Dissect - S5E15 - XXX. (Part 2) by Kendrick Lamar

Episode Date: December 24, 2019

In part two of our analysis of XXX., we discover the dramatic twist in the narrative of DAMN. Say hi @dissectpodcast on Twitter and Instagram. Purchase Dissect merch at https://shop.dissectpodcast.com/. Listen to original Dissect themes on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2k8BsZM. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From Spotify Studios, this is Dissect, long-form musical analysis broken into short digestible episodes. I'm your host, Cole Kushner. Today we continue our serialized analysis of Damn by Kendrick Lamar with part two of our two-part dissection of the song XXX. If you miss part one, you'll definitely want to go back and listen to that episode now. There we discussed XXX's first half, which found Kenny confronted with a difficult decision on how to advise his friend about his only son. being killed over a debt. and guidance, saying, I know that you're anointed, show me how to overcome. It's here that we're

reminded that Kenny has been filled with God's spirit so he can show his people how to overcome the evil spirits that tempt them to murder other humans. Kenny's role as spiritual leader is further confirmed in the subsequent line, he was looking for some closure, hoping I can bring him closer to the spiritual. Kenny's friend wants him to act as a conduit for God's spirit, someone who will connect him to a higher power, to the spiritual. Of course, this is the very definition of what it means to be a prophet, something Kenny claimed to be on DNA when he said, salute the truth when the prophets say. We heard an even more clear declaration of this on mortal man, the final track of Tipimpa Butterfly, that as you know, leads directly into the narrative of Dam.

Kenny's self-identification as an inspired prophet reminds us yet again that he's fully aware what he should say to his friend. Such awareness makes it all the more agonizing when we hear Kenny's response. that means somebody's getting killed. Here, Kenny admits that the spirit of God inside him clearly directs him to encourage his friend to choose forgiveness, the way of weakness. However, much like he did during the album's first half, Kenny ignores God's message. Instead of speaking the truth, Kenny decides to say what he personally feels. This choice to be led by his feelings brings about a dramatic turn. Kenny declares that if it was his son who was killed, he would

avenge his son by murdering his killer. This response proves that Kenny has lost his faith again. The test of his faith has revealed the wickedness that continues to plague his heart. Indeed, in the blink of an eye, Kenny has reverted back to the same primal emotional logic of self-preservation he exhibited on element. And just as he did on element, Kenny attempts to justify his intuition, saying, tell me what you do for love, loyalty, and passion of all the memories collected, moments you can never touch. Similar to his attitude on his, element, Kennedy declares that the feelings of love, loyalty, and passion one has for family members are worth killing for. Of course, the first two of these emotions, love and loyalty, are track titles on the album. Up until now, love and loyalty have been presented in an overwhelmingly positive light. However, the history of tribalism, ethnic violence, and revenge killings show how these feelings can become deadly when combined with a third feeling, passion. In many ways, passion is the word that best expresses what Kenny is going through. On the most basic level, passion refers to an intense

and overwhelming emotion, most often an extreme version of love or hatred. The word passion thus reveals how a single emotion can amplify both Kenny's love for his family and his hatred for his enemies. Historically, this explosive mixture of love and hate has been used to justify acts of violence in the heat of the moment, eventually giving rise to the phrase crimes of passion. In modern times, using passion to describe violent acts has fallen out of usage. Instead, passion is most frequently used to discuss intellectual passions, which are feelings of intense devotion to a given pursuit, interest, or cause. While such a usage is almost always positive,

it should be noted that the word passion originally meant suffering. This connotation arose from ancient thinkers, who observed that humanity is often left insatiable by the most intense forms of passionate devotion. As a result of this dissatisfaction, ancient thinkers concluded that continuously feeling these strong emotions of passion eventually leads to suffering. This usage of passion to mean suffering explains why the memory of Jesus' arrest, trial, and execution are traditionally referred to as the Passion of the Christ. While Kenny's passion for the memory of lost family members inspires him to kill his enemies, the memory of Jesus' passion is meant to inspire his

followers to forgive their enemies and make peace. Hence, every year Christians around the world remember the Passion of the Christ on Good Friday the same day Damn was released. All these connections to intense feelings, suffering, and Jesus' death on Good Friday suggests that despite his external rage, passion, i.e. suffering, is at the heart of what Kenny is feeling on XXX. After using love, loyalty, and passion to justify his use of violence, Kenny gets very specific about how he would execute revenge. In this section, Kenny claims that if his son was killed, he would wait in front of the killer's house and murder him the moment he steps outside.

If he was unable to do that, Kenny would catch him when he least expected it, walking out of a church service. The bleakly ironic image of Kenny murdering someone in front of a building dedicated to Jesus further underscores Kenny's hypocrisy and the depths of his struggle with Jesus' commandment to forgive. It also foreshadows a larger, more dramatic irony that will be revealed at the verse's end. Kenny's bold defiance of the law reaches its pinnacle as Kenny says, I'll chip at N-word, then throw the blower in his lap, walk myself to the court like bitch I did that. Of course, this is the same list of actions that Kenny described in the intro of XXX.

In our previous episode, we discussed how these lines suggested that Kenny was under demonic influence. At the time, we didn't know what confrontational situation would cause Kenny to revert to this demonic pattern of thought. However, now that these lines have been placed in the context of Kenny's conversation with his friend, we see that Kenny's sadness and anger over the death of family members is the reason he allowed himself to embody such cold-hearted violence. We also discussed how by labeling his words with the term X-rated, Kenny seemed to be indicating his intention to incite others to commit acts of violence. Now that we hear the lines in context, we find Kenny doing just that, using his words to incite his friend to violence.

Finally, we should note that Kenny specifically said, I'll chip an N-word, indicating that the person who killed his friend's son was a black male. Back on to Pimp a butterfly, Kendrick talked extensively about the need for black people to forgive each other so they can learn to live together in peace. Specifically in mortal man, Kenny said, quote, forgetting all the pain and hurt we caused each other in these streets, if I respect you, reunify and stop the enemy from killing us. While we may have previously interpreted the enemy to refer to white policemen or white people in general. Here in XXX, we've seen how Jesus believed that the true enemy of humanity are the evil spirits that tempt humans to use violence against each other. Nonetheless, since Kenny has willfully disregarded

the example of Jesus, he's now reverted to thinking other black men are the enemy once again. This becomes painfully obvious as XXX continues. Kenny Raps, ain't no black power when your hour's it be murder in the street It'd be bodies in the hour Get a worry on the street Paramedics on the down Let somebody touch my mom

Toad Black Power ain't no Black Power When your baby killed by a coward Black Power is a slogan Movement and Ideology Encouraging Black people to cultivate greater racial pride through the creation of social,

political and economic systems that work for the exclusive benefit of black people. The Black Power movement splintered from the mainstream civil rights movement in 1966, after a growing number of black people became frustrated with the civil rights movement's commitment to nonviolence. The origins of the Black Power movement can largely be traced to a man named Stokely Carmichael, who initially worked alongside Martin Luther King. Later, Carmichael embraced Malcolm X's critique of King's non-violent

strategy and willingness to unite with white people. Carmichael subsequently charted a path toward more radical separatism and a willingness to use violence. Carmichael also tried to force Martin Luther King to support the Black Power movement. In response, King agreed that black people had been made powerless and needed white people to relinquish their stranglehold on power. However, King also publicly stated that the use of Black Power as a slogan was an unwise choice and privately said, quote, Black Power was born from the wombs of despair and disappointment.

Black Power is a cry of pain. It is in fact a reaction to the failure of white power to deliver the promises and do it in a hurry. The cry of black power is really a cry of hurt, unquote. King's observations about the psychology behind the black power movement suggests that like Stokely Carmichael, Kenny's feelings of pain, despair, and disappointment have caused him to abandon the way of peace and nonviolence. However, while Carmichael believed that racial pride would help black people overcome their human enemies, Kenny's own emotional journey throughout Dam has illustrated that venomous pride is the very thing that causes humans not to

overcome their oppressors, but rather to be overcome by the true enemies of their souls. Having been born two decades after the Black Power movement began, Kenny knows all too well that the same pain and pattern of thought that caused some to see another race as the enemy would eventually cause them to see another gang as the enemy, another neighborhood as the enemy, and eventually another family as the enemy. Hence, by saying ain't no black power when your baby killed by a coward, Kendrick the writer seems to be expressing his conviction that black power is self-defeating when division will always render some people as them and others as us, even within the black community. Group pride will eventually lead to an endless cycle of death, so long as violent expression

of grief perpetuates more loss. Kung Fu Kenny, on the other hand, feels his loyalty is to his family and not to members of his own race or the human race in general. He would kill his fellow black man if it means he could protect his own family. In such an instance, black power goes out the window. As XXX continues, Kenny makes it clear that the protection of his family remains priority number one. Let somebody touch my mama, touch my sister, touch my woman, touch my daddy, touch my niece, touch my nephew, touch my brother, you shit, chipper nigger, then throw the floor in his lap. Matter of fact, I'm about to speak at this convention.

All right, kids, we go talk about gun control. Pray for me. Kenny here lists all his closest family members, the ones for whom Kenny would seek revenge if anyone were ever to harm them. He then says, You should chip an N-word, then throw the blower in his lap. In the previous two times we've heard this formula, Kenny said, I'll chip an N-word.

But here, at the end of the verse, Kenny says, you should chip an N-word. Kenny moves beyond a theoretical plan for violent retaliation. similar to the first verse of lust, Kenny is now giving clear imperatives, decisions that are meant to incite his friend to commit murder. However, before Kenny has the chance to give any more instructions, he tells his friend, matter of fact, I'm about to speak at this convention, call you back. Kenny then abruptly hangs up the phone. Given how enraged Kenny has become, we wonder how he could be in the right frame of mind to give a speech at a convention. Seeing how he just told his

friend to commit murder, would he do the same to those listening to the same to those listening? to his speech at the convention. As the track transitions to the bridge, we hear a brief portion of his speech. In what is surely the most ironic moment of the entire album, Kenny says, All right, kids, we're going to talk about gun control. Adding to the irony, Kenny says, Pray for me, despite the fact he just told his friend to disregard God's spirit as well as God's command to forgive others. In case we've somehow missed the sheer absurdity of Kenny's contradictions, we also hear a voice say, Damn. In this context, Damn is used to express shock about what we just heard. This degree of exaggerated irony in such a pivotal track, along with a direct reference to the album's title,

establishes that both XXX and the album as a whole, is meant to be heard as a satire. In literature, satire is a genre that utilizes exaggerated irony by professing to accept or approve of the very things the author wishes to criticize. In doing so, the author aims to expose the absurdity of human vices, specifically as it relates to contemporary politics. As we've seen thus far in XXX, Kenny has clearly professed as acceptance and approval of the use of violence to avenge and protect one's own group from threats posed by others. Meanwhile, Kenny's convention speech not only shows his own hypocrisy, but also the hypocrisy in the politics of gun control in America. In the years leading up to Dam, gun control had been one

the most contentious issues in America, largely due to the alarming increase of public mass shootings. In the face of such tragedies, many have called for gun control laws, while others see it as even more of a reason to protect yourself with guns. The latter group's inclination to see guns as the only way to solve a problem, of course mirrors everything we've heard from Kenny throughout the first verse of XXX. The irony and satire reveals itself, when directly after advising his friend to Chip an N-word, Kenny promotes gun control to kids. It would appear that by doing so, Kenny is ironically embodying the bipolarity of America as a whole. That is, because Kung Fu Kenny the character simultaneously personifies both sides of the issue, it seems Kendrick the writer is exposing what both sides are

missing, the deeper underlying influences and forces that divide humans in the first place. Because it's division among humans that cause some to feel in need for violence. In Kenny's case, it's his group pride and his valuing of some human lives more than others. And while some argue gun control could make it harder to execute a violent mindset, it appears that Kendrick is less concerned about the tools used to enact violence, and much more concerned with exposing the mindset that breathes violence and conflict in the first place. And this is where satire proves to be a valuable tool. It allows Kendrick to critique equally two sides of an issue simultaneously,

and by doing so, exposes that there's something might be a very important. much deeper beneath the two opposing sides that manifest around a certain political issue. Like we heard on to Pimp a Butterfly, it appears Kendrick feels that problems that are often seen as political issues are at their heart, very often spiritual issues, issues that cannot be fully addressed or resolved with politics alone. While we could arrive at these conclusions about Kendrick's use of satire by just listening to the song's lyrics, Kendrick directly informed us of this literary design during his performance of XXX at the 2008. Grammy Awards. There, Kendrick rapped the entire first verse, including the line,

Matter of fact, I'm about to call you back. Notice here that Kenny didn't say the line about gun control. Instead, he stood in front of a giant screen that slowly unveiled the words, This is a satire by Kendrick Lamar. This alternative version of the song further confirms our theory that the main function of the bridge is to clearly establish XXX in particular, and damn in general as a satire. If this idea is a little confusing now, it'll become painfully clear once we're through analyzing XXX's final section. A section will dissect right after the break.

Welcome back to dissect. Before the break, we discussed the latter half of XXX's main verse and its ironic transition into the song's final section. Here we get an abrupt change in musical texture, moving from chaotic sirens and violent spastic vocals to gentle alternating piano chords and soulful singing. It's in this final section that we get the appearance of the last officially credited feature of the album, the Irish rock band U2.

While all four members of the band get writing credits on the song, the most notable presence is the lead singer Bono. Like Kendrick's thematically strategic use of Rihanna and Zakari, the only other officially credited features on Dam, it would also appear that Bono was strategically chosen as someone who embodies the themes expressed on this track. The most obvious connection between Kendrick and U-2 is faith. Much like Kendrick, the members of U-2 are all devoted Christians,

who've managed to become widely popular while constantly infusing their music with spiritual themes. On this 2004 track titled Yahweh, Bono asks God to help him refrain from using his fists or his words to tear down. others, something we know Kung Fu Kenny is also struggling with. Bono also prays for God to give him the strength to be the source of light and love for the oppressed. Perhaps more than anything, the song Yahweh explains what inspired Bono to be one of the world's most recognizable philanthropists. Bono's largest undertaking has been his efforts to end extreme poverty, presumably inspired by Jesus' command to forgive one another's debts. Bono has spent decades convincing various

developed nations to forgive the debt of developing nations. Given that the son of Kenny's friend died because other men refused to forgive his debt, Bono appears to be the perfect person to bring Kenny closer to the spiritual. Indeed, within the context of XXXX, Bono almost functions like an angelic herald, a messenger of God, who lifts the prophet up into the heavens to view the current world from a divine perspective. Moreover, just like the revelation from the New Testament, exposed to demonic forces that influence the Roman Empire. This final section of XXX reveals the evil spirits that continue to control America. In this final hook, Bono sings, It's Not a Place. This country, to me, is a sound. Bono begins his critique

against America with a kind of praise. He describes America not as a geographical location, but instead as a conceptual idea and ideal. Bono frequently describes America in this way, when speaking publicly. Here's Bono doing just that at a commencement speech he gave at the University of Pennsylvania. And I love America because America is not just a country, it's an idea. America is an idea, but it's an idea that brings with it some baggage, like power brings responsibility. It's an idea that brings with equality.

But equality, even though it's the highest calling, is the hardest to reach. According to Bono, America is not just a country, but more importantly, it's a powerful idea that brings with it the baggage of responsibility. Elsewhere in this speech, Bono explains that a major part of this responsibility is to serve America by exposing its conceits, its foibles, and its phony moral servitudes. We've already seen how the earlier sections of XXXX used satire to expose the hypocrisy of America regarding violence, and despite the songs change, in tone and instrumentation, it seems the rest of XXXX will continue this prophetic critique. Bono continues by cryptically comparing America to a sound, specifically the sound of drum and bass.

We know that humans have communicated ideas through sound since the dawn of humanity. Whether through speech or music, sound provides people with the information and emotions that allow whole groups of people to share the same idea. To this point, we recognize that the drums and are two core elements that often establish a song's rhythm. Rhythm is a repeated pattern of sound that often creates continuity in a piece of music. Rhythm is also the component of music that people dance to, allowing a whole group of people to move together synchronistically. Hence, Bono seems to be implying that America is a rhythm that keeps everyone performing the same collective actions whether they recognize it or not. Bono concludes the hook saying,

you close your eyes to look around. This adds to his idea that America is not a physical place. That is, if you really want to understand what America is or diagnose its problems, one needs to look past the outward manifestation of the problem and instead look at the inner thoughts and attitudes of all Americans to discover the true rhythm of America. While Bono's lyrics on their own are pretty clear in terms of how they relate to XXX thematically, we get additional insight when we recognize this same passage would later

be used in American Soul, a track from U2's album Songs of Experience, released seven months after Dam. Uncoincidentally, Kendrick Lamar actually makes an appearance on America's Soul's intro. Blessed out of 50 rich, for you can only truly own what you give away, have to stand up to themselves. Blessed are the lives can be awkward. Kendrick's spoken wordpiece is a clear parody of Jesus' famous sermon about the kingdom of God. As we discussed in our episode on Blood, this sermon began with statements like, Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of God. blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,

and blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Kendrick's sermon borrows this exact same phrasing, but rather than blessing the poor, the meek, and the righteous, Kendrick blesses the filthy rich, the arrogant, the bullies, and the liars. The blessings here are clearly ironic. For example, he says that arrogant are blessed because they'll one day have to stand up to themselves.

This use of irony through a parody of Jesus' blessing, suggests that just like the bridge of XXXX, Kendrick's intro to American soul is meant to be a satire that critiques America. Kendrick seems to be embodying a caricature of an American preacher who ironically exalts the same kind of people who are the exact opposite of those that Jesus exalted. By personifying such absurdity, Kendrick shows how the contemporary values of America are now diametrically opposed to the kingdom of God, an observation that becomes more clear toward the end of American soul. Bono here sings, Let it be unity, let it be community, for refugees like you and me, a country to receive us, will you be our sanctuary? Bono expresses his belief that America is meant to be a

sanctuary, both as a holy place where God enters and a refuge for oppressed humans to enter. This idea of sanctuary for both God and the oppressed is further highlighted as Bono ends the verse saying, Refuge Jesus, of course, a combination of the word refugee and Jesus. Similar to when Kendrick met Jesus in the form of a homeless man on how much a dollar cost, Bono urges America to see Jesus in the form of the many refugees searching for a country to receive them. And so in American Soul, we find Kendrick and you too teaming up to expose the moral failures of America by holding America up to the scrutiny of Jesus' words and way of life. As we'll hear now, this is exactly what Kenny does in the final, thematically climactic verse of XXXX.

Kenny opens the final verse of XXX with the most compelling lines on the entire album. Hail Mary, Jesus and Joseph, the Great American Flag, is wrapped and dragged with explosives. Mary here refers to Jesus' mother, and Joseph refers to the man to whom Mary was engaged when she conceived Jesus while still a virgin. Meanwhile, Hail Mary refers to a traditional Catholic prayer that asks Mary to, quote, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. This request for prayer illustrates the traditional Christian belief that those who pass away after serving God are not truly dead, but are with Jesus. As such, Christian requests prayer from those who lived a righteous life while on earth. The language of the Hail Mary

prayer is largely derived from the first chapter of the gospel according to Luke. Having been informed by an angel that the Holy Spirit would cause her to give birth to the Messiah, Mary sings a song, which includes the lines, quote, The Lord has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty." Here, Mary's song foreshadows the core principles of the kingdom of God that Jesus would eventually teach, namely that God would bring down rich, proud, and great nations, and lift up poor, humble, lowly individuals. Given that the Hail Mary Prayer asks for Mary's intervention, and that Mary's

song is a warning to people who use their power to commit violent acts against other humans, it would appear that Kenny is now requesting prayer and divine intervention on behalf of the prideful and violent America. He says, the Great American Flag is wrapped and dragged with explosives. Here the country's pride is represented by the Great American Flag, while the country's violent tendencies are represented by the explosives that are wrapped around the flag and dragging America down into the depths. This reference to explosives reminds us that America is a key participant in the military conflicts that destabilize developing nations around the world and force millions of people to flee from their homes and become refugees. This more troubling image of America clashes with the positive

image that America attempts to instill in its citizens from childhood. Throughout the country, schools teach children to pledge their allegiance to the flag as a nation under God and take pride in the country's history, specifically its military victories in the American Revolution in World War II. Yet, when we consider America's focus, on military power in the light of Mary's song and the teachings of Jesus, we find that America fits the mold of those violent and proud nations that Mary claim would one day be brought down by God. Kenny continues, compulsive disorder, sons and daughters. Here Kenny diagnoses the troubled psyche of America and compares it to something akin to obsessive compulsive disorder or OCD. A person with

OCD, has obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors they cannot control, and feels the urge to repeat them over and over again. The idea that America is in a cyclical state of being in which people compulsively repeat the same thoughts and actions, reflects Bono's idea of America as a repeated pattern of sound. Given Kenny's image of the American flag wrapped in explosives, the implication seems to be that America habitually uses violent force to impose its will on its perceived enemies, both within and outside its borders. In other words, the rhythm of America is violent confrontation. The constant threat of violence posed by compulsive individuals leads to Kenny's description of America as a land with barricaded blocks and borders. When Dam was released in 2017,

barricading the national border was a highly polarizing issue after Donald Trump, swore to build that wall between the United States and Mexico. This was to prevent the immigrants he claimed were rapists and murderers. This mentality, of course, contrasts directly with Bono's view that historically, America is a conceptual idea that welcomed the dispossessed and is comprised of immigrants. Regardless, Trump successfully used an us versus them rhetoric and exploited America's pride to his electoral advantage. The same venomous pride Kenny has alluded to being at the heart of all violent human conflict. While some in America seem quick to blame poor minorities for the violence that rages in its cities, Kenny delivers his most damning critique by saying,

Look what you taught us. The you here remains a personified America, an America whose history and ongoing choices, teach people around the world that violence is an effective way to assert one's independence, that money is more valuable than human lives, and that one can get people to accept your destructive way of life if you just make it look. sexy. Of course, these are all traits that Kung Fu Kenny has exhibited throughout the album, hence the line, Look What You Taught Us. And so while America continues to condemn Kenny and people like him from places like Compton, at the end of the day, America is just condemning itself.

Look what you taught us. It's murder on my street, yaw street, back streets, Wall Street, corporate offices, banks, employees, and bosses with homicidal thoughts, Donald Trumps, and office, Kenny continues to never doubt him again. But is America honest or do we bask in sin? Pass the chin. Kenny continues to expose the reality of America by saying, it's murder on my street, your street, back streets, Wall Street, corporate offices, banks, employees, and bosses with homocidal thoughts.

Here, Kenny undermines the common idea that violence and murder are problems that can be localized to places like Compton. Kenny instead asserts that the murder is, rhythm of America is found on all our streets, including places like Wall Street, the most significant place for people to make money. Kenny shines light into the dark corner offices of Wall Street and informs us that wealthy corporate employees and bosses are beset with recurring homicidal thoughts. While the fear of being arrested and losing their wealth might keep such people from admitting their violent thoughts, Kenny's own actions to protect his wealth illustrates that when wealth is

threatened, when push comes to shove, those who are rich might just murder with their own hands to protect their livelihood. Next, Kenny says, Donald Trump's in office, we lost Barack, and promised never to doubt him again. Here, Kenny might be alluding to the theory that the current degree of corporate greed and racist stereotypes are a direct result of Donald Trump's political rhetoric. According to this view, we could have avoided this state of affairs if only Barack Obama was still the president, or if America appreciated what it had before he left office. But just as soon as Kenny considers this diagnosis, he immediately dismantles it, saying, but is America honest, or do we bask in sin? Kenny seems to suggest that the problem is not really with us losing Barack or

electing Trump. At the end of the day, Trump simply revealed the evil tendencies already deeply entrenched in America. His election merely forced us to be honest with ourselves. One way to see this inconsistency in the American individual is to look at how hip-hop artists have traditionally referred to Donald Trump in their lyrics. Beginning in the late 80s, the wealth, egotism, arrogance, chauvinism, love of power, and lack of self-control that Trump displayed caused rappers to frequently compare themselves to him. Here's rapper Bun B doing just that in UGK's 1992 track, Pocket Full of Stones. On Pocket Full of Stones, Bun B claims that his wealth, Expanding business venture, exploitation of women, and ruling authority were all reasons why he should be called Black Trump.

Decades later, after Trump was elected president, Bun B. said he regretted writing these lines and claimed that he wrote them, quote, before we knew who he really was as a person, unquote. Ironically, Bun B's depiction of Black Trump in 1992 is quite similar to how most quote unquote woke individuals would depict Trump today. After all, Trump didn't change. He's the same arrogant, chauvinistic, self-serving, wealth-chasing person many rappers were quick to reference as admirable. They saw in him the person they wanted to be, or at least the embodiment of the persona they looked to portray. In this way, the problem may not be that America didn't know who Trump really was. The problem may be that, as Kenny says, America isn't being honest with itself, that we did know who Trump really was and were attracted to it, individually and as a country. The problem may be that Trump's more negative traits appeal to those deep,

dark tendencies in our DNA, and we wanted to try them out on ourselves under the guise of the American dream, that is, until we suffered from their consequences. According to Kenny, the problem may be that when push comes to shove, America would still prefer to bask in the darkness of self-serving sin, pride and wickedness, rather than be exposed by the light of forgiveness, of weakness, of God. Kenny Raps, past the gin, I mix it with American blood, then bash him in. Gin is, of course, a type of alcohol commonly mixed with other beverages. to form cocktails. Kenny's cocktail of gin and American blood seems to be showing us what it's like to be under the influence of America. It just might be more dangerous than alcohol, as after drinking

American blood, Kenny bashes someone's head in. Yet again, it would appear that the American rhythm is one of violence. This idea gets deeper, though, when we recall our analysis of the tract blood. There we discuss the ancient belief that life is found in the blood of humans and animals. Because of this belief, drinking blood became a common ritual in many ancient polytheistic religions as a way to obtain divine favor, power, and physical strength. This idea influenced a ritual called communion, in which the followers of Jesus eat his body in the form of bread and drink his blood in the form of wine. This ritual is supposed to help Jesus' followers receive his power to forgive, and his strength to endure suffering, so that they can follow Jesus' way of life. However, rather than drinking

Jesus's blood, Kenny has chosen to drink America's blood. Thus, Kenny is embodying the American rhythm, the American way of life, a way of life that would prefer to condemn rather than forgive, and kill rather than suffer. Indeed, as we noted, after drinking American blood, Kenny decides to bash him in. This act of violence also suggests that Kenny is drinking American blood because he's bloodthirsty, a term that refers to someone who is eager to shed blood. Kenny continues to add layers of meaning to the word blood, as he says, You crippen or you marry to blood, I'll ask again. Here, Kenny seems to be asking whether America will choose to become loyal to either the

Crips or the Bloods, the two most famous rival gangs from Southern California. The fact that both options involve joining a notorious gang suggests that America is incapable of escaping its own violent way of life. We should also remember that Crips distinguish themselves by wearing blue, while Bloods wear red. This mirrors the colors associated with American political parties as Democrats are represented with blue, while Republicans are represented with red.

Hence, the choice between Crips and Bloods mirror the increasingly polarized and hostile environment created by America's political choice between the Democrats and Republicans. Kendrick actually drew this exact comparison in the song Hood Politics from Tipin the Butterfly. Just like Kenny back Just like Kenney

Red state versus a blue state Which one you governing? They give us guns and drugs, Commerce thugs making they promise to fuck with you. Just like Kenny bashing in someone's face After drinking American blood The choice between red and blue on XXXX is immediately followed by an implied act of violence.

First he draws additional attention to his question saying, I'll ask again, and then pauses briefly for a response. We don't hear an answer. rather, Kenny says, oops, accident. This seems to imply that Kenny, after questioning what rival gang we pledge our allegiance to, commits an act of violence. We heard a similar scenario presented in Good Kid Mad City, when Kendrick gets jumped after being asked by both gang members and police officers what gang he's affiliated with. In both cases, Kendrick immediately falls prey to violence. If Kenny is drawing an analogy between rival gangs and rival political parties,

It would appear he's demonstrating how our political system encourages polarization and hostility, allowing each party and all those who pledge your allegiance to each party, to blame the other for the sins of America, which in turn allows them to wash their own hands of any blood of responsibility. Oops, accident is nasty win. You set us up, then roller dives to bed us up. You overnight the big rifles, then tell Fox to be scared of us, game members or tear us, etc., etc.

America's reflections of me That's what Ameri does Kenny begins this section It's nasty when you set us up Given the direct reference to Trump earlier in the verse Kenny's use of the word nasty may be strategic as it's a word Trump infamously used

repeatedly throughout his presidential campaign However, here in XXXX Kenny expresses what he feels to be truly nasty and that's the hypocritical injustice committed by America. Specifically, Kenny claims that America has set his community up, going on to describe America rolling the dice and betting us up, implying that America is carelessly gambling with the lives of unwanted minorities. Kenny then gets more specific, saying, You overnight the big rifles. When we pair this line with the previous line about setting his

community up, it seems Kendrick is referencing the CIA's alleged involvement in the crack cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles during the 1980s. Kendrick has cited this event several times in his work, including in the Hood Politics excerpt we just heard moments ago, as well as in the song Wesley's theory, where Kendrick describes receiving a firearm straight from the CIA. In 1996, Gary Webb famously reported that throughout the 1980s, the CIA helped finance its covert war against Nicaragua through sales of cocaine to South Central L.A. drug dealer Ricky Ross. It was also reported that black gangs used their profits to buy automatic weapons, sometimes from one of the CIA linked drug dealers. This is what Kenny appears to be alluding to

with the line, you overnight the big rifles. But America's setup doesn't end here. The huge influx of cocaine in Los Angeles came exactly when street-level drug dealers figured out how to make cocaine affordable by changing it into crack. After crack cocaine use skyrocketed in Los Angeles, the anti-drug abuse acts of 1986 and 88, which were a part of the so-called war on drugs, established what's known as the 100 to 1 ratio. This refers to the large disparity between the mandatory prison sentences of crack cocaine versus powder cocaine. For example, possession of 5 grams of crack cocaine would mandate the same minimum sentence as 500 grams of powder cocaine. Many felt this sentence disparity, deliberately targeted low-income minorities,

as the cheaper crack cocaine was most prevalent in low-income inner-city neighborhoods like Compton. The most recent government statistics available show that in 2005, African-Americans constituted more than 80% of those sentenced to federal prison for crack cocaine offenses, despite two-thirds of crack cocaine users being white or Hispanic. Things get more disturbing when we recognize that the two biggest presidential proponents of the war on drugs may have been racist. President Richard Nixon invented the war on drugs in the 1970s. According to Nixon's own domestic policy chief, John Ehrlichman, the Nixon White House had two enemies, quote, the anti-war left and black people.

In the same interview with Harper's magazine, Erlichman said, quote, We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities, we could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did, unquote. During this same era, President Nixon and then California governor Ronald Reagan had a phone conversation that was captured on tape and recently surfaced in 2019. In the tape, the two are conversing about the African

delegates in the U.N. Last night, I tell you to watch that thing on television that I did. Yeah. To see those monkeys from those African countries. Damn them, they're still uncomfortable wearing shoes. And then the tail wags the dog there, doesn't it? Yeah. The tail wags the dog. In case you missed it, Ronald Reagan here, to the amusement of President Nixon, refers to Africans as monkeys that aren't comfortable wearing shoes yet. This is the same Ronald Reagan that was

the president of the United States during the majority of the 1980s and doubled down on the war on drugs policies Nixon began a decade prior. And so, given all the information we just covered, the CIA's involvement in the crack epidemic, the alleged racial targeting of the war on drugs enacted by Nixon and Reagan, we understand why some might feel as Kenny does, that America deliberately sets up its black community to fail. Kenny caps off his critique of the hypocrisy of America, saying, you overnight the big rifles, then tell Fox to be scared of us, gang members or terrorists, etc., etc. Here, Kenny revisits his criticism of Fox News. As you know, Fox News played a significant role in the first three tracks of the album. In our discussion of these references,

we noted how Fox News is seen as an influential mouthpiece for a certain segment of right-wing conservatives. Many accused Fox News for creating false narratives about certain minority groups, such as portraying all black people as criminals, and more recently, all Middle Eastern people as terrorists. This leads to the line, gang members are terrorists, etc., etc. By trailing off with etc. The implication seems to be that America routinely depicts its minorities as a threat. That might take the form of all black men being gang members, all Middle Easterners being terrorists, all Mexicans being rapists and criminals, all Vietnamese people being communists, all Native Americans being savages, all Jewish people being greedy, etc., etc.

Though the specifics might change throughout the years, the strategy does not. By creating an internal enemy, that is an enemy that lives in your own country, those that employ this strategy can point to these vilified communities and blame them for the problems of the country, which in turn allows them to deflect any personal accountability. This idea leads Kenny to conclude his prophetic revelation with a powerful final line. Let's have another listen. That's what Amera does.

Kenny says America's reflections on me, that's what a mirror does. In many ways, this line is the summation of the entire verse, the entire track, the entire album, and the entire legacy of hip-hop. As we've seen throughout this verse, America is quick to blame poor and oppressed people for the chaos and destruction both inside and beyond its borders. However, when America points its fingers at the thoughts and behaviors of others, it's really just pointing its finger at itself, because America is standing in front of a mirror. America has forgotten what it looks like. Forgotten, it was created to be a refuge and a light,

for as inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, the tired, poor, and huddled masses yearning to breathe free. By forgetting what it looks like, America is the perfect illustration of what James, the same biblical leader Kenny quoted on lust, meant when he said, quote, for anyone who merely hears the word of God and not do what the word says, that person is like one who looks at himself in a mirror, for he looks at himself and on going away, immediately forgets what he was like. America is that person who's forgotten what she looks like

as a result of willfully choosing to ignore God's words about love and forgiveness. Rather than teaching us how to love our neighbor and forgive our enemies, America taught us how to rise up against our oppressors, how to kill or be killed for the sake of living independently and pursuing our own individual happiness. American capitalism taught us that money is the key to this happiness, and in our pursuit of money, America taught us that sex sells. Sex, money murder, our DNA. This is the message for which Kung Fu Kenny has simply been a container, a means of transport, a vessel. Kung Fu Kenny is a mirror of America.

I always felt like God used me as a vessel, period. You know, whether to show my flaws, whether to show my intellect, to show my pain, to show my hurt, to share my stories, to share his message all across the board.

That's me personally, that's always been a vessel. You know, I could say the nastiest thing on record, period. But I still feel like that's a vessel. to hear that because I can't sugarcoat the reality of what's going on out here. I can't sugarcoat the reality of my imperfections. As we look back on the album now, we could see why in interviews Kendrick claimed to be God's vessel and why he claimed God uses both Kendrick's intelligence and his imperfections. Kendrick realized that in order to expose the nasty realities in America,

and importantly, to do so with humility, he would first have to expose the nasty realities. in himself. Like Jesus, he would have to stand in front of the most powerful empire in the world and be condemned for his message of hope. Hence, while we may have originally thought that Dam's narrative is the narrative of Kendrick Lamar Duckworth, we now see that the satire that is Dam is also the narrative of the United States of America. Kendrick has alluded to this fact throughout the album. On DNA, he ended what seemed to be a personal exploration of his own traits by encompassing us all. Going to be our faith, peace to the world, let it rotate.

Sex, money, murder, ID, and A D&A. On Yah, he ended what seemed to be a personal rejection of God's call to prophecy by encompassing us, implying that God was also calling each and every one of us. The song Element, Kenny's personal expression of self-preservational violence, includes the line, God damn Assal if you won't. implying that God will condemn all those who live in wickedness, not just Kenny. On loyalty, Kenny ended what seemed to be a personal exploration of loyalty

by asking who we all are most loyal to, only to suggest that's what God for. On Pride, a song mostly about Kenny's admission of his imperfections, Kenny briefly widened his lens and proposed that sick men and women were overcome with venomous pride and ended the song declaring that the world ain't shit but god is perfect i'll take all the religions and put them all in one service just to tell him we ain't shit but he's been perfect at the end of lust kenny indicts all of us demanding that rather than pointing the finger of blame we might examine how our own daily routines are contributing to the wickedness in the world On love, Kenny begins by asking love or lust, only to follow with the statement,

All of Us. And while these subtle universal implications may be easily overlooked up until now on the album, XXXX makes it painfully clear that Kenny's meticulous self-assessment of the darker aspects of his character is also a satirical assessment of America's darker aspects, which includes all those who reside within her borders. As Bono noted, America, like Kung Fu Kenny, was called to be a prophet speaking truth and reaching out to the poor and oppressed. However, like Kenyon, Yah, America decided to follow its own intuition to pursue sex, money, and murder. Like Kenyon Element, America justifies preemptive

violence in the name of self-preservation and self-protection. Like Kenyon feel, America feels the strain in isolation of its confrontational way of life. Like Kenyon loyalty, America demands that everyone pledged their blind and ultimate allegiance. Like Kenyon pride, America realized and was founded upon striving towards God's perfection. But like Kenyon humble, America continues to arrogantly exalt itself while knocking down others. Like Kenyon lust, America reaped the benefits of being friendly to the unjust systems of the world. Like Kenyon love, America knows that that love and forgiveness is the only way to true peace. But like Kenny on XXXX, America remains unable to forgive the debts of those who feel

they wronged it. Kung Fu Kenny is not only Kendrick Lamar. Kung Fu Kenny is America. And that means Kung Fu Kenny is you. Because that's what Amir does.