During the 58th Grammy Awards, soon after Beyoncé’s Superbowl performance of her latest hit Formation, Kendrick Lamar delivered a powerful performance; one that like Beyoncé’s definitely had a political message.
Lamar played two tracks from his most recent album, "To Pimp A Butterfly", and the artist has been the talk of the town ever since. Viewers saw, before Lamar even appeared on stage, that it was set up for an unforgettable performance, one that was very clearly methodically thought out and strategically planned.
Lamar's band played their instruments from behind bars, the singer himself dawned a blue prison uniform, and walked on stage shackled in chains, referencing a specific line in the opening song, The Blacker the Berry:
"I mean, it's evident that I'm irrelevant to society. That's what you're telling me, penitentiary would only hire me.”
Lamar opened with this song that details his awakening of racial consciousness, and the realization that some people hate him simply because of his race –– something that while unacceptable and tragic has made him into someone who does not apologize for who he is, in fact he wants society to know that he's proud:
"You hate me don't you? You hate my people, your plan is to terminate my culture. You're –– evil, I want you to recognize that I'm a proud monkey."
While evidently placing some much deserved blame on the white population for not accepting and embracing the Black community, his ending lines make a surprising statement. The last lines say that while others are to blame for the Black community's oppression and challenges that they face, which can mainly be attributed to racism, the Black community itself also needs to work on supporting one another:
"So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street, when gang banging make me kill a ni*g* blacker than me? Hypocrite!”
The narrator in Lamar's rap is saying that he feels like a hypocrite for not helping, but further hurting his community. This statement is backed by a recent interview that Lamar gave to Billboard:
"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.”
While ending the performance to this song, his ensemble, who had also entered onto the stage in restraints, eventually, after struggling, breaks free from their shackles and bursts into dance.This emancipation of his dancers leads into the next song that Lamar performs, Alright, which was up for song of the year.
The strategic juxtaposition of the two songs, and the release of his dancers serve to spread the message that although the Black community is struggling and oppressed, eventually, this struggle that they have been embarking on, for far too long, will lead to freedom, and things will be alright.
Unlike The Blacker the Berry where Lamar chronicles the struggles of the Black community to gain freedom from bias and racism, something that it is still presently trying to do, Alright, has a more celebratory out look, one that is meant to inspire hope –– the chorus itself is made up mainly of four words:
"We gon' be alright."
The reason why this performance was so ground-breaking and powerful is because, contrary to what some news sources believe, this performance was not crafted with the intention to inspire hatred and violence in its viewers, but instead it was meant to reopen the dialogue to a conversation on race that American society desperately needs to have.
What stands out most to me in relation to political statements in hip hop is how the message of black liberation has evolved. Public Enemy and Ice Cube (alongside his group N.W.A.) were among the first to rap with these kinds of racial undertones, and spread their message through the rise of "gangsta rap." Their songs were loud, aggressive, and in your face. They also sparked much more controversy than Kendrick has at this point in his career. Songs like "F*ck tha Police" and "Fight the Power" were groundbreaking not just because of the racial themes exhibited, but because of the violent manner in which they were performed. In "To Pimp a Butterfly," Kendrick uses the strength of his lyricism to get his point across rather than relying on bad press and shock value, which I think makes for a much more poignant display of solidarity than those the rappers of the 90's made.
ReplyDeleteThis past summer, I had the privilege to see Kendrick Lamar live at the Sweet Life concert, which was a music and food festival, hosted by the famous salad company Sweet Green from Washington, DC. During Lamar’s performance, he changed the lyrics in his song to “Beets Don’t Kale My Vibe,” to promote Sweet Greens new beat, kale, and almond salad. Supposedly, before Lamar’s set even ended, the catering tent had run out of the salad. Within popular culture, music, is a way for artists to express themselves and impact the mainstream of a society. Since Lamar advertized the salad in his song, fans responded to his music by purchasing it. Music is very influential. While Lamar’s performance of “Beets Don’t Kale My Vibe” was clever, I think his performance at the Grammy’s was brilliant and proves the power musicians have in affecting society. In an interview, Ken Ehrlich, producer of the Grammy’s, is quoted to have called Lamar’s show “proactive.” The performance allowed him to get his concerns, cares, and goals across. Lamar utilized his music to show the audience both the past struggles and future hopes within the African American community.
ReplyDeleteAlexa makes a great point in regard to how Kendrick Lamar's music has a very profound impact on the mainstream of society. Music by popular artists such as Kendrick Lamar can really impact the subconscious of his fans, as with any other artist. Fortunately, Kendrick chooses to write his songs about subjects that actually have relevant meaning to our society such as white supremacy, black suppression, and black hypocrisy which are among many other relevant subjects. With this said, he is unlike a large majority of hip hop artists whose work falls into another spectrum of hip hop music that promotes drug use, sex, and other well known vices commonly associated with the hip hop community. In an interview with the New York Times, Kendrick praises the work of artists such as Future and Drake who are among the rappers who promote the vices mentioned above. Kendrick's praise of these artists does not surprise me because they are also mainstream artists that he probably doesn't want to have beef with and their music puts off a lot of energetic vibes that many people enjoy. However, their promotion of such immoral behavior is somewhat contradicting to the positive impact Kendrick's music has had. Kendrick's Grammy performance was incredible and well deserved. Although he is already a very popular artist that has impacted much of our society, I am glad he was given the opportunity to spread his message at the Grammy's thus having a bigger impact on history and present day society, rather than other artists such as Future and Drake. I hope that Kendrick will continue to write music that inspires hope and leads to freedom from oppression and racism because that is the only way "we gon' be alright".
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