If Kendrick Lamar Was The Biggest Hypocrite of 2015, I Am The Biggest Hypocrite Every Year After
Considered to be one of the best rap artists of the last decade, Kendrick Lamar’s album, To Pimp a Butterfly is widely considered to be his magnum opus. Magnum opus just means that it is a person's best work. Just like Michelangelo's magnum opus is considered to be the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Even though they both still have notable work before and after, none came close to the popularity of their best. One of the songs that resonated with me most is track 13 and is titled, ‘The Blacker the Berry’. If you have never heard the song I encourage you to stop reading this, open whatever service you use to listen to music, and listen to that song a couple of times. I say listen to it a couple of times because you may not catch everything that he is trying to convey in the song on the first listen. At least for me, I didn’t. There are a lot of nuances that may not be picked in the first listen.
Partial spoiler warning for the song from this point forward!
Explaining the Hypocrisy
The tone of voice that Kendrick Lamar is using has a very aggressive, condescending, and almost angry tone throughout. The song, ‘The Blacker the Berry’, starts with Lalah Hataway saying, “They want us to bow, down to our knees, and pray to God that we don’t believe in.” This is referring to how black people originally did not believe in Christianity and how everyone wants us to praise a God that we did not originally believe in while we were in Africa. Only when black people were brought as slaves to America was it that we were forced to convert to Christianity. While she is saying this, you can hear Kendrick’s distorted voice saying in the background, “Everything black, I don’t want black. I want everything black, I ain’t need black…” This is where the hypocrisy begins in the song. Kendrick is going back and forth with himself on how he wants everything to be black and also how he doesn’t need black for anything.
In the bridge of the song, Kendrick has a line that says, “And sometimes I get off watchin’ you die in vain, it’s such a shame they may call me crazy.” I took this a couple of different ways. I think he is still showing his hypocrisy with this line. On one hand, he is talking about seeing white people die and how it gets him off. On the other hand, it seems he is also referring to seeing black people die and how that gets him off as well.
At the beginning of the first 2 verses that he has in the song, he starts with the line, “I’m the biggest hypocrite of 2015, once I finish this, witnesses will convey just what I mean.” In the 3rd and final verse of the song, he changes the wording a little. He says, “I’m the biggest hypocrite of 2015, when I finish this if you listen then sure you will agree.” The beginning of the 3rd verse is subtly saying that whoever is listening to the song, did not listen fully to the first 2 verses or what he is really saying throughout the song.
The final verse is a very powerful statement about how black people still have self-hatred within us and how we are all hypocrites. But Kendrick still claims that he is the biggest hypocrite of everyone at the end of the song.
How Am I a Hypocrite?
The reason that I say that I am the biggest hypocrite every year after 2015 is because I have also contributed to this self-hatred rhetoric of my own kind. There are times that I have discriminated against my own and have not taken accountability for it because I was afraid of how others would perceive me for admitting it. I have judged my own kind for how they talk, how they walk, how they dress, and how dark their skin complexion is. I would much rather hold myself accountable than to just ignore it and act like it doesn’t exist within me. How would I be able to fix the problem if I never admit it? All of this shows how much of a hypocrite that I am and how distorted my views are. It is something that I am extremely embarrassed by and not something that I take lightly.
The reason that I am admitting this publicly is because I hope to have others look within themself and confront their own biases. No one has to take the extreme action that I am taking with putting it out there for the world to see, judge and comment on. But please do reflect on your actions and your biased behavior and confront it. We all have biases. Being human to me is not about hiding your biases or pretending not to have any biases at all, I think it is about being aware of those biases and still treating everyone the same despite those biases. Show me a person who says that they do not judge and do not have biases and I will show you a liar.
