Kendrick Lamar – “The Blacker The Berry”

Kendrick Lamar – “The Blacker The Berry”

Kendrick Lamar caught a lot of flack for his comments about Ferguson in a recent Billboard interview: “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.” The criticism from parties including Azealia Banks suggested that Kendrick was ignoring the generational effects of institutionalized racism, that he was selling out his race. Well, Kendrick heard that criticism, and he’s fucking pissed about it. A new song called “The Blacker The Berry” (a reference to Wallace Thurman’s Harlem Renaissance novel) just appeared out of nowhere, and it’s essentially a five-and-a-half-minute diatribe in defense of his credentials as a Civil Rights advocate and an American-American male. He comes out guns blazing over Boi-1da’s triumphantly grimy beat — “I’m the biggest hypocrite of 2015!” — and never lets up from there. You’d better listen.

So, about that new album…

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