A Discussion Of The Single ‘to Pimp A Butterfly’ By Kendrick Lamar, Focusing On Identity, History And Politics

A discussion of the single To Pimp A Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar, focusing on identity, history and politics

Introduction

The single The blacker the berry (2015) by American Rapper Kendrick Lamar reached its peak position on number 83 in the UK single charts (The official Charts Company, 2019). The song, written by Jeffrey Campbell, Kendrick Duckworth (Kendrick Lamar), Stephen Kozmeniuk and Metthew Samuels, and produced by Tarrace Martin, Matthew jehu Samuels (Boi-1da) and KOZ, portrays the themes of racism, hatred, racial conflicts and generational prejudice towards African Americans. The Blacker The Berry was released as the second single of Lamar s third studio album To Pimp A Butterfly and shares it s title with the novel by American author Wallace Thurman which deals with similar themes of racism. Lamar introduces these themes with lyrics such as

Came from the bottom of mankind / My hair is nappy, my nose is round and wide / You hate my people, your plan is to terminate my culture / I want you to recognize that I m a proud monkey.

Consequently, the song raises important questions about the relationship between popular music and racial contexts in contemporary society therefore, this essay discusses The Blacker The Berry from three contextual perspectives: Identity, history and politics.

Three key resources have informed the discussion in this essay. Wallace Thurman s book The Blacker The Berry A novel of negro life (1929) offers a deep insight into the life of oppression relating to cultural identities and depicts its historical impact. A study by Micah Singleton, published on The Verge (2016) discusses crucial issues regarding The Blacker The Berry s political impact on the society and industry. Ceasar s discussion on The History of Colorism examines the modern impact on oppression of mixed raced people and offers a wider understanding on the definition of modern racism.

The essay begins by exploring issues of identity of the single, then discusses its historical aspects and finally considers its political implications.

Identity

The Oxford dictionary defines identity in two aspects The fact of being who or what a person or thing is, and/or a close similarity or affinity (Oxford University Press, 2019). In relation to these definitions The Blacker The Berry mainly focuses on the perception that is being created when dealing with different races, genders or other such general differences. While also debating the stereotypes of African Americans towards white people Kendrick Lamar says: I`m not on the outside looking in, I`m not on the inside looking out [...] I`m in the dead f*cking center, looking around. (The Atlantic, 2015) by which he is talking about an irreducible and distinct point of view that appears to be related to the Black lives matter movement which is an international activist movement originated in the African American community operating against violence and systematic racism towards black people. The movement started in 2013 as a reaction to the shooting death of Treyvon Martin in February 2012. Treyvon martin was a 17-year-old African-American teenager from Miami Gardens, Florida, who was fatally shot in Sanford, Florida by George Zimmerman (ABC news, 2012). Therefore, the movement focuses on issues such as racial profiling, police brutality and racial inequality in the United States criminal justice system.

Kendrick Lamar s take on this topic seems to be somewhat multilayered. It can be seen as a remembrance of the police brutality that occurred in 2014 when Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed on August 9th, 2014, by Darren Wilson, a white police officer, in Ferguson. So Lamar says in the blacker the berry :

You sabotage my community, makin` a killin` You made me a killer, emancipation of a real ni*gga.

Which refers to both, the police brutality against black people but also the fact of reoccurring and raising black-on-black crime. This in turn created the issue of gang violence which can be seen as a product of racist oppression but also depicts that these two are overlapping tragedies. By saying: You made me a killer (the blacker the berry, 2015), Lamar seems to suggest that those actions, in large part, were caused by a racist system. Lamar continues to say: When we don t have respect for ourselves, how do we expect them to respect us? , which can be seen as a reference to his line in The Blacker The Berry The plot is bigger than me, it s generational hatred . Hereby Lamar is taking on a conversation about general characteristics of the millennial generation (born in the 1980s, 1990s, or early 2000s. Cambridge Dictionary, 2019) who are often seen as a generation that takes privilege for granted or appears as unaware of social conflicts.

Furthermore, Lamar starts every verse with the line: I m the biggest Hypocrite of 2015 which he explains in saying: The song is a tool to use against self-hatred, it is not about contentment but struggle (The Atlantic, 2015). The narrator of the song demonstrates black pride as fiercely as he can, and yet the memory of his past actions is getting in the way.

The song finishes with an answer as oppose to the statements that appeared beforehand

So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street? When gang banging made me kill a n*gga blacker than me? Hypocrite!

Which shows that the song is also dealing with the fact that Lamar is trying to figure out himself and his personal stand in both, his community and the broader society. The Lamar of "The Blacker the Berry" may not actually be a hypocrite, but the life he has been confronted with appears to have put him in a position in which he feels like one.

History

The Oxford Dictionary defines history as the study of past events, particularly in human affairs (2019). In regard to a musical aspect within this study Negus states Bands, audiences and performers are continually referring back to something that was occurring before (Negus, 1996, p.138). Kendrick Lamar seems to continuously detach himself from both historical and musical expectations. Lamar has been known for fusing genres since his career began in 2004. His musically creative and provocative approach also seems to mirror a certain perspective of cultural and historical opinions. Sonically, his music is inventive and unconventional but yet the issues and topics Lamar deals with in his songs are very much current, relevant and connect his individuality with strong historical knowledge.

The blacker the berry is a prime example for Lamar s extensive and complex artistry. In the first verse he says: I m African-American, I m African , which seems to be a comment on nowadays colorism particularly within the American culture. Colorism, not to be confused with racism, describes discrimination or prejudice towards individuals with dark skin tone, typically within the same ethnic group (Oxford Dictionaries, 2019). Colorism exists within multiple different races but is mostly found in minority groups and shows its roots in the time of colonialism and slavery. Alice Walker, an American novelist, also defined colorism as prejudicial or preferential treatment of same-race people based solely on their color (1982).

In the blacker the berry Lamar uses a sample which continues to say: the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice , which could be a reference to a novel published in 1929 with the same name by American author Wallace Thurman, associated with the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was an artistic, intellectual and social movement centered in Harlem New York and reflected new African-American cultural expressions. The book explores discrimination within the black community based on skin color. The saying the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice was originally used to suggest people with darker complexion have more positive and stronger qualities. In a more current and prevailing context the juice can be seen as the blood of a black person, meaning the darker-skinned a person is, the more likely that person is to get killed, so Lamar says in the chorus

The blacker the berry, the bigger I shoot.

Research has linked colorism to fewer job prospects, smaller incomes and longer prison terms for darker-skinned people (New York Times, 2013). Which Lamar comments on in the second verse of the blacker the berry

Penitentiary would only hire me.

According to the New York Times a young black man without a degree is more likely to end up in jail than to get a job (New York Times, 2013). A Villanova University study of more than 12,000 African-American women imprisoned also found that lighter-skinned black women received shorter sentences than their darker-skinned counterparts (Science Direct, 2011). Whereas another research by Stanford psychologist Jennifer Eberhardt found that darker-skinned black defendants were twice as likely to receive the death penalty as lighter-skinned black defendants, in crimes involving white victims (Los Angeles Times, 2006).

Kendrick Lamar not only touches multiple historical issues within his lyrics but also happens to quote musical genres with the arrangement of the song. In an interview with HipHopDX magazine Lamar claims rapper Tupac Shakur to be his biggest musical influence. Sonically, The blacker the berry very much reminds of early 90s Hip Hop music. The verses are mainly focused on rhythm and appear to be less harmonically interesting, which, due to sampling, was a common feature of Rap music at the time. Hip Hop is generally seen as a culture and arts movement that started during the early 1970s in the Bronx in New York. Rather than just being a modern musical genre, it soon happened to be a new form of expression particularly for African-Americans, addressing issues that were not addressed anywhere else in the public form. The Blacker The Berry finishes with a relatively sudden change in the arrangement, when the song shifts to a 6/8 swing in a slightly faster tempo with its focus on more complex, jazz-oriented harmonies and multiple layers of vocals. This part of the song can be seen as another quote on Lamar s early musical ancestors of Jazz, which also originated in African-American communities in the late 19th and early 20th century to be yet another form of expression for a community that suffered extreme forms of oppression for centuries.

The Blacker The Berry mainly seems to be a comment on racial inequality that happens to go far beyond skin color or cultural expectations. In an interview with Consequence Of Sound Lamar says

when we don t have respect for ourselves, how do we expect them to respect us? It starts from within. (2013)

Politics

A study at the University of London and Imperial College used music recognition technology to analyze variations in chords, instruments, and harmony in roughly 17,000 songs from the US Billboard Hot 100 charts from 1960 to 2010 in order to find out which genres had the most impact, according to an Associated Press report (The Independent, 2015). The research has shown that Hip Hop forms the most influential and popular genre in today s music. After the release of To Pimp A Butterfly in 2015, Kendrick Lamar was nominated for 11 Grammy s at the 58th Grammy Awards show in 2016 which made him the rapper with the most nominations in a single night. Lamar was also the first to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for music in a non-classical or jazz-based piece of work (Pulitzer, 2018).

The Grammy Award is being considered one of the most prestigious awards in the music industry and draws the attention of an average of 35 million viewers per year. Therefore, the award show happens to be a strong and influential mediator for the music industry and started to create prejudice in musical genres. Since 1999, the Grammys have nominated 90 records for Album of the Year with only 11 going to black hip-hop artists. Only two Hip Hop Albums have won Album of the year and although this genre is now being considered the most influential it has never won the Grammy without having a major crossover pop hit. Kendrick Lamar has won 13 Grammy Awards as of today and even though his music is largely based in the genre of Hip Hop and Rap, Lamar is known to bridge the gap between The Isley Brothers and Tupac Shakur with the use of other genres such as jazz and soul.

Kendrick Lamar s To Pimp A Butterfly is the most culturally important album in the last decade, a peerless expression of the trials and tribulations of the modern black experience in today s music. (The Verge, 2016)

Although this Album was praised by critics and received such a high amount of commendation for both, the Album itself and also the performance at the ceremony, the Album of the year category was yet not awarded to To Pimp A Butterfly that year. It is not simply troubling that the category was not awarded to a hip-hop album, it is that this album in particular was denied. Having such a profound impact musically, culturally and politically with To Pimp A Butterfly Lamar did not only create a very well received musical piece of work but more importantly pointed towards crucial political issues and build an entire album around the poor treatment of black people in America. In an article as a response to Taylor Swifts Grammy win in 2016, music magazine The Verge wrote:

Taylor Swift s 1989 is a good album. Kendrick Lamar s To Pimp A Butterfly is an intense amalgamation of funk, jazz, and poetry a concept album whose concept was black excellence. Taylor Swift`s 1989 is a happy album. Kendrick Lamar s To Pimp A Butterfly is an appraisal of White America s fraught relationship with Black America. Taylor Swift s 1989 is a comfortable album. (The Verge, 2016)

The influence of what is being considered black music on the music industry is so immense that one could consider it the foundation of what makes up the definition of popular music today.

Lamar finished his politically charged performance of The blacker the berry at the Awards show 2016 with a Map of Africa projected against the back of the stage with the word Compton pinned in the center of the continent pointing out the claim of his identity and origin finishing with the words:

Oh woes keep me, it`s a jungle inside [...] I love myself. (Lamar, 2016).

As a reaction to the symbolical ban of the use of the N-word by the New York City Council on February 28, 2007 it was requested to exclude from Grammy Award consideration every song whose lyrics contain the word. Which is why, when performing The Blacker The Berry at the Grammys in 2016, Lamar was asked to

replace the word when performing the song live. In an interview with Billboard (2016) Ken Ehrlich, the producer of the Grammys, reasoned the request in saying It is overtly political, and it is overtly provocative .

Kendrick Lamar s role in today s popular music industry does not only focus on musical creativity and invention but rather appears to have a strong impact on both raising awareness for societal issues and indicating political affairs. The Blacker The Berry is only one example for the strong representation of modern racism and approaches this conflict from a 360 degree angle, making it nearly impossible for the broader society to ignore the issue.