Dissect - S1E16 – The Blacker the Berry (Part 2) by Kendrick Lamar

Episode Date: December 20, 2016

We continue our serialized analysis of Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly by dissecting "The Blacker the Berry." Follow Dissect on social media @dissectpodcast. Purchase Dissect merch at dissectpodcast.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Dissect, long-form musical analysis broken into short digestible episodes. I'm your host, Cole Kushna. Today, we continue our serialized examination of Tapimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar, with part two of The Black or the Berry. If you haven't heard part one, I strongly consider stopping the show now and listening to that episode first. There, we combed through the song's lyrics and laid out the dynamic contrast of Kendrick's double consciousness and conflicting feelings about his black identity. We heard how Trayvon Martin's tragic death

sparked an internal frustration and anxiety that expressed itself as an external assault on contemporary American society, specifically white America. I'm the biggest hypocrite in 2015. Once I finished, it's witnesses, will convey just what I mean. Been feeling this way since I was 16.

Came to my senses. You never liked this anyway. Fuck your friendship. I meant it. I'm African American. I'm African. I'm black as the moon. Heritage of a small village.

While the majority of the song came from the bottom of American by my hair is nappy, my dick is big, my nose is round and wide. You hate me, don't you? You hate my people, your plan is to terminate my fashion. I mean I might pressure. While the majority of the song works to expose the consequences of historic oppression of the black community by holding a mirror to contemporary American society. In the last half of the third verse, Kendrick turns that mirror around on himself.

So no matter how much I say I like to preach with the Panthers, or tell Georgia State Marcus Garvey got all the answers. Celebrate February like it's my B day or eat watermelon chicken and coolade on weekdays Or jump high enough to get Michael Jordan endorsements or watch B.T because urban support is important. So why did I weep when Treyfarm Martin was in the street when gang banking make me kill a nigger blacker than me, hypocrite. In a now somewhat infamous line, Kendrick says, so how can I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street when gangbating make me kill an N-word blacker than me, hypocrite?

The enormity of the moment is accentuated by a full on musical implosion. The hostile boombat drums become an airy ride symbol and whispering snare taps over which lay gentle melodic proddings of a keyboard and distant vocals. It's thinking music. It gives us a chance to contemplate what we just experienced. There's undoubtedly a lot to unpack in the Black or the Berry. But before we dive into any thematic interpretations, let's first talk about the linguistic triumph Kendrick pulls off. Kendrick sprinkles a healthy dose of foreshadowing over each of the song's three verses, stating, I'm the biggest hypocrite of 2015. He doesn't elaborate. Rather, he says, once I finish this, witnesses will convey just what I mean.

We're left in mystery and wonder for the majority of the piece. With his final line, Kendrick snaps a song into place, or perhaps out of place, finally revealing why he considers himself to be a hypocrite. He questions how he can mourn the loss of a black man when he himself has killed a black man in the name of gangbanging. It's a masterful dramatic touch, this setup and payoff, tension and release. It's a technique that's been employed by a number of notable hip-hop artists, perhaps most famously in Common Sense's 1994 classic I used to love her. In it, Common describes falling in love with the girl when he was younger, and how over time the two grew apart because the girl's ever-changing identity.

in the song, did a couple of videos and became macro-central. Out goes to weave and goes to Bravesbee's medallion. She was all that tip about stopping the violence about my people she was teaching me. By not preaching to me, but speaking to me in a method that was leisurely so easily I approach. She dug my rap, that's how we got close. But then she broke to the West Coast and now it's cool because around the same time, I went away to school and I'm a man... In the song's dramatic conclusion, Common reveals he's not actually speaking

about a girl, but rather hip hop. The technique is incredibly impactful. It causes the listener to rewind and re-examine in detail everything they just heard. It lent to heaviness and complexity that would not otherwise have been there. On the black of the berry, Kendrick's use of the linguistic technique, achieves a similar yet arguably more dramatic effect than I used to love her, due to the sensitive nature of the subject matter and Kendrick's unnerving intensity. There seems to be no avoiding some type of emotional reaction.

It can leave you stunned, confused, reflective, curious, or all of the above. It can also leave you incredibly pissed off. Oh yeah, about that. The Blacker the Berry was to Pippa Butterfly's second single, put out one month prior to the album's full release. As you can imagine, the song instantaneously created massive buzz. It seemed everyone had an opinion. Some named it a contemporary masterpiece.

Others disagreed with what they perceived to be the song's message. Others still were disgusted and enraged by the piece. The detractors mainly interpreted the piece as preaching respectability politics. In short, respectability politics is the idea that the problems of the black community are the fault of the black community. that by adopting a certain lifestyle and cultural identity, black people could excavate themselves from racial discrimination. At its best, respectability politics comes from a good place

and encourages the black community to rise above prejudice by being a good person and leading by example. At its worst, respectability politics ignores contemporary racism and the residual effects of a country constructed on blatantly racist policies and practices. In this way, some felt the black or the berry was preached, Some felt Kendrick was saying, Black Lives Matter, but what about Black on Black crime? Some felt Kendrick was missing the history behind the state of Black America. Some felt it was a conversational sleight of hand similar to something you'd hear on Fox News.

Some felt that Kendrick was missing the point. To compound the issue, the Blacker the Berry came off the heels of an interview Kendrick did with Billboard magazine, in which he stated, quote, I wish somebody would look in our neighborhood knowing that it's already a situation, mentally, or it's fucked up. What happened to Michael Brown should have 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. This quote set ablaze certain segments of the hip-hop and black community. Most notably, musician Azalea Banks fired a chain of comments Twitter. She said, quote, when we don't respect ourselves, how can we expect them to respect us? Dumbest shit I've ever heard a black man say. L.O.L. Do you know about the generational effects of poverty, racism, and discrimination? There are things in society that benefit us to like few of us,

fine, but don't put down the rest by saying they don't respect themselves. How dare you open your face to a white publication and tell them that we don't respect ourselves. Speak for your fucking self. Before we hear Kendrick's response to his critics, I think we should point out that the public's perception of Kendrick Lamar was much different in February 2015 than it is today. We didn't know Kendrick all that well. Topipa Butterfly hadn't been released. We hadn't heard King Kunta or All Right or complexion.

We hadn't watched this historic Grammy performance. We didn't have a sense of his long-term trajectory. Was he a one album wonder, a 50 cent? The world eagerly awaited his follow-up to confirm his genius or begin detracting it. When the Black or the Berry dropped, it only added to the confusion. It perhaps confirmed his genius, but was this going to be the primary tone in messaging? Just what was Kendrick trying to say. Tipa Butterfly was released a month later, and we provided some context to the Black

or the Berry. It was going to take some time to unpack, but it's clear that there was more going on than first appeared. his album media circuit, publications finally got their chance to ask specifically about the Blacker the Barry's message. We're going to take a few minutes to let Kendrick tell his side of the story. I talk about murder. I talk about violence. I talk about all of that. But the backstory behind it is the consequences for it. Who gives the consequences for it? Who going to pay for these things? Not to glorify it. To educate you on it to know that it's real.

You know, these words are powerful. You know, I got homeboys that's dead that's in prison. And sometimes you get a lot of artists that just glorify that. So these kids look at it, you know, they think it's nothing but cool until they put in a real situation where their back gives the wall and it's all over. You get what I'm saying? And for me, that's what separates me as an artist. I'm going to give you the gift and I'm going to you the curse.

Yeah, for me, I'm responsible for myself to know what I'm talking about. That's why my responsibility to come to know. 100% what I'm talking about, because I'm a witness. Now, you know, it's your choice to listen to it, but it's my responsibility to know exactly what I'm talking about, you know, and to always give you both sides of the fence. I can't just write. I can't come on with an album if it's not from self-experience in some type of way, you know what I'm saying? And then, and that's what make records like Black of the Berry so powerful for me. It's not me pointing at my community.

It's me pointing at myself. I don't talk about these things if I haven't lived them. And I've hurt people in my life. It's something I still have to think about when I sleep at night. So when you call yourself a hypocrite, what message you're sending to yourself there? The message I'm sending to myself, I can't change the world until I change myself first.

For instance, when Chad was killed, I can't disregard the emotion of me. relapsing and feeling the same anger that I felt when I was 16, 17, when I wanted the next family to hurt because you made my family hurt. Them emotions were still running in me, thinking about him being slain like that. Whether I'm a rap star or not, if I still feel like that, then I'm part of the problem rather than the solution. A lot of people get confused and thinking, I'm not going to even say a lot of, a few people think it's just talk and it's just rap. No, these are my experiences. When I say game banking

and make me kill a n'u-blacker than me. These are, this is my life that I'm talking about. I'm not, I'm not saying you, you might not even be front of streets. Not every black person is in the game. Yeah, not in the game. I'm not speaking to the community. I'm not speaking of the community.

I am the community. My home boys, those are my real homeboys on my album cover. They're still over there. You know, no matter how much I want to bring them back and take them to other place, they still embody that, you know, that's them. So when I say these lines, it's for myself. This is therapeutic for myself because I still feel that urge and I still feel that anger and that hatred for this man next door because I got to get

a call knowing that somebody around the corner than did this to my partner. I still feel that. I still feel that hatred. I still feel like that, that ill will to want it to do something. Do you have that in you? Do you feel like you have that in you? All the time. Wow. I've only been in this industry for three, four years. And I can't forget 20 years of me being in the city of conference.

So when I say these things, it's therapeutic for me. It's making me remind I need to respect this man because he's a black man, not because of the color that he went. That's what I mean. So I say this all the time for people who take that out of context or, or take anything I say out of context. And I'm not even blaming the magazines. I'm blaming the people listening to it or reading it. Know who I am first.

Understand where I come from before you make any remarks. Because I've been through a lot and I've seen a lot. And where I come from, we, we, I've did a lot to tear down my own community. So for you to not recognize that and see 100% flip, please learn it. In some ways, the Black or the Barry sees Kendrick falling victim to his own skill set. The masterful execution of angst expressed in his voice,

the grimy sonic infrastructure of boom-bat drums, the hypnotic twisting dark sample, it all adds up to what seems to be a snarling attack on anyone in his way. With all its external hostility, it would be hard for some to imagine the Black or the Barry to be vulnerable, perhaps even in a mission. But as we heard in his interviews, Kendrick seems adamant about the Black or the Berry being very personal and centered around his own experiences.

So what if we took Kendrick at his word? What if the last line of the Black or the Berry isn't hyperbole? What if the Blacker the Berry is a confession? To speculate whether or not the last line of the Black or the Barry is true, we're going to put on our Sherlock caps and take a look at a few lyrical breadcrumbs Kendrick has placed throughout his dysography. Kendrick speaks on murder and gang violence often, but there's a few songs that stand out for their specificity and overlap. First, let's explore when an incident might have occurred.

We could find at least two examples of something transformative happening when Kendrick was 16 years old. Here's an excerpt from the song Mad City from the 2013 album Good Kid Mad City. If I told you I killed a nigga had 16, would you believe me? I see me to be innocent Kendrick you've seen in the street with a basketball and some now latest to eat. Then there's the opening all of my skeletons, would you jump in the sea? What you say my intelligence is now is great relief and it's safe to say that our next generation. Then there's the opening line of the Black or the Berry. This is what I mean.

Been feeling this way since I was 16 came to my senses. You never liked this anyway. Fuck your friendship, I meant it. Of course, we couple that line with the song's conclusion. So why did I weep when Trayvon and Martin was in the street when game banking make me kill a nigger blacker than me, hippocry. Here, we have two references to murder at the same. specific age of 16. Kendrick's music video for Ignorance is Bliss from overly dedicated

opens with a scene in which Kendrick visits a friend's grave. He's in driven to a house where a handful of men are hanging out front. Kendrick hops out the car and fires a shot at one of the men. As we listen, note for his reference to minivan. Lord, forgive me. Kill him waist, stand, and stand over him, shake his hand, then jump back in that minivan, double back to his black to blam, I ain't backing down for nothing, and I'm a back, down like shack with this black two two three in my hand better pray that this chopper jam like a radio single man police radio signal saying that a 187 land on your corner coroner's comfort your mama mama he's dead the next morning hot toast dead up with my homies we drink it smoke where

one if you'll remember from our analysis of good kid mad city kendrick was known to borrow his mother's minivan kendrick was also around 16 years old in good kids narrative on absell's outro from the album section 80 kendrick again references killing at a young age And now you ever seen a newborn baby killer grown man? That's an analogy for the way the world make me react. My innocence been dead. So the next time I talk about my... And now the opening lines of his unreleased collaboration with Lady Gaga, party nauseous.

Tell my mom his bad karma, I just killed a man. Tell your auntie got a part of me if I hide my hand. On the song, Holup, Kendrick speaks of killing two adults at a young age. This reference of a speed of a lightning boat. As a kid, I killed two adults. I'm too advanced. I live my 20s at two years old. The wise of man...

This reference of two appears elsewhere in his repertoire. If you're a remember from our analysis of the song, Kendrick speaks of depression resting on his heart for two reasons. I know your secrets, nigger. Moose wings is frequent, nigger. I know depression is resting on your heart for two reasons, nigga. I know you and a couple black boys ain't been speaking, nigger.

Y'all damn their beef and I see it and you're the reason. And then there's Kendrick's feature on BJ to the Chicago Kids, His Pain 2, in which Kendrick recounts in reverse chronological order a series of crimes. I don't know why, I don't know why. Yesterday I invaded privacy of a home. The day before that my partner had fronted me a zone. A week before I had loaded bullets inside that chrome. Two weeks before that I shot them bullets and he was gone.

A month before that I cursed my mother, then slammed the door. Six months before that I hit my woman, she had. hit the floor. I stormed out this ain't a black honduc card. No, all little tips miss me then hit that little boy.

I don't know why he keeps blessing me. I don't know why he keeps blessing me. I don't know why Kendrick opens a verse by mentioning participation in a home invasion. If you'll remember from the art of peer pressure from Good Kid Mad City, Kendrick intimately describes a home invasion.

If this is the same incident, it would put Kendrick at age 16, as that was his age on the album's narrative. Kendrick goes on to reference loading bullets and a gun and, quote, Shot them bullets and he was gone. He describes a scene in which shots were fired at him from a black Honda accord. They miss Kendrick and hit a little boy. Could this be an outline of the two things resting on Kendrick's heart?

One a murder at 16 and the other, the killing or injury of a little boy from bullets that were intended for Kendrick? Of course, we may never know for sure. Signs do seem to point to something happening when Kendrick. was 16. And as expressed in interviews we heard earlier, he's very adamant that the Black or the Barry is about him and his specific experiences. In an interview with the New York Times, Kendrick said in reference to the song, quote, when I speak, I speak for self first. This is my experience. I know where I come from. I know the hurt that I've caused families. These are my demons. So let's for a moment ignore the political and social implications found within the Black

or the berry. Let's take Kendrick at his word and view the song from a purely personal standpoint. We know Kendrick wrote the sketches of the angst-ridden verses after hearing the news of Trayvon Martin's passing. Like many, he was extremely upset and frustrated. The snarling aggression of the Black or the Barry is Kendrick's form of a riot. He cathartically unfurls a series of lyrical Molotov cocktails, setting ablaze the U.S. justice system, discriminating police officers, past and present political powers, among others. But if Kendrick did indeed kill someone at 16, as he states in the song's concluding line,

I'd assume the weight of that to be unbearable. How could he not, as a caring, introspective human being, then think about what he'd done? How could he not feel like a hypocrite knowing that he also killed a young black man? It's one thing to say systemic racism and historical oppression leads to black on black violence. It's another to actually be the product of that history,

and have to live with its consequences. I don't think it's easy for someone like Kendrick to simply negate his actions, riding himself off as a consequence of historical oppression. He's the one having to live with it every day. As he said, these are his demons. Kendrick may have escaped death or prison, but it would seem his mind is perpetually in prison with guilt and depression. And perhaps that's a bigger consequence than we realize.

We can cite statistics stating historical oppression does X, Y, and Z. But let's also attempt to empathize with the products of that oppression on a smaller scale, an individual basis, and attempt to understand their feelings, even if you may not agree with them. To write off Kendrick as a preacher of respectability politics is I believe missing the opportunity to understand the psychological complexities of our racial history. Some assume Kendrick was making a political statement. But what if we viewed it instead as an honest firsthand account of the psychological effects and complexities of a product of generational oppression?

And what if we reserved our judgment and treated Kendrick's feelings as we would someone living with PTSD? If we take Kendrick at his word and our speculation about his murder were true, it certainly would explain a lot. His bouts of depression, his survival's guilt, his conflicting internal feelings, his therapeutic release and music,

the good persuaded by evil narrative in both Good Kid and Butterfly, is questioning his purpose in the world, is asking God's forgiveness. If all this speculation is true, the Black or the Berry, despite its external bravado, might just be Kendrick's most personal and perhaps tragic song he's ever written. Kendrick's personal narrative has been embraced by many as representative of the Black narrative. No doubt Kendrick consciously comments on social, political, and historical racial topics.

One needs to look no further than his BET Awards or Grammy performances for confirmation. But Kendrick perhaps no longer has the luxury of speaking about issues from a purely personal perspective when they tiptoe so closely to contemporary talking points. At minimum, they'll be assumed and interpreted as commentary on the Black experience. At most, in the case of Black or the Berry, they'll be assumed by some to be preachy and judgmental. Well, let's remember Kendrick's words. I'm not speaking for the community. I'm not speaking of the community. I am the community. What I believe Kendrick is saying is that his personal experiences and his feelings and emotions about those experiences are not up for debate. Detractors of the Black or the Barry are defending the integrity of black people who are products of historic oppression and racism. Kendrick is holding his hand up saying, I am that product.

I'm as confident as they come. I didn't go to college. My parents were educated. My father was a hustler. My uncles were gangbangers. I saw my first murder at age five. I've seen more than one dead body. I was raised on Section 8 housing and welfare.

I dabbled in gangbanging. My close friends were and continued to be killed to this day. Perhaps Kendrick is saying he's allowed to call himself out. He's allowed to think himself a hypocrite. He's allowed to be angry with the world and also angry with himself. He's allowed to have complex feelings about a very complex issue. Because he is the issue. Kendrick is the community.

Conclusions. The Black or the Berry is a juggernaut. It's an endless source of conversation and can be viewed through any number of political, racial, and social lenses. We spent nearly double our normal episode time with this track, and we've only scratched the surface. In my approach, I tried to remain true to the premise of this podcast. Remember, our main goal is to dissect Tipip a Butterfly, to do our best to understand its narrative arc, its message, to understand the man behind that message. To do that, I thought we should listen to Kendrick as best we could. His own comments about the black or the berry made clear that it was a very personal song,

and so that's the way I chose to view it. Of course, we let the lyrical content guide us through explorations of double consciousness in the US penitentiary system. But at the heart of the song is Kendrick's confession and personal confliction. When viewed this way, it's actually a pretty brave gesture to bear one's internal burden so nakedly. Perhaps more than any other individual song onto Pippa Butterfly, the Black of the Berry expresses the sentiment of the narrative poem's opening line.

I remember you as conflicted. Over the course of this album, Kendrick has made great attempts to reconcile his conflicting emotions. He's battled his instinctual attraction to Uncle Sam, the temptations of Lucy, his own depression and guilt, while also feeling prideful about his roots in black identity. Whereas the album's previous song, Complexion, promotes self-love and the face of of interracial divisions of colorism, the Black or the Berry exhibits the challenges of self-love amidst the frustration and anxiety caused by historical oppression, contemporary racism, and in Kendrick's case, the hypocrisy he feels for participating in Black-on-Black violence.

This song, Kendrick's emotional value of self and the Black experience in America, it's all very complicated. Sometimes these complications express themselves in jaunty celebrations like King Kunta, complexion and the forthcoming songs You Ain't Got a Lie and I. Other times, that confliction manifests itself in bleaker songs like the Black of the Berry and you. And sometimes, like the track all right, it's a bit of both. The common thread among these diverse tracks,

and specifically the songs that make up to Pippa Butterfly's fourth act, is a tendency to look inward for solution. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Kendrick outlines the origins of his change from within mentality. Quote, my mom's always told me, how long you're going to play the victim? I can say I'm mad and I hate everything, but nothing really changes until I change myself. So no matter how much bullshit we've been through as a community, I'm strong enough to say fuck that and acknowledge myself and my own struggles.

This sentiment, as well as the teachings of Kendrick's mother, will continue on the album's next track, You Ain't Got a Lie, Mama said, which will thoroughly examine next time on Dissect. is written and produced by me. If you like what you hear, consider rating dissect on iTunes or sharing a link to the show on your favorite social media outlet. There's no team behind this podcast, it's just me, and frankly I can use all the help I can get promoting the show.

If you haven't stopped by the Dysect Public Forum yet, please come say hi. I'd love to continue the discussion of the Black or the Berry there and hear your own thoughts on the song. You can find the forum at Dicectpodcast.com. While you're there, don't forget to suggest an album for season two. Again, that's dissectpodcast.com. Oh, and I received some exciting news recently.

Dissect was named one of iTunes's Best Sub Podcasts for 2016. There's about 200,000 podcasts in the world, and iTunes chose 40. It's quite a shock to say the least. So, thanks iTunes. We've got a few exciting things in store for next week. Talk to you then.