I HATE YOU SO MUCH RIGHT NOW

We don't wanna hear you say nigga no more...

Phony!!!!!

Hood Politics

I’m not a hip hop head, so I started listening to Kendrick Lamar when good kid m.A.A.d city came out like a lot of other people did. Most if not all of the rap I had heard up until that point glorified violence, growing up in rough neighborhoods, misogyny, selling and doing hard drugs, and everything else that came with the stereotypical hip hop aesthetic. But what’s always struck me about Kendrick’s artistry is how introspective he is. Most of his music emphasizes his mistakes and how he doesn’t want to make them again.

I don’t want to moralize over that too much though because I grew up middle class and my parents made sure I was afforded certain opportunities and privileges. I worked hard to get into good schools and get a good job and I still work hard, but you’ll never catch me saying some shit about “getting it out the mud” or tweet from my safe neighborhood about how I can’t tell the difference between gunshots and fireworks on the 4^th of July.

But Lamar did grow up in a tough environment, he raps unswervingly about the regret and trauma he has, reflecting on seeing his first murder at five years old, witnessing gun and knife fights throughout his childhood, inflicting violence against others as a teenager, and losing close family and friends to violence in Compton. Lamar continually challenges listeners by asking them to walk through his life through his eyes, to think about what it actually means to be under the constant threat of violence which in turn forces you to create that threat yourself.

I like Kendrick Lamar’s work, but he isn’t perfect. The most prevalent example that always comes to my mind is when he raps “I'm so fuckin' sick and tired of the Photoshop/Show me somethin' natural like afro on Richard Pryor” on HUMBLE. before trotting out a light skinned woman with loose textured hair in the correlating music video .5 seconds later. There were also qualms from the queer community about how he handled homophobia and transphobia on ‘Auntie Diaries’ but I don’t necessarily feel equipped to speak about that here.

Is Richard Pryor’s afro in the room with us??? (credit: VEVO)

Lamar has repeatedly worked out his feelings and his missteps toward his relationships with black, biracial, and white women. But it looks very different when he does it with men.