Kendrick Lamar unveils new racially charged track The Blacker the Berry
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Version 0 of 1. Kendrick Lamar may have won two Grammys on 8 February for his single i, but the rapper has chosen to mark his victories by dropping a politically motived new track entitled The Blacker the Berry. “You hate my people, your plan is to terminate my culture,” he says in its first verse. In a stark contrast to the surprisingly upbeat, Isley Brothers sampling, self-belief anthem i, Lamar’s most recent offering is markedly focused on racism. Directly referencing Trayvon Martin – “So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street? When gang-banging make me kill a nigga blacker than me? Hypocrite” – the track grapples the issue of both gang-related gun crime and police violence. Related: Listen to Kendrick Lamar's new track, entitled i I’m the biggest hypocrite of 2015Once I finish this, witnesses will convey just what I meanBeen feeling this way since I was 16, came to my sensesYou never liked us anyway, fuck your friendship, I meant itI’m African-American, I’m AfricanI’m black as the moon, heritage of a small villagePardon my residenceCame from the bottom of mankindMy hair is nappy, my dick is big, my nose is round and wideYou hate me don’t you?You hate my people, your plan is to terminate my cultureYou’re fuckin’ evil I want you to recognise that I’m a proud monkeyYou vandalise my perception but can’t take style from meAnd this is more than confessionI mean I might press the button so you know my discretionI’m guardin’ my feelin’s, I know that you feel itYou sabotage my community, makin’ a killin’You made me a killer, emancipation of a real nigga The Boi-1da and Terrace Martin produced track comes in anticipation of his followup to Good Kid, MAAD City and echoes Lamar’s previous comments regarding the US police shootings of 2014. “What happened to [Michael Brown] should’ve never happened. Never. But when we don’t have respect for ourselves, how do we expect them to respect us? It starts from within. Don’t start with just a rally, don’t start from looting – it starts from within,” he told Billboard in an interview, which led to comments from artists such as Azalea Banks, who criticised the way in which Lamar laid the blame on black youths. Lamar is no stranger to addressing issues surrounding crime, race and violence: on the track Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst, featured on Good Kid, MAAD City, he addresses the psychology of the victim in a shooting. “That’s the most interesting story to me,” he said in an interview with the Guardian. “At first, I was scared to show fear because you can never be sure how people will perceive you. But I dared myself to do that, to stand out.” Described by Pharrell Williams as “this era’s Bob Dylan”, his third full-length album is expected in 2015. |