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Analysis of kendrick lamar the blacker the berry
Kendrick lamar song analysis
Analysis of u kendrick lamar
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To Pimp a Butterfly: An Autopsy Kendrick Lamar’s album to pimp a butterfly so the complexity of the artist. To pimp a butterfly is in no way an oval telling a story much like a novel Kendrick intends for the audience to listen to it from beginning to end. Kendrick Lamar’s first album good kid mad city was a critical and commercial success that skyrocketed the rappers career into superstardom. Lamar’s second album to pimp a butterfly is more intense more bizarre more profound and more controversial. In fact to pimp a butterfly may be one of the most complex albums in rap history. Each song is characterized by its own distinctive concept and on a larger scale all the songs are interconnected buy a wider narrative that revolves around Kendrick’s becoming a celebrity in the system owned by Uncle Sam and rode by the evils of Lucy (personification of Lucifer). In this essay I will analyze how effective to pimp a butterfly is and explain the true meaning behind Hedrick Lamar’s powerful album. It all begins with Wesley's theory a bizarre song that introduces the overarching theme of the album the pimping of …show more content…
The line "I'll Wesley Snipe your ass before thirty-five" concurrently refers to the two ways the system have been known to shut down a public figure. Financially as they did to Wesley Snipes convicted of tax evasion and through literal sniping or assassination. In For Free? (Interlude), Kendrick repeats the mantra "this dick ain't free" in response to a girls materialistic demands. This ideology is extended to Uncle Sam himself, where Kendrick states he refuses to be exploited by the system, that is, without adequate compensation. The same way prostitutes tell themselves "this pussy ain't free" before being pimped, Kendrick has put a price on himself. Followed by King Kunta, Kendrick is celebrating dominating the rap game
“You take a record and use it to empower yourself” having growing-up in the Westside of Chicago in a neighborhood fill with violence, Lupe make a lot of records that show listeners that even with the odds against him that he use his struggle to better himself.
In the article “ From Fly to Bitches and Hoes” by Joan Morgan, she often speaks about the positive and negative ideas associated with hip-hop music. Black men display their manhood with full on violence, crime, hidden guilt, and secret escapes through drugs and alcohol. Joan Morgan’s article views the root causes of the advantage of misogyny in rap music lyrics. In the beginning of the incitement her desires shift to focus on from rap culture condemnation to a deeper analysis of the root causes. She shows the hidden causes of unpleasant sexism in rap music and argues that we need to look deeper into understanding misogyny. I agree with Joan Morgan with the stance that black men show their emotions in a different way that is seen a different perspective.
This metaphor is found through each track and helps Lamar navigate the listener through his experiences. The caterpillar represents an adolescent that consumes everything around it. The butterfly represents the talent and potential of the caterpillar. Society shapes or “pimps” the caterpillar, but the butterfly can blossom into something that sheds light on ideas the caterpillar never considered. This imagery soundly depicts the effects of America’s structural racism in the black culture. Racism has a long-lasting effect on adolescents and their future ways of life. They consume all the oppression around them, which creates a mold for their behavior. Once they experience life as an adult, they think back to their previous struggles with a new perspective or idea. This constant oppression of the black culture is a major issue in modern society. It limits the future success of African Americans and puts boundaries on what they are potentially capable of. A black child could have the aspirations of changing the world, but he will eventually realize how much more difficult his goals will be to achieve in comparison to his white contemporaries. The American Dream is built around the people of the white skin color instead of being a universal goal. Lamar puts his beliefs in the dreams of others for a better future rather than what society wants him to
Lastly Kendrick Lamar’s piece Good kid m.A.A.d City is a coming of age story from the view of teenage Kendrick living in Compton, California. This album shows the dark side of Kendrick’s life as well as his lighter moments of aspiration. There are vivid depictions of violence that he endured as a teen as well as the influence of money and power. Also in this album, he shows how easily influenced he was when he and his friends break into a home in the track ‘The Art of Peer
Gaining recognition through Food & Liquor, Fiasco’s popularity has grown tremendously. Much of the reason was due to his approach to rap. While he does rap about mainstream themes such as sex, money, and drugs, Fiasco also shares his concerns about the American government and politics, foreign affairs, and racism in our culture, capturing a more mature audience’s attention. Through his music, Lupe Fiasco represents the voice of Modern America by informing his listeners about the modern corrupt practices in the United States and asserting his opinions on them through his music. In his song “Bitch Bad”, Fiasco describes how the vulgar word “bitch” is used throughout American society carelessly and in ways it shouldn’t be due it's degrading denotation. His song “Strange Fruition” reiterates the message in Billie Holiday’s largely popular song “Strange Fruit” and incorporates the modern take on racism in the United States. The messages in both these songs portray the depravity in present American culture.
Lamar has been successfully achieving his dream by rapping about the stress and difficult situations he has encountered but strongly claims that we will all be alright in his song, “Alright.” He released a song called “i” that reflects how violence has increased in the cities and how he wishes everyone should love each other as humans. His last song on “To Pimp A Butterfly” called “Mortal Man” he states “only because you don’t wear the same color as mine, that doesn’t mean I can’t respect you as a human being.” He clearly states how he understands the reputations of other gang members may seem important but should all still respect others as people. Lamar has been a role model to several students from the city of Compton that was able to create a scholarship called “Be Alright” that is based off the same song called “Alright.” Kendrick Lamar has been respectively producing music for his fans without a doubt of impressive beats and
Music is regarded as a method of passing a message. Though some songs do not intend to do that, the message in them is still perceived. The song, “Get up, ...
There is a misconception regarding rap music content about how it predominantly focuses on the topics of drugs, sex and money. Various people do not understand that rap music is a valuable method of expressing one’s emotions and thoughts. The lyrics in rap music are able to strongly represent a broader story of someone’s story. Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise is a story of what it was like as an African-American male to grow up in the ghettos. Through his lyrics, Coolio explains the real-life problems of living in Compton, his hometown. His music describes how immense the amount violence inner city violence that occurred and what he had to become in order to fit into that society. The point of this song was to show those who had not experienced what he had gone through some insight. Coolio mentions how his deviant actions have affected his relationship with his mother. He attempts to justify that murder and violence were the only way to survive on the streets he lived in. The song devises numerous associations to the situation of class, socialization and the conflict subculture. In his
As the hip-hop battle rages on in the background somewhere between the black literati, consumers and observers, I stand objectively nodding religiously to Lupe Fiasco as he creates a narrative surrounding personified life of a housing complex each component, the legs, the chest, a different facet of living in the hood. Some would pose Lupe as a Hip-Hop alternative, glorifying his intellectualism and political consciousness, at the expense of demonizing other less academically articulate rap artists. Maybe they deserve it. Maybe they are ill educated and uncultured. But does that delegitimize their message? Understanding the messages of many gangsta rap artists is a complex task for those whose lived experiences don’t relate. We need to find an alternative way to comprehend and critique the music that we dismiss as garbage. What are rappers really saying? Michal P. Jefferies’ work Thug Life, provides us with alternative tools to answer this question. I seek to further explore Jefferies “complex cool” and how it allows for a thug masculinity to include love and other emotional sentiments.
... see that being involved in the hip hop industry is difficult and there are many disputes involved with it but there are also reasons for its need in today’s society.
Rap is about giving voice to a black community otherwise underrepresented, if not silent, in the mass media. It has always been and remains … directly connected to the streets from which it came. (144)
The oppressive picture displaying the sexual objectification of women that most hip-hop artists paint while rapping can only be described as appalling. Many artists imply that a woman?s sole purpose is to gratify a man?s every sexual desire. For instance, ?Nelly?s ?Tip Drill? goes as far to portray scantily clad women as sexual appliances? (Weisstuch). Though Nelly is relatively mild when contrasted to other hip-hop artists, his actualization of women cannot be ignored. By calling women ?sexual appliances,? Nelly essentially promotes the idea that it is customary to view all women solely as sexual objects. Moreover, the generic ?sex appe...
His mother, uncle, aunt, and many other members of his family were former Black Panthers. Therefore, it is of no surprise that throughout much of his music, he shows a deep passion for bettering the African American community and creating a more equal America. Throughout countless songs, Tupac points out the difficulties Africans Americans struggle with, and how unjust our society really is, with the hope of creating change. This is no clearer than in the song “Changes”, which was released in 1998 as part of his “Greatest Hits” album. On the track, Tupac speaks about topics like police brutality, racism, and the changes necessary to better society, saying things like “It ain't a secret, don't conceal the fact: / The penitentiary's packed, and it's filled with blacks,” “I see no changes, all I see is racist faces / Misplaced hate makes disgrace to races,” and “But we can never go nowhere unless we share with each other / We gotta start making changes”. At the time, these words resonated with millions of African Americans, and many young people were inspired to make change as a result. Today, countless rappers credit Tupac as their inspiration for becoming artists, including Kendrick Lamar, who’s songs such as "The Blacker the Berry” and "Alright" are being used today by black activist groups as anthems for their movements. Even politicians have acknowledged the importance of Tupac and
When tragedy strikes, it is normal for individuals to go through stages of grief. In some situations, people become cemented in one stage of emotional instability. They focus so much on their anger over the inevitability of the unfairness of life, that it eventually makes them go mad. This theme composes the synopsis of Joyce Carol Oates’ book We Were the Mulvaneys. The rape of Marianne Mulvaney catalyzed the disembowelment of the Mulvaney family due to their inability to move on from their grief; each family member coped in unique manners.
Music and the meaning of lyrics as well as the ongoing debates about the hidden intent of the lyrics is intriguing. As a child, we sang around the campfire, “Puff the Magic Dragon,” innocent enough as it is a song of a magical dragon who was sad when his little friend grew up. I never would have realized there were debates over the actual underlying intent of the lyrics. In my research I found, "in the 1960s “Puff the Magic Dragon” (1963) was widely associated with marijuana and its effects. Yet the lyricist, Leonard Lipton, claimed that the song was about loss of childhood