela did kendrick has preached his message relentlessly but despite this his goal ultimately hasn't come to fruition as of yet with any peacemaking in our society still being seldom before kendrick can rest peacefully he first wants to make a genuine change that will be marked down in history having him be remembered for the positive changes he made for the world the refrain and chorus is repeated once again taking us into the third verse coming into this verse we return to kendrick referring to himself in the first person once again starting off by saying that he's already been wrote off before in his life so has abandonment issues this tells us why kendrick has been so adamant about aspects like loyalty faith and integrity because there's been times in the past where he's been made to be a fool and has relied on other people and been left by himself when he needed the most kendrick reveals that he has much to learn in order to even get close to being like mandela saying that he's prone to holding grudges against people which as we know is essentially the opposite of what mandela stood for kendrick compares this trait to bad judges an idea that revolves around certain judges holding specific views on the law and weaving them in a way that fancies their motives this would be aspects like putting harsher sentences to specific individuals because of the grudge and hatred they feel towards them or perhaps lighter sentences on those they favor kendrick doesn't want to be anywhere near these kinds of people that share these ideals even saying that he went to robben island to analyze where mandela spent 27 years serving his sentence perhaps hoping to gain some insight on the conditions that he was living in giving him more sympathy empathy and understanding of how lucky he really is when comparing his life to mandela's kendrick once again has this almost paranoid run constantly questioning his fans about how they feel towards him not just as an artist but as a person just like the clarity he got when going to robben island he wants that in his own life and wants to know if the relationship and connection these people claim they share with kendrick is genuine or is something that could be severed after one accusation thrown towards him it's not just his fans though he has to question everything just so he's completely certain on who he can rely on if tough times ever come questioning his family and friends but more abstractly trees plants and grass those things perhaps representing his own connection to reality questioning if he'll be able to keep himself in check and be down to earth even if a tragedy were to occur in his life the rest of the line simply adhere to the same idea of kendrick being torn down in his life with people showing him respect in one moment and then once he has his back against the wall they're nowhere to be seen in the last part of this verse kendrick brings up several figures that he's observed throughout his life that suffered the fate of having people turn against them or having their message and impact cut short due to other outside forces he starts off with the religious figure moses someone who led the enslaved jews of egypt to freedom only to have them start worshiping false gods after moses's assistance he then mentions huey newton martin luther king and detroit red better known as malcolm x all of these people were heavily involved in the civil rights movement with huey newton being one of the co-founders of the black panther party kendrick also references john f kennedy before showing the link between all these figures is that they were all assassinated with another key detail being that they were killed before their full potential was reached having their message cut short this would link back to the idea of having your life goals live on and be immortalized with these civil rights figures still being held up as some of the most important voices in history despite them not being around anymore kendrick finally mentions jackie robinson who was the first black person to ever play in the mlb he also mentions jesse jackson who was yet another important figure in the civil rights movement before finally ending on the king of pop michael jackson this once again all links back to the idea of loyalty with the line about leaving people for dead having the biggest relation to jackson someone who suffered countless accusations in relation to child molestation and in turn lost a lot of credibility and respect from onlookers kendrick touches on the idea of being innocent until proven guilty saying in the refrain that because of the impact michael jackson has had on his life he's put so much faith in him as a person that the idea of people calling him out for touching kids is so abstract to him this isn't to say he'd side with him if it was proven as unquestionable fact but it simply shows how kendrick feels towards certain important figures in his life and in turn wanting his fans to think of him in a similar way the chorus and refrain is repeated a final time before taking us into the spoken word outro here we finally get the poem that has been repeated throughout the album in its entirety this poem quite literally is the entire story of the album summarized he starts off the album being conflicted with the position he's now in after becoming an international superstar kendrick never claimed to be perfect with there being several times in his life where he used the power which he gained from this fame under the influence of bitterness and resentment however after coming to this realization this resentment led him down a deeper path of depression acknowledging and analyzing every little action that he's taken in his life and scrutinizing them it didn't help that during this entire period so many temptations and vices were constantly circling around him having him not only on the brink of self-destruction but almost being encouraged to do so the only way out was to pick himself up and start searching for the answers as opposed to staying in a depressive slump eventually leading him back to his roots in his hometown compton despite the good this eventually did it had its problems when starting off with kendrick feeling self-conscious and out of place in a location he once called home guilt was the primary feeling when returning to compton seeing how out of control and distant the black community had gotten feeling like the time he spent touring the world after his success could have been better spent helping out his hometown kendrick acknowledges what caused this rift in the community upon returning seeing that it was a result of the built up frustration because of the prejudice and racism that the black community face on a day-to-day basis upon realizing this kendrick knew he had to do something to unify his people thinking it's unacceptable for his community to be fighting against each other when there are already so many other things that are against them no matter what background you're from rich or poor or if you wear different gang colors to someone else joining each other and promoting black power is the ultimate end goal towards a more peaceful and prosperous future kendrick ends the poem by then taking a step back and bringing himself down from the pedestal that he's been placed on saying that the only reason he may be held as a prophet is because of where he stands in society there's people both above and below him that he sure can make a greater impact and speak even further on the issues he's brought up but the fact is he's got the platform and the people's attention so he's trying the best he can to use that to its full potential taking us out of the poem kendrick continues to speak making us aware that he was reciting this poem to someone before explaining his process behind writing it he says that the person he's speaking to could probably relate to a lot of what he included in the poem before saying that now he has a chance to sit down and speak with them he wants to ask about a metaphor in relation to the ground this is where it's revealed that without us knowing kendrick had been reading this poem to his biggest inspiration 2-pack when speaking about the track kendrick mentioned how he managed to find a rare interview with tupac which he used in order to create the illusion that he was having a conversation with him i've been doing this journalism this interview thing for 10 years i've never gotten into tupac man you come out man and you interview tupac man i mean what was that man that was another gift man i i got that that audio recording when i was in by germany cool guy man he said i did an interview with him and he said um man park have the same sentiments even though you know we're totally far from age and he said i want you to have some sure enough i took it back to the bus i played and it's a full long unreleased joint of him just uh asking him questions and what intrigued me the most what gave me the idea is that the answers that poc is giving are answers for today time and age man and i said the world got to hear this right and they they got to hear it on a major scale you know and i got that opportunity and i give love and i give thanks to his mother you know for allowing me to use her some vocals in a positive light you know because a rapper could do anything they can butcher them and make it the worst thing ever but i wanted to continue his message through that and i thank him for that for allowing me to do that pack responds to kendrick's query saying that the ground is the symbol for the poor people of the world and that despite the rich seeming all-powerful in comparison the poor and working class are almost the foundation of society pak believes that because of this reality with how the poor are treated in comparison to the rich and mighty they'll eventually revolt and retaliate against the higher powers which oppress them and as a result pack believes this will truly open up the world bringing the rich people down from their high and mighty position and making the world a fairer and more peaceful place he uses the well-known obesity crisis that america suffers heavily from and associates that with the rich and powerful claiming that when this inevitable collapse happens the rich will be so overweight both in terms of their literal way being able to buy more food than a poor person but also in metaphoric terms their huge amount of wealth which makes them not only a target but someone to be envious of that the poor will take full advantage of this stripping them of whatever they had and almost taking back what they think they truly deserve kendrick asks pak another question in relation to his own wealth and status with him being one of the biggest the most well-known figures in the rap scene it's inevitable that he's also got a huge amount of wealth perhaps making people think of him as a hypocrite criticizing the rich and powerful whilst being rich and powerful himself so to clear up any confusion or misconceptions kendrick asks about the distinction between being rich or making the best of the opportunities you're given as we know tupac much like kendrick wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth and had to work relentlessly to even have a chance at getting the things he wanted out of life from the day he was born especially in the time he was born in it was almost destined that he was gonna fail with racism still being ever present and the rich and powerful were only becoming increasingly harder to effect however partly down to luck and partly down to hard work tupac hustled his way through life taking advantage of every opportunity that was thrown in his direction even if that meant working at the worst job you could possibly imagine growing up he was sure of what he wanted to achieve in his lifetime meaning that he also knew what he had to do in order to build himself up to a point where he could start taking some control of his own he recognizes his rise to fame when saying that he was once being managed by people but eventually managed to get to the point where he was hiring people for his own personal management company as he says he realized his destiny and made a lot of people money in the process and now that he'd gotten to a position of having genuine power and control it was time to make money for himself and his community alone with the assets that he'd brought on his journey up with kendrick almost assuming the role as a student to tupac he wonders how he managed to keep such a level head from an outside perspective we've seen kendrick throughout this album go constantly back and forth on his opinions literally witnessing him have a complete nervous breakdown at one point so for his future endeavors kendrick wants to know from his idol how he manages to cope with the stresses of being successful and in control of so many different areas of business tupac responds by saying that it was his faith in his religion the rap game and the idea that all good things come to those that stay true we can see that he believes in the idea of karma and destiny saying that he doesn't think it was a coincidence and that the events that transpired in his life were happening for a definite reason on his rise to fame tupac's awareness was possibly his greatest trait being able to push the right buttons and take the right actions which would shoot him up to stardom kendrick now questions two packs fighter mentality asking if he's someone that will rise to any occasion and will stand up for what he believes in no matter what or someone who will only react and take action when there's no other choice tupac of course responds modestly believing that truly at any opportunity where his goal and message has been met with resistance he's immediately pushed right back with his own resistance he elaborates by saying that this isn't just a trait that he's picked up by himself but also from his surroundings and his family this would be people like his mother afini shakur who was a black panther activist and a poet who faced a potential life sentence but managed to defend herself and be acquitted of 156 counts to her name you also have geronimo pratt who was somewhat of a mentor to pack who was a high-ranking black panther billy garland pac's biological father was also a black panther despite not being in his life and his stepfather matulou shakur was another key mentor and was a black nationalist it's almost like pak was already predisposed to fight for his rights and be the resistive and outspoken person that he was despite his avid and relentless mindset towards the black power movement he wants pak's opinion on how loyal he thinks people are towards the cause saying that because the black community has had to push back against their racist oppressors for so long will there eventually come a point where everyone just decides that they're fighting a losing battle and no substantial change will ever occur with kendrick almost taking up the role that tupac had when he was still alive he wants to know if there's anything else he can do to inspire his community and make them stay away from losing hope or getting disillusioned with what they're fighting for pak believes that being a black man in america you only have around five years where you can exuberate maximum strength in relation to fighting for equality he equates this to when you're a teenager claiming that's a period where not only is your mind broadening but your body is physically changing in relation to how you treat it during this period pak believes your capabilities are at their apex with the only thing holding you back being if you want to capitalize on them however pack claims that once you turn around the age of 30 with the way the american government treat the black community it's almost inevitable that their efforts will be dampened pak puts this down to black people being worn out and disillusioned with how they've been treated thinking that by the time they're 30 there's no point fighting anymore because no substantial change has been witnessed pak says that he doesn't even really need to justify himself telling everyone to look around and see if there are any older black people still trying to fight for things like equality kendrick then responds in disbelief first saying that as someone who's learnt from pax legacy he's trying to carry on the message that he was preaching in his work but becomes disheartened when realising the reality of the situation saying that despite him trying his best to unify the black community and push back against any racist practices the black community is arguably as fractured and angry as they've ever been the process of change in relation to most things tends to be so slow that you could go several generations and still witness the same things being present in society so despite pak's empowering messages nothing has really changed and in fact things have only gotten worse as a result kendrick asks his opinion on what pak thinks the future holds for kendrick's generation pak's response to this is realistic and holds quite a dark prospect for the future within his music he of course touched several times on what black people should do to rebel against the system that keeps them down usually being things in relation to looting and robbing gutting the government from what has been owed to them however pak thinks people are tired of just rebelling against the economic side of things with him predicting that the next time a mass riot takes place people will be looking for bloodshed linking back to his metaphor of the ground opening up and swallowing the rich the most prophetic part of this is of course this turned out to be true in the aftermath of the george floyd situation in 2020 we witnessed some of the most violent and brutal riots to take place in america for a long time with pax's message as well as this album standing the test of time and showing how genuine change in relation to police brutality and racism is incredibly slow and that people will start to get genuinely violent and ruthless because of this pak elaborates on this once again basically predicting the future and the reality we now live in saying that the higher powers will look at the riots as a minor issue until it becomes very serious and something will have to be done in order to handle it he compares this situation to the nat turner slave rebellion which occurred in 1831 where nat turner led a rebellion of slaves killing those they felt had done them wrong it's a scary prospect but ultimately it came to fruition and in the aftermath of it sadly still no genuine change has occurred one of the most important things that was gained however was the awareness now that these riots have taken place it's made everyone aware of how everything is being handled by the government how black people are being treated and the outrage that can spawn when police brutality is put on a global scale kendrick once again takes in what pax says saying that in his opinion one of the only outlets that is left that could cause a genuine change and impact on the world is the entertainment industry because of how integral it is to people's lives if you were to insert messages of black power and equality and have it be witnessed on a large scale you're once again making more people aware of the reality we live in and hope to bring about change because of this kendrick describes how he's trying his absolute best to make this a reality saying that not many people understand how important these things are not only to him but to the overall well-being of the black community kendrick isn't just making music for the fun of it he's trying to bring about genuine change with this having an effect on him when performing saying that he's sometimes unsure of what energy he's going to push out because of the stakes of mind he can get himself in pack responds to kendrick by saying that rappers like them aren't just performing for the hell of it or because they want to be rich and famous it's for a greater purpose that's much bigger than them a mission that dates back generations for total peace and equality this links to what pax says about spirits and how they're essentially passing this important message down from generation to generation kendrick being a perfect example of this keeping everything tupac said relevant and not having him ever be at the risk of being forgotten kendrick reveals that he has one more poem to read to pack and that this one was written not by him but of a friend of his describing his world this final poem encapsulates the overall message of the album as well as giving total clarity on its title first saying that the caterpillar is a prisoner with its only aim being to eat or consume everything around it in order to protect itself from a dangerous outside world the caterpillar of course is a metaphor for not only kendrick but every poor downtrodden black person in america describing how because of their circumstances ambition and aspirations are almost void from the second you're born growing up in a mad city such as compton your main goal was simply to provide for your loved ones get through the day and keep yourself street smart and protected however once the caterpillar has been around for a long enough point they start to consume their environment and become more aware of how the world works and the buttons you have to push in order to get to a higher place in society a key observation the caterpillar makes is how shunned and oppressed they are especially when compared to the butterfly who is continuously praised and lives a prosperous life the butterfly of course being representative of celebrities and those at the upper echelons of society and the economy this shows the disparity between the poor and the rich showing that despite being the same on a fundamental and biological level the poor are almost glossed over and ignored while the butterfly is praised what the caterpillar starts to realize however is that what the butterfly represents that being things like talent thoughtfulness and beauty are all held within the caterpillar the important part is that the caterpillar acknowledges this and actively takes the right steps in order to transform into the butterfly that they have the chance to be the poem takes a darker tone however with this hope and optimism that could be shared from the caterpillar turning into jealousy and bitterness becoming envious of the life that they witness the butterfly living and choosing to instead try take whatever they can from the butterfly as opposed to realizing their inner potential and transforming into a butterfly themselves as i mentioned everyone is capable of this transformation it's purely up to whether they want to take advantage of this creative and successful lifestyle as opposed to just capitalizing off those who will always be above them kendrick very much took the role of the caterpillar looking at his surroundings and trying to work his way from the ground up deciding to work on the cocoon which in turn institutionalizes him the cocoon relates to pretty much everything put in place by the government that puts you on a predisposed path in life it institutionalizes and marginalizes you keeping you inside a box and never giving you the chance to explore your full capabilities being trapped inside this system it almost becomes a monotonous cycle your life slowly passing you by as you keep working in order to stay true to the same goals as you started with providing surviving and thriving in a mad city what kendrick reveals however is that for some being trapped inside these walls of the cocoon can sometimes spark new ideas with these ideas for him being those which he brought up previously in the album that being going back to his hometown and teaching everything that he's learned to those still stuck in the hood and as a result the overall positive effect it has not only on himself but those that he talk to is immense sparking a transformation in the caterpillar breaking them out of their seemingly endless cycle of their depressing life and breaking free from their cocoon learning new things and observing different perspectives opens up gateways of possibilities that the caterpillar would have once thought were impossible this in turn makes this once downtrodden caterpillar transform into the butterfly that they were once envious of finally realizing that despite initially thinking that they were so different from each other all it takes is the right inspiration at the right time in order to have your mind broadened and realize that you're one in the same after reading this kendrick tries to ask pack what his perspective is on the ideas that are presented in the poem however slowly comes to the realization that pak is nowhere to be seen desperately crying out for his idol much like how pak explained the idea of having stories passed on to our dead friends and relatives he is having his message and stories passed on by kendrick this leaves us on a realistic ending that doesn't really have any sad or happy connotations connected to it the fact is tupac is dead and despite being cut off before he said everything he wanted to say the most that kendrick can do is let his music live on and not let his message die with him and with that mortal man concludes as well as the album i genuinely can't believe we ever got here it's been a journey to say the least to pimper butterfly is my favorite album of all time being layered detailed and impactful from start to finish the ideas it touches on are broad and varied handling them in the most artistic creative and meaningful way i've ever seen in an album with this album kendrick not only touched on the realities of becoming hugely famous before having a fully developed mindset but also the reality of the people he felt he left behind in his hometown still suffering the same struggles that once plagued him as a youth it's a genius and impactful piece of work one that i don't think will be topped anytime soon and that's the video as well as this series if you guys enjoyed a like subscribe share and a comment on what you thought would be hugely appreciated and supports the channel immensely anyways hope you guys enjoyed and i'll see in the next one peace

Channel: Munt Chunk

Views: 305,072

Keywords: to, pimp, butterfly, kendrick, lamar, to pimp a butterfly explained, to bimp a butterfly, to pimp a butterfly analysis, munt chunk, munt chunk kendrick, munt chunk kendrick explained, tpab breakdown, tpab analysis, kendrick tpab explained, album analysis, music analysis channel, kendrick lamar tpab explained, to pimp a butterfly breakdown, who is uncle sam, tpab uncle sam, tpab characters, kendrick new albu, kendrick lamar new album, kendrick new music, baby keem kendrick

Id: Ypj8pYqqoFw

Length: 228min 50sec (13730 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 03 2021