Writing About Art

Topic: Kendrick Lamar_HUMBLE

Kendrick Lamar (born June 17, 1987) is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. He is regarded as one of the most skillful and successful hip-hop artists of his generation. Raised in Compton, California, Lamar embarked on his musical career as a teenager under the stage name K-Dot, releasing a mixtape that garnered local attention and led to his signing with indie record label Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE). He began to gain recognition in 2010, after his first retail release, Overly Dedicated.

 

 

One of his music video is particularly interesting to me as it includes many captivating scenes and words. That particular video was released in 2017 and got a lot of attention. In addition of being a very well-sounding song, it also includes messages depicted with scenes. Through this song, the singer addresses Americans, but more precisely Black people, women, corrupt people and more directly to those taking part to that racial segregation and or profiling. The purpose of this song was to highlight what black people are still going through and how it affects the way they live and the way they act. The content was expressed in a lyrical and explicit way to the audience and the original oeuvre may be somewhat inappropriate for under aged people.

From the music video, it is clear that the artist put a lot of work to make things look exactly the way he wanted it to look. Scenes throughout the video have meanings and are meant to send messages to the audience. In introduction, we can see Kendrick standing still dressed like a pope portraying “HUMBLE” manners till he starts singing with somewhat a though character.  This scene represent the “awakening”, stating that none can consider one ethnicity to be superior to another, and still expect the oppressed people to stay nice. As a side note to that scene, oppression is not “Christian”. Suddenly, from a pope driving the word of God, Kendrick turned into a different personality where many girls are sitting next to him counting money. This scene represents how media takes advantage of the hard work of other. The women counting his money also have masks on their faces which means that they are under cover.

Next, a scene shows him in the middle of a diner table covered in red with wine and bread on it, and others people sitting along. This scene depicts the famous diner Jesus had before being crucified. This scene has been interpreted in many music videos by other artists such as A$AP Ferg, Nas and Stormzi. That scene more particularly show that the people you just broke bread with, can betray you.

Another scene shows Kendrick in front of a group of men with their heads on fire, and other streets guys in the background. He then mentioned “Dreamers”, to illustrate how racist people think, their selfish manners when they feel like someone is taking over. Their head are on fire due to their dreams that they can’t reach and are forced the live like the guys in the far background. On another scene with a little bit of controversy, he says that he is “tired of Photoshop” and displays a girl in two screens (natural  and “photoshopped”), where the girl seems to look better natural! That scene cause a bit of controversy from the feminists. Some seemed offended for being portrayed as “photoshopped” because they use makeup. But on the other hand, some people say that he just stated his preference and that nobody should feel concerned. The meaning of the scene was tricky as he mentioned Richard Pryor who actively fought against racism and the fact that some people change their appearance just to fit in the society.

A well known scene form an old commercial was also illustrated, where he exchanges a jar from the back of a car to another man inside an other car. The original commercial scene was made by two white men and he shows that the same scene among black Americans can be interpreted as a criminal activity.

The same action is judged different when done by someone of a different race. Next, he then appears in a house with gun lasers pointing at him. That scene shows media attack towards African-Americans and says it’s even worse than alcohol abuse. By “Be humble! Sit down”, Kendrick illustrate what African- American have been told. He then appears in the middle of bold head black men face down (oppressed), saying “be humble, sit down”, with him in the middle signifies that he is the voice with his face facing up no matter what he is being told. The following scene shows him between a group of black people in high status with their faces up and him wearing white to tell the difference and show that he will keep the battle going.

This music video is very entertaining, but the main idea behind this video was mostly about showing the audience facts about what is going on, that racist people are brainwashing the masses so they can think negative about African American. Considering the actual situation, such oppression does not help at all, it makes some people stop caring and just do what they are mostly considered to be doing. Bad things. It was an overall very interesting song with a lot of messages that the audience need to understand.

 

 

 

 

• Link to discussed video: https://youtu.be/tvTRZJ-4EyI
• Other sources of research https://youtu.be/yzoenMAFHns
• https://youtu.be/G6zWJFCTmZM
• https://youtu.be/Ne4YRL2Gpk4