Kendrick Lamar just won two Grammy Awards for his positivity-pact “i.” Then he decided to release the audio equivalent of a million man march this afternoon with the song “The Blacker The Berry.” He told us to view his track as “statements,” and we shrugged, I think. With this new one, though, we don’t think anyone will be shrugging for much longer.
It was teased that the album sounded very “black” as stated by Pharrell and others. Well, and of course, we absolutely had to weigh in on this new offering. Doing so will be our Sr. Features Writer Ural Garrett, and myself, Features Editor Andre Grant.
Is This The Beginning Of A Very Pro-Black Kendrick Lamar Album?
Ural: My face after listening of Kendrick Lamar’s neo-black nationalist anthem for the first time:
One can only imagine K.Dot’s mindset following the now historic loss at last year’s Grammy and the racial politics behind it. Outside of a few features, he remained silent for a nice amount of time before dropping the polarizing “i” later that September. The track was criticized for its lack of aggression, especially following the “Control” verse that shook Hip Hop. However, there was a level of positivity and blackness that didn’t come off as corny at all. Though it wasn’t the track that many wanted, it was something that was needed for the time. Then a day after winning two golden gramophones for the safe single, he drops a nuclear bomb in “The Blacker The Berry.”
From what it looks like, “i” was the safe mainstream perspective on black life more in line with Martin Luther King’s passive attempt at acceptance. Taking a complete 180 turn, “The Blacker The Berry” has King Kendrick channelling his inner Malcolm X through aggressive social commentary that would make a young Chuck D and Ice Cube proud. This comes months after the controversial Billboard cover feature where he seemingly brushed off the controversial deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown through respectability politics. There was a hint of truth about self-respect within the black community but the lack of context to those particular systemic symptoms made the comments sound hollow. Then he drops this gem, “You sabotaged my community, makin’ a killin’, You made me a killer emancipation of a real nigga” before comparing the Zulu and Xhosas to the bloods and crips. Ladies and gentlemen, this is that context everyone was asking for.
Then there’s a level of pro-blackness that lovingly veers into racial nihilism when he says, “You never liked us anyway, fuck your friendship, I meant it.” This begs the question: Who is this really directed to? An individual or a system? Doesn’t matter because this “proud monkey” can give two fucks about anyone’s preconceived notions or prejudices. The TDE soldier is thrilled for every stereotype from his nappy hair and big phallus to his round and wide nose. There are a lot of conflicting emotions that reflect the realities of every single black man and women in America regardless of socio-economic standing. Kendrick embraces them in spades.
Driving all of this is one ten-ton boulder of a beat from Boi1da himself. Last year’s production assistance with “0 to 100/ The Catch Up” allowed Drake to lay some of the grimmest rhymes of his career and he does the exact same thing for Kendrick on “The Blacker The Berry.” This time, elevated to unprecedented levels. It’s going to be tough for emcees to avoid comparisons for the rest of the year. Those who can keep up, great. The rest are going to deal with the aftermath.
Andre: Listen y’all, there is no way to put infinite flame emojis on this thing so this is how I happened to be feeling on first listen:
And I had to look and around ask myself, “is this Kendrick?” The same guy who made “i” and had everyone feeling some kind of way about where he was going and like what was he even doing, right? Then in the middle of a sunny California day in Black History Month Kendrick hits you with an anthem that feels more like drugs. More like being apart of a million march in New York or in Ferguson or in Hong Kong or Sao Paolo. A thing, a “statement” manifesting itself in your neurons firing like an engine overheating. Excuse the corny metaphor, but I have to take a moment to breathe.
The thing about it is that his verses run down like every insecurity you’ve ever had as a black kid in America. That your nose was too big, that your lips were too full, that people thought you were dangerous, a hazard, not worth it. And your outsiderness or otherness became a shroud you had to throw arms around and work your way through. So you may have believed. Instead Kendrick Lamar tears down that fallacy, that feeling and gruffly exclaims that he’s a “Proud Monkey.” So you can’t help but perk up a little bit. You might even stick your chest out a little bit. That’s what music can do for you sometimes. It can make you see things differently. Make you want for a separate reality. And is that dance hall artist Assassin on the hook? Lord have mercy.
He celebrates Black History Month like it’s his “birthday” and it takes you to the feelings you had down through his catalog on “Swimming Pools/ Drank” when he conjured a PSA on the dangers of alcohol into a mainstream hit. Or when he turned “Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe” into something radio could play. But those were obtuse, right? This one is so straight forward its like he’s walking through a crowd in a straight line brushing shoulders with whoever and whatever.
The Boi-1da production is a feature that we didn’t expect, as well. The unabashed boom-bap is not usually a high priority on his OVO works, but the man responsible for Nicki Minaj’s “All Things Go” seems to have been inspired to dust off his drum machine. Here, the entire tracks meshes into something greater than the sum of its parts. Call it Rap. Call it whatever you want, but my expectations for this album have just gone through the roof. You know what, I’m just going to leave you guys with this.
“I’m African-American, I’m African / I’m black as the moon, heritage of a small village / Pardon my residence / Came from the bottom of mankind / My hair is nappy, my dick is big, my nose is round and wide / You hate me don’t you.”
Andre Grant is an NYC native turned L.A. transplant that has contributed to a few different properties on the web and is now the Features Editor for HipHopDX. He’s also trying to live it to the limit and love it a lot. Follow him on Twitter @drejones.
Ural Garrett is an Los Angeles-based journalist and HipHopDX’s Senior Features Writer. When not covering music, video games, films and the community at large, he’s in the kitchen baking like Anita. Follow him on Twitter @Uralg.
Biggest hypocrite of 2015… no shit.
He just won a grammy for a song he said he liked but the rest of the hiphop community didn’t.
How do you figure the rest of the hip-hop community didn’t like it? Smh….
So upon first listen y’all are totally going to skim over the “I’m the biggest hypocrite of 2015” lines and what they imply and then also ignore the very important last bar. I don’t even think y’all made an effort to really grasp the message of the song, there is, what I think to be a veiled statement that supports the comments he made in Billboard that y’all totally missed.
I was thinking the same thing. Every time I got to the next sentence, I was like “Ok, they’re gonna say what they think about the message of the song now”…..they never did. Yes, the song talks about sterotypes and black pride, but that is definitely not the point of the song. Did you not hear the last line of the song?? HipHopDX need some serious RapGenius right now. I don’t see how somebody couldv’e possible missed that like wtf how dumb are you
Hey Jonny Austin, we didn’t try ignore them. What do you think he meant by “I’m the biggest hypocrite of 2015?”
Im like 99% sure its not rapped from the first person.Kendrick did this thing a lot on GKMC and it makes much more sense if you look at the last 3 lines.And it seeems its something .Kendrick would do.Love this song…
Andre: Kendrick is obviously trying to highlight some sort of hypocrisy with the song, otherwise he wouldn’t have reiterated as much. In y’alls review, I didn’t see anybody address this or respond to the overall message of the song. Across the internet so far, I have seen some widespread misinterpretation of this track (imo). It seems as if many people think, that if “i” channeled K. Dot’s inner MLK then this track would be him channeling Malcolm X. I agree that the first 2 1/2 verses are a very deserved and legit assault on the ‘powers that be’ (whether that is White America, Corporate America, or just The System, I don’t know). But the last half verse and especially the last bar reinforce what he conveyed in his Billboard interview, which is that his oppressed community has a role to play in the ending of their oppression as well. “So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street when gangbangin make me kill a nigga blacker than me? Hypocrite!” That line is the resolution to the foreshadowing Kendrick was doing at the beginning of every verse. Which is an incredible, daring, and surely to be controversial twist. I don’t believe Kendrick aimed to negate the points he made in the rest of the song, but he did want to balance the conversation, I believe, by holding those who participate in gang culture accountable. I think the cleverness of this song lies in Kendrick’s manipulation of the listener. I think the song is supposed to sound like a rallying cry. I think Kendrick wants the listener to identify with him and say to themselves “I am all these things, I am Kendrick Lamar”. It then gets to the last bar and Kendrick calls himself a hypocrite, this cause the listener to say “wait a second, does that mean I am a hypocrite too?”. I didn’t see any of this addressed in the review.
I almost completely agree with you!
But i think that this song is indeed from kendricks POV because on GKMC and especially at the end of Swimmingpools, he tells the story of how he and his friends got in a shoot out, because kendrick got jumped by some guys (i believe rival gang but not sure though)
And realize that one of their friends got shot.
So even though kendrick did Not literally Killed gis friend but his gangbanging did just like he states at the end of TBTB.
“You know what, I’m just going to leave you guys with this.
I’m African-American, I’m African / I’m black as the moon, heritage of a small village / Pardon my residence / Came from the bottom of mankind / My hair is nappy, my dick is big, my nose is round and wide / You hate me don’t you.”
Nigga wtf? Those lines do not show the message of the song. It’s not even the most important line. Not even close. Before that, he literally said “I’m the biggest hypocrite of 2015”. Does that not mean anything to you? This was like the simplest song Kendrick has done in terms of getting a certain message across(beside “i”). I dont see how it went over your head. 0_0
He does say that he’s a hypocrite, Wow, what do you think he meant by that?
Im with the OP on this one, these editors are retarded sometimes. Should’ve left them with the last line of the song dummy.
#KING KENDRICK made a great song..str8 FIRE!..why does HHDX diss ppl like K DOT & J COLE???……but yall like YOUNG THUG & “BITCH” gang…..SMH…KENDRICK LAMAR is the best rapper period of this new decade….he raps about actual issues..#NO GIMMICKS!…..
Lyrics and beat are both incredible
This song is very clearly NOT written in the first person. It’s written from the perspective of someone who claims to hate the image that is being projected onto African Americans in this country. His character hates that whites/media/etc. are trying “terminate my culture” and label blacks “killers.” The character is a “hypocrite” because he, in fact, does kill other blacks. He’s realizing, “How can I be so disappointed in a tragedy like the death of Trayvon Martin, when I do the same thing?”
Clearly, this character’s “killing” can be applied to a lot of things, not just literal murder (like rappers putting out negative music that ONLY glorifies killing and selling drugs, etc.)
AGREED. KENDRICK ALL ABOUT LYRICAL SUBSTANCE..BUT THAT ENDS THERE. NO CHARISMA NO MAINSTREAM APPEAL NO FLOW AND LETS NOT FORGET HE GOT NO IMAGE APPEAL TOO..THIS 5’FT TALL ASS NIGGA WILL NEVER BE AT THE SAME LEVEL AS A DRAKE OR A JAY-Z (ON ALL PLATFORMS THAT IS)
Hey Fucktard….That fact that you mentioned Drake ends the argument here!!!
Nigga has his face and songs on valentine’s day cards and you compare him to King Kendrick Lamar?? Either you are Drake, A girl or Gay…I will bet my money
“Why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street / when gangbangin made me kill a n**** blacker than me… Hypocrite!” This song is Kendrick showing humility… Shit’s hard.
Need more of this substance over bullshit
after listening to this song it seems kendrick is hell bent on appeasing the white community. this song is clearly taking aim at our black brothers and sister in the various ghettos of america. every white kid on the block will love this song whilst it will totally alienate any black person with pride in themselves or their “community”. hiphop dx you need to get of this ass licker dick he’s just another product of the records labels. with all being said he has managed to make some of the editors look like idiots for thinking that he was representing them…
Not having a trolling debate with you and everyone’s entitled to their opinion .
Just curious in what way does this song appease white people?
You must be one of the hypocrites Kendrick is talking about. Idiot. What the White man has done to us and the negative things people in our communities are doing are very much interrelated. The psychology of oppression has carryover effects, but the anger we feel inside and the racism we continue to experience doesn’t justify harming our own communities, it doesn’t justify not being accountable to ourselves and also doesn’t justify not being able to critique ourselves and elements of our own culture. Particularly when elements of our own culture are deterimental to the group as a whole.
Thank you Drake Til Infinity. This is still a “pro-black statement.” Kendrick is not justifying the social injustice towards African American (far from it). He’s just one of the few rappers that identifies the problem AND THEN SAYS WE CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. At least he has a plan!
This white guy has to justify his admiration for the song without compromising his white authority and privilege. Of course he’s going to say the last verse is a shot at the black community, when in FACT it was a shot at GANG MEMBERS. I’ve seen a lot of mad white folks today smh.
How can you clean someone else’s house when you haven’t cleaned your own? A lot of the negative stuff Black’s do to each other today. Whites have done to Blacks in the past.
Kendrick makes songs for grown men, Drake make songs for whites and homosexuals. If this song doesn’t prove that, nothing else will. Good night.
Yoooooo…… LMAO!!!!!!
???
Projecting much?
If you only make music for grown men that might make you gay. IMO, that’s not what this song is about but you might want to step out of the closet.
King Kendrick to provide that much needed balance in Hiphop! What makes people happier objects or experiences?
How can DX miss the point so badly. He literally repeats it at the beginning of each verse, “I’m the biggest hypocrite of 2015”. He is saying, “We have been oppressed, racism does still exist, but it’s not an excuse to rip our own communities apart with violence” I get that it was a “first listen reaction”, but did you listen at all? This is embarrassing.
Clearly the article was written by a hypocrite
Super shallow analysis by DX. This is bad
Kendrick isn’t being pro-black he’s being a realist. Cacs smh.
any time a black person speaks to on black issues it’s a pro black movement not just speaking factual information or an opinion of his view.
The burning melting face was disgusting and unnecessary fuck you
Calm down. Have you never seen Indiana Jones? FOH.
I’m listening to DaVinchee X this music just make me angry…not liking it change your tone to less angry more relaxed even Tupac wasn’t angry he was passionate same goes for Kanye and the rest common etc.
Dude…2pac was not relaxed at all. Have you even listened to Bomb First? Or his really early shit? Pissed as hell. Read up a little
I wrote more relaxed, than wrote Tupac wasn’t as angry but more passionate i’ve heard alot of his early stuff especially the bomb first song but it wasn’t the same idk when I hear this it sounds less passionate more angry and racial issues on top of that equates to it coming off more angry. Also DaVinchee X is worthy to listen to. Alternative and different from what is usually put out by mainstream hip hop artist.
You middle aged racist white guys are so irritating . W.T.F are you talking about Tupac wasn’t angry he was passionate .
Go listen to the following tracks .
Everything they owe
White Manz world
Bomb First …ETC ETC
You old bigots will never get it !
I very much doubt grammy nominated multi millionaire rapper Kendrick Lamar gives a flying fuck what some below average lonely internet troll thinks . L.M.A.O
Get out of here trying to plug davinchee whoever. We don’t want to listen to that shit
Even went to YouTube to verify my assumption. I was right, Davinchee is a nobody with a few hundred views and his music is straight garbage.
yeah you must have skipped over the title of Tupac’s second album too…Stricly for my NIGGAS, kind of clear who the music is directed too, being pro-black is cool with me as long as you live it as you preach it. More power to Kendrick!!!!
All you people hop on the dick of Kendrick because he raps angry most of you are probably angry and you hop on the fact that he has money and grammys…..Tupac has no Grammys and Money he never cared about so fuck all ya’ll
No it’s because your brain is stupid and don’t grasp all the instrumental genius along with constant flow and wordplay. It’s unique you prefer typical.
Kendrick angry when he lives better than the same blacks he talks about fuck outta here.
He may have money, but he still has to walk around with his black space suit on. Like Prodigy said, you’ll never understand our pain. You seem really mad today. This is black excellence. You must be Gentile…
And than you make a racist song on top of that “My hair nappy my dick big”? Really why must that be stated and what does that have to do with any issues besides showing a stereotype?
How you kill racism when you making a whole song about it? C’mon bitch
How do you not realize that this man is touching on the topic of Racism by white America inflicted on Black America, “AND” at the same time touching on self-destructing nature of the black community.
He also says “you made me a killer” meaning that we were put in this situation, not given a same shot at success as the white man, born into communities with liquor, and gun stores on every corner with a bad educational system, don’t pretend those are coincidences. They flooded our streets with cocaine in the 80s.
They placed all the ingredients for a self-destructing community. What Kendrick is saying is that now we need to stand up and really change ourselves to overcome these disadvantages and that “JUST” talking about it won’t solve the problem especially when we forget about it in a couple of months and go back to gang banging, killing ourselves, and drug dealing.
This is not a black problem…. THIS IS OUR PROBLEM, THIS IS A AMERICAN PROBLEM! WE NEED HELP.
Think about how much more we can accomplish if more people were properly educated. What if the cure to cancer was locked in the mind of a little black kid who was not given a proper education. Think about that.
i think most people arent realizing that hes speaking from the perspective as an anonymous narrator, it totally changes the context of the lyrics and makes allot more sense in my opinion. The last line says it all including the 4 or 5 times he says hypocrite.
DX should take this post done. They completely misinterpreted the song.
*down
I’m so thankful for this black skin!
He said everything a dummy or racist (hypnotized mind) needed to hear. Y’all like to argue over nothing on social websites. GET. A. LIFE. + learn live to live by that #GOLDENRULE
DX staff, that 3rd verse went over y’all heads. he was adressing the black community as well for their hypocrisy regarding racial issues.
Bingo! Y’all missed the point.
Kendrick will never be anything close to PAC but this some”Strictly for my niggaz type shit” and Im loving it.
This song is NOT Pro black, he’s actually calling the black people that are black elitist and calling them hypocrites. This chorus is mocking them, mocking them blaming everything ‘because they black’. Song has gone way over people’s head
This song is pro black clean the wax out of your ears dumb ass .
As it go scrap that your white your not meant to understand dick head
It went way over your head low iq bitch !!!!
Pro black or not, this is a piece of music. People have opinions and that is why some will think this is pro black or negatively black. This is music and it is written so that every single person who hears the lyrics can relate. 10,000 people can hear 1 song, but there are going to be 10,000 interpretations of that song. Just enjoy the music and stop using race as an excuse. This is 2015. Racism still exists but it is only getting worse for every race if you stop talking about it. If you think only whites can be racist to blacks you’re wrong. If you think one race is hated more, you’re wrong. Live an equal life and you will live a happy one. Enjoy the music everyone.
It’s sad how 99% of you missed the meaning of the song, and it’s even more sad that at least 90% of these comments are race wars. Racism goes both ways. Black kids grow up in the suburbs, black kids have a two parent home, black kids have money, black kids have college funds and so do white kids, asian kids, mexican kids. White kids grow up on welfare, white
The last line says it all for me. Black people kick up alot of fuss when any other race kill a black person yet glorify and support “gang bangin”… To quote K-Dot “Fukin Hypocrites”
This track is just straight up Powerful and by the tone of the discussion posts, people are thinking, analyzing and disagreeing which is a great thing. Kendirck bodied this and by dropping this track he has definitely made this album the most anticipated since his debut!!!
He definitely KILL ED this track and the sentiments are equal from reading this article and it’s impacted TACT of being LYRICAL
No piece of music should be written based on race. Yes many people come from many different background but we are all equal. White people are killers. Black people are killers. There are white, black, asain, and even native american drug dealers. No race is perfect. But how can someone prove that their race is more superior compared to a piece of music that is biased? Racism will stop once people stop dissing the other race. Learn from this everyone.
As long as there is still a presence of racial issues galore, it will always be appropriate that music be written on the topic of race. How ignorant it is to deem your comment as “Truth”, as you couldn’t be further from it.
The way I see it, I’m kinda happy that he dropped “I” before he introduced this joint to the world… I really liked “I” though, because it has such a unique vibe to it, and it shows for Kendrick’s lack of artistic restraint.
But maaaaaaan, the balls you need to have to release this new track!!! His lyrics just kept grazing my face and ripping my ears apart, that’s that real sh*t, spoken in a pointedly gruesome way, but with a LOT of subtlety!!! It’s great that at least one of the trending artists of the game actually remembered a strong root of hip-hop is actually about making very bold statements such as these.
That is not the root of hip-hop that is the root for 90’s angry hip hop…Hip hop was happy and about having fun before all this angry shit
This song is pro black, this song is pro human pro living pro intelligence and pro hiphop. I’m certainly not black and I loved every bit of it
The song was written so that it could apply to white people and black people. You’re supposed to think it’s anti-white the whole time then see at the end that all the negative parts apply to black people too. This shows that whites and blacks are equally to blame for the issues and that people who blame the opposite race are just doing so so that they don’t have to take action (goes for both whites that blame blacks and blacks that blame whites). Ironically enough people just see what they want and think he’s blaming their opposite race smh
That’s what I think too, but people have been misinterpreting Kendrick’s songs for years. Remember when Swimming Pools was everybody’s favorite drinking song?
Bruh why people hype a angry black dude? This is following the stereotype my hair nappy my dick big really your dick is big was that needed? Jay Z is much more chill on this same topic
This song promotes racism as much as the white man does… Most likely a Record Executive idea to create buzz and promo with out having to promote the actual song
The first time you hear this music you may think this a white-black racism.
But this is about really black-black racial problems, as black people don’t respect black communities and reckless about each other. (Blood vs Crips | Zulu and Xhosa, i particularly like this comparison)
And he talks like some blacks think as regular “against black racist”. At this point i think people are getting it wrong, apart of word play there is not other race involved in this song besides black people.
This music is not racist but definitely talks about racial problems, not the same.
This is just my perspective, and keep listening to dope music 🙂
Kendrick is also bringing up gangbanging all the time in his music that is also played and annoying stop supporting gangs by adding them to your music THEY DO NOT PURCHASE YOUR CDS!!! most likely….. Let the gang shit go annoying bros
And I’m going to leave you guys with this
this song sucks, and so does the article
Great song, great article, morons commenting on it. Welcome to America
Overrated.
Perhaps lyrically, slightly. As an artist, no. The genius of GKMC lies in its structure. The concept is pretty straightforward, a good kid in a mad city with bad influences. The album is perfectly cohesive, it flows, and there really aren’t any choppy bits, and on top of that he nails the concept he’s shooting for in a way that isn’t corny but resounding! His beat selection is phenomenal. From Section.80 to GKMC he hasn’t really chosen any subpar beats, but rather lush and fleshed out instrumentals. Have you seen him perform live? He is an MC — one of the best Masters Of Ceremonies to ever grace the hip hop scene. Now, if we’re talking lyrical cleverness, Lupe is a top contender, but he can’t whip up an album with the cohesiveness of Kendrick’s, his beats are mixed in terms of quality, and although he’s a great MC, he isn’t nearly as good as Kendrick in terms of live performance. Kendrick is hardly overrated, and you generic bandwagoning fuckboys with the same “overrated” response, actually making him increasingly underrated.
The blacker the berry the sweeter d juice d black race aint perfect xo k lamar Is tryin 2 tell us to deal wit our demons as blacks before blaming d whites d whole issue lyies within us
The blacker the berry the sweeter d juice d black race aint perfect xo k lamar Is tryin 2 tell us to deal wit our demons as blacks before blaming d whites d whole issue lyies within us