It’s a good mission statement for anyone, really—the reminder that your point of view is your point of view, irreducible and distinct. I'm not saying you, you might not even be from the streets. “I'm not on the outside looking in, I'm not on the inside looking out,” Kendrick Lamar says toward the end of his debut album, 2011’s Section.80. And it’s a line that comes to mind listening to Lamar's new track, “The Blacker the Berry,” which in less than 24 hours racked up more than a million streams, was knighted as an early contender for song of the year, and sparked controversy related to the Black Lives Matter movement. "It's making me remind that I need to respect this man because he's a black man, not because of the color that he's wearing.". It’s incredibly potent, packed with references to the historic oppression of the black community, race relations in contemporary American society, police brutality, the US penitentiary system, and the complexities of black identity, among many others. Black people are among the most hyper-segregated group in the country. If he was saying this then yes, i feel a certain way about that sentiment. Kool Keith’s solo debut, underground classic. There's no way he could do harm to another, or could he? "So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street/ When gang banging make me kill a n---a blacker than me, hypocrite," he spits with ferocity to end the song. Never. So how does this translate for race issues and those who lived in the hood, are now successful? Ambiguity and internal conflict are as much his muses as inner-city life is. We do, Immortal tehnique had a great point on this argument. His new song, "The Blacker the Berry," is a political statement—but it's also a tale of internal struggle. He dodges the point, no one implied mothers don’t care about children. tbh im sick of the white race being bashed so much and how being proud of your race is fine as long as you’re not white. But, when talking about "The Blacker the Berry," his Billboard interview and the criticism that he has faced, his tone changed just a bit to convey an even greater level of seriousness. The response is defiance and pride, delivered with creative venom that made headline writers scramble for to find synonyms for “pissed off” (it’s “blistering,” “scathing,” “seething”)—. The point was society is only outraged when racism is at play. All Rights Reserved. Central to “The Blacker the Berry” is an idea known as “double-consciousness.” I took it as a stop the violence record, no different to KRS ONE – Stop the violence. Complex's Justin Charity hears Lamar as "wondering whether police brutality and gang violence aren't overlapping tragedies." In one devastatingly concise couplet, Lamar describes the psychological baggage placed on so many black men: “I mean, it's evident that I'm irrelevant to society. After all, he's a top-selling, Grammy Award-winning rap star. "I am the community. Excuse my French but fuck you—no, fuck y'all If Kendrick wrote a song about white on white crime no one would care. Pusha T, Actually I think it was yesterday or something but idgf. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm7IIMjIaGk#t=340. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com. "When I say, 'Gang banging made me killer a n---a blacker than me,' this is my life that I'm talking about. It. Some listeners worry not. Does that mean that if they choose to not feed into the “ Real Nigga shit” hype machine, or talk about the sensationalism of gang violence and racial profiling, that makes them “fake”? Gang violence as a narrative has lost it’s luster and nobody cares about those black lives. But there’s a twist at the end of the song. We want to hear what you think about this article. "So when I say these things it's therapeutic for me," he said of how he copes with the rampant gang activity that plagues Compton. This means no new threads or posts can be created, The Industry’s Vermin is a Hip-Hop track about the way the Industry, we all know to be corrupt, treats, NEW HOT OLDSCHOOL BEAT PRODUCED BY BEATCOYNZ Lamar has long rapped about loving yourself in a culture that degrades you, but he's exploring that theme more and more lately, it seems. After that murder, K. Dot fantasized of getting revenge, but instead he poured his angst into "The Blacker the Berry.". Intresting article criticising "The Blacker the Berry" Follow. ^I dont think this is what kendrick was saying. @SvenchTheVegabond This is also why I participate less on forums and RG in general. . The Black Hippy MC may be getting a ton of love now, after releasing his critically acclaimed LP, To Pimp a Butterfly, but in the months leading up to the album's release there were a few boo birds. Echoing divisive comments Lamar made to Billboard recently (“What happened to [Michael Brown] should've never happened. At the beginning of each verse he confesses to being “the biggest hypocrite of 2015,” but we don't understand what he means till the closing words: “So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street, when gang banging make me kill a nigga blacker than me? anyway idk she made some good points i think shes jusy unable to accept that blacks are to blame too, as soon as someone is real with the public hes an uncle tom. ", Lamar says that his music is therapy, and listening to Butterfly suggests that the good kid from the mad city needed a lot of it. “The Blacker the Berry” is a grimmer take on the same idea. is a book of undiminished power about the invidious role of skin color in American society. The first criticisms came after Kendrick commented on the death of Michael Brown to Billboard magazine in January. I also think the author of that article literally shifts all accountability for black on black crime to white people. One minute we think shit like Mafioso, Gangsta, Street and Hardcore Rap" (preferably from males) is “Real” the next minute it’s Sociopolitical, Conscious, Experimental and Alternative is what is “Real”. 20,719. this might be the last 1 so treat it nice Hey all, Then in the last verse he turns his scope. Even if I'm not getting Lamar's intention's exactly right, it seems safe to assume that he's not trying to lecture anybody. Add an image, video, or tweet by pasting in the URL: Voter suppression laws disproportionately impact people of color. It seems that anytime someone challenges the Black race, there’s widespread claims of racism. So, for you to not recognize that and see 100 percent flip, please learn it.". Shortly after the track hit the Internet, BuzzFeed's Joel D. Anderson tweeted that "the last line of the new Kendrick joint is the same jazz Darren Wilson supporters were spitting at protesters," referencing the man who shot Michael Brown. We’re teaming up with LDF to ensure everyone’s vote is counted in 2020. Yeah, I felt like Kenny was on his uncle tom tip with that track. This is no-filter, cathartic venting, part of a long tradition that includes Public Enemy and Kanye West. Its sentiments echo statements Lamar made regarding the death of Michael Brown. “I'm in the dead fucking center, looking around.”. "The Blacker the Berry" is thought to be a response from Kendrick Lamar to criticism he received for comments made regarding the shooting of Michael Brown and the subsequent Ferguson unrest. But Kendrick, doesn't have it in him right? Outspoken rapper Azealia Banks tweeted that Lamar's comment was the “dumbest sh-t I’ve ever heard a black man say.”. @DarkThoughtsQueDreams @LozoPLH @mattw116 @CJ2 @Metaphors, @lil_tech_the_third_OG Not really, for me it depends on how you interpret the track. The quote drew reactions from a few, who accused K. Dot of exercising respectability politics and blaming African Americans for being victims of police brutality. Throughout the 30-plus-minute interview, Kendrick measured his words, making sure that each answer was clear and to the point. @SvenchTheVegabond Yes I know what you mean. What’s your favorite song from the Black Panther Soundtrack so far? “As blunt as it gets,” yes. The OP said in the article…. But those muses don’t have to be separate, and the most interesting interpretation of “The Blacker the Berry” comes from fusing them. City, where he continually insists that he’s the good kid of the album title even as he's dragged into a world of drugs and crime. After all, “The Blacker the Berry” ends with a question: Why? The song points out to being a hypocrite, the main argument: how can we mourn Black people killed by the police when Black on Black crime happens? To all the people committing black on black violence, take this song as a wake up call and advice to do good. The Lamar of "The Blacker the Berry" may not be a hypocrite, but the world has made him to feel like one. The narrator of the song wants to show off black pride as fiercely as he can, and yet the memory of his past actions are getting in the way. The fact that black killers tend to kill other black people is not refutation of American racism, but the ultimate statement of American racism, Does Lamar get this? . its not kendrick lamars “what about black on black crime?” its more like “we only protest when whites oppress us”. It seems no matter what angle you can approach this from, it’s always problematic and full of shit. "Know who I am first, understand where I come from before you make any remarks," he urged, "because I've been through a lot and I seen a lot. But that doesn’t change the fact that they happened, and that they come to mind when he talks about black lives mattering. MTV AND ALL RELATED TITLES AND LOGOS ARE TRADEMARKS OF VIACOM INTERNATIONAL INC, Kendrick Lamar Has Strong Words For His 'Blacker The Berry' Critics, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AhXSoKa8xw, https://twitter.com/MsJamilaAisha/status/564940013247270912, https://twitter.com/rodimusprime/status/564940516224425986. Though the song's Isley Brothers sample makes it seem breezy, Lamar has said in interviews that the track's supposed to be a tool to use against one's own self-hatred; it's not an expression of contentment, but of struggle. I'm black as the name of Tyrone and Darius Kendrick just stated facts so it is safe to say instead of judging one song, lets wait until the album drops because we heard “i” which was a more positive uplifting song, the next song after Blacker the berry could very well be about the solutions to all the problems discussed in BTB. "I've only been in this industry for three, four years and I can't forget 20 years of me being in the city of Compton," he said revealing a darker side that fans don't see when watching his music videos or seeing him perform on stage. Today, Stereo Williams writes at The Daily Beast that it's a "great song" that's "derailed by a misguided intention … If there is a hypocrisy, doesn’t it fall on those who would use gang violence to silence public outrage against oppression while ignoring the fact that the gang violence is also a product of that same racist oppression?”. "When I say these lines, it's for myself, this is therapeutic for myself because I still feel that urge and I still feel that anger and that hatred for that man next door because I gotta get a call knowing that somebody around the corner done did this to my partner," he explained. But when we don't have respect for ourselves, how do we expect them to respect us?”), it at first comes across like an attempt to invalidate complaints about police aggression in Ferguson and elsewhere by raising the issue of “black-on-black crime.” Which is an empty attempt to change the subject, Ta-Nehisi Coates and others have argued: People tend to kill the people they live around. It’s a good mission statement for the 27-year-old Compton rapper, who some say is the new king of hip-hop. the real issue is classism and saying “what about imperialism, colonialism” etc is just blaming all they problems on white people which was the point of the song. At the age of 16, Lamar as the song's narrator says he “came to [his] senses”—an awakening of racial consciousness, the realization that powerful parts of America hate him.
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