Dissect - S5E3 - BLOOD. by Kendrick Lamar

Episode Date: October 15, 2019

We begin our season-long analysis of DAMN. with the opening track BLOOD. We unpack the many layers of the wickedness/weakness dichotomy presented as well as the cryptic parable in which Kendrick is shot by a blind lady -- or shall we call her Lady Justice? 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 Kushna. Today we continue our serialized analysis of Damn by Kendrick Lamar. In our last episode, we heard how Good Kid Mad City propelled Kendrick out of Compton and into the global spotlight, a transition that triggered an emotional and spiritual crisis. That crisis played out through the album to Pimp a Butterfly. There we heard Kendrick attempting to adapt to his new reality. which included the exploitation of Uncle Sam, the temptations of Lucy, and the depression

Kendrick felt after leaving his friends and family in Compton. Through a pivotal trip to South Africa that inspired a recommitment to God, Kendrick was able to transcend his circumstances and step into his role as prophet who works to free his people from mental slavery. The solution he provides is love, love of God, love of others in the black community, and love of self. Despite the positivity and finality of his story and message, Topimpa Butterfly's last song, Mortal Man,

finds Kendrick acknowledging the dangers of his new prophetic role. How many leaders you said you needed, then left him for death. Is it Moses? Is it you eat Newton or Detroit Red? Is it Martin Luther, JFK shooter? You assassin is a Jackie, is it Jesse? Oh, I know it's Michael Jackson. Oh, when shit hit the fan.

Is you still a fan? Kendrick provides the names of fallen spiritual, cultural, and political icons who were betrayed by the very people they were sent to help. Kendrick then ends to pimp a butterfly with a fictional conversation with one such fallen icon, Tupac Shakur. The two speak about the injustice and class wars currently occurring in America. Tupac then shares a foreboding prediction about our future. I think America think we was just playing. It's going to be some more plan, but it ain't going to be no plan. It's going to be murder.

You know what I'm saying? It's going to be like Nat Turner, 1831, up in this motherfucker. You know what I'm saying? Tupac predicts a violent uprising in the vein of Nat Turner's murderous slave rebellion. Kendrick doesn't share his opinion on this approach to change, but rather states his belief in the transformative power of music, something we know Kendrick takes very seriously. It's here that Tupac interjects with a fascinating insight.

Because it's spirits. We ain't even really rapping. We're just letting our dead homies tell stories for us. Tupac states that Kendrick's words are inspired by the spirits of his dead homies. Kendrick's only response here is just one word. Damn. As we discussed in our previous episode, Tipa Bumper Butterfly ultimately ends with a cliffhanger that leads us directly into Kendrick's next album.

Kendrick recites for Tupac a poem about a selfish caterpillar transforming into an enlightened butterfly. The butterfly then shares his wisdom with other caterpillars so that they too may transform. This ends what Kendrick describes as the eternal struggle. Of course, we recognize this as a metaphor for Kendrick using his own story and music to end generational conflict and gang violence in communities like Compton. After reciting this poem, Kendrick asked Tupac his perspective on it. Of course, Tupac doesn't reply and the album ends. Like so many others, Tupac was killed before he had a chance to fully transform into a butterfly. But as implied by his comments about spirits, Tupac's legacy lives on through the creative work of Kendrick Lamar. And so we're left at the end of

To Pimp a butterfly, wondering what our newfound prophet will do next. Mortal Man makes clear that Kendrick feels a God-given responsibility to guide his people to spiritual redemption in the face of rampant injustice. While all signs seem to point to Kendrick embracing the butterfly and continuing his message of forgiveness and love. There's some additional factors that might have a second-guessing whether Kendrick plans to continue this approach. As you catch that, Lamar stated his views on police brutality with that line in the song, quote, and we hate the po-po, want to kill us in the street, foe show.

Harald are not helpful with those song lyrics. To say the least, not helpful at all. This is why I say that hip-hop has done more damage to young African-Americans than racism in recent years. this is exactly the wrong message. Despite Tipa Butterfly's massive success upon its release in March of 2015, which included nine Grammy nominations and over 300,000 first week sales, the album did receive its fair share of backlash. As we detailed in our first episode this season,

Kendrick received criticism from Fox News following his performance of All Right at the BET Awards. While this criticism may come as no surprise, Kendrick also received backlash from the other side of the aisle. To Pimp a Butterfly was considered by some to be preachy, with songs like The Black or the Barry being accused of asserting respectability politics, the idea that the problems in the black community are the fault of the Black community. There was also Kendrick's comments on the death of Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager who was shot and killed by a police officer that was later acquitted. Lamar told Bill Ward, quote, 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, unquote. These comments didn't sit well with some within the black community. Kid Cuddy tweeted in response, quote, Dear black artists, don't talk down on the black community like your God's gift to N-words everywhere. Musician Azalea Banks also went at Lamar on Twitter, saying, quote, that's the dumbest shit I've ever heard a black man say. Do you know about the generational effects of poverty, racism, and discrimination? How dare you open your face to a white publication and tell them that we don't respect ourselves? Speak for your fucking self, unquote.

There's a kind of irony at play when we view the criticism by some within the urban community, next to the criticism by some within the conservative community. On one hand, Kendrick was accused of blaming black people for their problems. On the other hand, Kendrick was accused of not taking responsibility for black-on-black violence and inciting his people to riot. We might wonder how Kendrick felt about the double-sided critique of the message and music he created specifically to help his community. In a country more divided than ever, something we documented in our season opener, perhaps Kendrick felt rejected by both sides of the aisle. Perhaps he felt that his words on mortal man were coming to life, that he was being abandoned by some of the very

people he was attempting to help. Perhaps he was second-guessing his role as profit. Perhaps he thought about that old saying, you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. Lamar state his views on police brutality with that line in the song, quote, and we hate the po-po, want to kill us in the street, foe show. Oh, please. I don't like it. I got, I got, I got loyalty inside my DNA. Cocaine quarter piece, got war and peace inside my DNA. I got power. Kendrick Lamar's Dam was released on Good Friday, April 14, 2017. Like we just heard, the album opens with what seems to be a direct response to the criticism Lamar faced with Topimba Butterfly.

And thus, just like the story of Good Kid Mad City continued in the opening moments of Topimpa Butterfly. Dam too picks up where Butterfly left off. We're going to find our newly proclaimed prophet Kendrick Lamar, questioning and perhaps even rejecting its new role. A story that will discover mirrors the story. of Jonah, a conflicted prophet from the Old Testament. We'll also hear how Kendrick's hesitance to embrace his prophetic role will trigger a rigorous self-examination of the darker aspects of his

intuition and psyche. And in the end, we're going to hear how all this becomes a cautionary story for humanity, a think piece on how to conduct ourselves in a time of extreme political polarization, ongoing racial injustice, and severe social tension in America. And so now properly contextualized, Let's finally dig in to Kendrick Lamar's Dam, beginning with the album's opening track, the subject of our episode today, Blood. So I was taking a walk the other day, and I seen a woman, a blind woman, pacing up and down the sidewalk. Blood is written and produced by Kendrick Lamar and Daniel Tanenbaum, who's better known by his alias Beacon.

Despite what you might guess, Blood's production contains no samples, rather its original music composed by Beacon himself. The production seems heavily inspired by old kung fu and western film scores, a musical style that's seen a recent researchance through its use in the films of Quentin Tarantino, whom Kendrick is a fan of. A back-to-back comparison of blood against some of the songs featured in Tarantino films serves as an enlightening exercise. Here's The Lonely Shepherd by Zemfir, featured in Tarantino's Kill Bill Volume 1. And now a fistful of dollars by Ennio Morricone, featured in Kill Bill Volume 2, and now an instrumental recreation of Kendrick Lamar's blood. To capture this old film sound, Beacon uses imitation flutes played on a melaton

keyboard for the track's main harmony. We also hear imitation bells that oscillate between two notes. Added to this are unison bass and guitar tracks. Together they provide some rhythm to a song in which the drums are distant and faint. Toward the end of the track, an imitation violin is also heard, providing some music. suspense and tension to an otherwise idle composition. Beginning the album with such a blatant nod to cinema music helps QS listeners into the fact that Dam contains a narrative. It also foreshadows the album's main protagonist, Kung Fu Kenny, a kind of modern Tarantino-style reinvention of Kung Fu archetypes. The music also provides a cinematic backdrop to the first-person

parable Kendrick tells on blood. However, before the parable begins, we are first presented with an ominous choice. Beacon opens the album singing, Is it Wickedness, is it Weakness? You decide, are we going to live or die? These opening lines suggest that there are two opposing ways of thought that lead either to life or to death. As we discussed in our previous two episodes, this central dichotomy is a culmination of Kendrick's evolving spiritual philosophy that's been expressed throughout its entire discography. Specifically, we heard how Kendrick contrasts God's spirit with evil spirits, and tell stories through his music about how these opposing spirits can influence our lives in severely different ways. For example, we discussed Keisha's song, a track about an abused

17-year-old who turns to prostitution after losing hope. Evil spirits eventually led her to her death. On the other hand, Kendrick showed us on Good Kid Mad City, how God Spirit allowed him to be reborn and escaped the evil spirits leading him to his grave. And so while the themes presented here at the beginning of damn are familiar. We do notice that they have evolved in a few ways. First, the opposing mindsets are presented here as a dichotomy, a choice between two mutually exclusive options that cannot exist together. There's also an interesting interplay between the words you and we. Saying you decide implies the choice an individual makes, while are we going to live or die implies that this choice made by the individual determines our collective fate,

the fate of humanity as a whole. Finally, rather than using more obvious descriptors such as good and evil, Kendrick describes these two mindsets with the words wickedness and weakness, two words that we would not normally consider to be opposites. Along with these new philosophical developments, we should also recall that at the end of to pimp a butterfly, Kendrick stepped into his new role as prophet who frees people from mental slavery and challenges them to remain loyal in the face of adversity. Given that the previous album ended with Kendrick declaring himself a prophet, the lines that begin damn seem to be the first prophetic declaration uttered by our newfound prophet. As such, there's a high probability that this declaration contains several layers

of meaning, specifically Kendrick's choice to use and contrast the words wickedness and weakness. There's ample evidence to suggest Kendrick is evoking the central message of the two greatest biblical prophets, Moses and Jesus. Given the The pivotal role that Moses and Jesus has played in Kendrick's past lyrics, a basic understanding of the core message of these biblical figures, will prove essential in understanding this choice between life and death, between wickedness and weakness. Moses is regarded as the first and greatest Israelite prophet. While Moses spoke to the Israelites on numerous occasions, his pivotal speech occurred

in the book of Deuteronomy, a book that will be referenced a number of times throughout Dam. The most critical speech Moses gave came just before the Israelites entered the land that would eventually become the kingdom of Israel. In his speech, Moses summarized all the commandments that God had given to distinguish the Israelites from other ethnic groups. Moses claimed that if they followed these commandments, they would be blessed and live freely in the land of Israel. However, if they disobeyed the commandments, they would be cursed and find themselves enslaved in a foreign nation. He ended his speech by saying, quote, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death,

the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying his voice and by remaining loyal to him, unquote. Much like the voice at the beginning of blood, Moses claimed that his people must decide whether they live or die. According to Moses, choosing life was only possible if the people chose to remain loyal to God and keep God's commandments. And so we might now ask how remaining loyal to God relates to our choice between wickedness and weakness. Assuming that wickedness is not the option that expresses a commitment to God, we're left wondering how weakness does.

This question is answered by the teachings of Jesus. Jesus lived over a thousand years after Moses in a time when the land of Israel was under the oppressive rule of the Roman. Roman Empire. Many of the Israelites debated whether to join the armed revolts that aimed to overthrow the Romans. Other Israelites were waiting for a prophet to show them the way forward. In the midst of this quandary, Jesus began spreading his message that the kingdom of God was now being established. This kingdom of God was not a physical geographical place. Rather, it was a universal way of orienting humanity where God reigned as king, and like Moses suggested, humans

obeyed the commandments of God, their king. Jesus claimed that once the kingdom of God had transformed the entire earth, the meek would inherit the earth. By this, Jesus meant that God would choose the meek to be the kings and queens who ruled this earth. Jesus defined the meek as those who are poor, hungry, and oppressed, yet choose to remain humble. Jesus claimed that such people were blessed and were following the path of faithful prophets like Moses. Moreover, Jesus claimed that such people would follow his first commandment to forgive their enemies. Given that Kendrick has frequently claimed to be a king, it's not surprising that Kendrick has associated himself with the Meek as far back as the 2009 Kendrick Lamar EP.

Family God and honor from Chicago, my daddy and my mama came to Compton to accomplish one thing, raise a king, reigns supreme name Kendrick. I ain't lying and stands for king and I am one. My unborn son and grandson will live royal from the koochee to the soil. The meek shall inherit the earth. Within these lyrics, Kendrick borrowed the very same language that Jesus used in his teaching about the kingdom of God. Kendrick did so in order to claim that he was a king by virtue of being born meek and enduring years of hunger as a kid in Compton. And while Kendrick's humble origins are inspiring, we may ask if remaining weak is a desirable characteristic now that Kendrick is wealthy and has a whole community of people looking to him for guidance. wouldn't we be better served if King Kendrick used his newfound power to fight against our shared enemies? Won't forgiving his enemies mean that Kendrick and his people will continue to suffer?

Questions like these echo the questions asked by one of Jesus's earliest followers. Having endured torture, assassination attempts, and constant persecution, this follower asked Jesus why God did not prevent his people from suffering. Jesus replied, quote, My grace is enough for you, because power is made purses. perfect in weakness, unquote. Power is made perfect and weakness. It's a counterintuitive statement, but it gets right to the heart of Jesus' message.

It suggests that those who choose force in order to avoid all suffering will invariably use their power in flawed ways, ways that continue a cycle of violence and oppression. However, those who choose weakness are able to receive a different kind of strength from Jesus, even as they suffer, namely the superhuman strength to forgive others. And so let's work to bring this all back to Dam's opening lines. Is it wickedness? Is it weakness seems to refer to the two opposing ways of life that Jesus described in his teachings about the kingdom of God.

Those who followed the way of wickedness use their power to fight against their enemies who threaten their livelihood. In contrast, those who follow the way of weakness follow God's commandment to forgive their enemies even when such forgiveness requires them to suffer. Meanwhile, the lines, you decide, are we going to live or die? Echo Moses and his warnings that humans must follow God's commandments if they want to receive life rather than death. And so our main takeaway is that in order to live, we must choose weakness. Likewise, if we choose wickedness, we die.

Now firmly educated on the meaning and historical weight behind Dam's opening lines, and Kendrick's first prophetic statement after accepting his role as prophet, it. We can properly dig into the cryptic parable told throughout blood. But first, a word from our sponsors. Welcome back to Dissect. Before the break, we add an ample context to the wickedness, weakness dichotomy, and the roots in the teachings of Moses and Jesus. We heard how those who choose wickedness use their power to fight against their enemies, while those who choose weakness follow God's commandment to forgive their enemies even when it requires them to suffer. Now let's see how this might relate to the mysterious parable told on blood.

So I was taking a walk the other day, and I seen a woman, a blind woman, pacing up and down the sidewalk. She seemed to be a bit frustrated, as if she had trapped something and having a hard time finding him. The protagonist in the story sees a blind lady in need while on a walk, a blind lady that will eventually fire a weapon at him. Within Western culture,

a blind woman holding a deadly weapon is the typical way artists depict Lady Justice. Lady Justice is the name given to the allegorical personification of the force behind a nation's judicial system. Her origins can actually be traced back to the Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus, who ruled Rome at the time that Jesus was born. Caesar Augustus made Lady Justice into a goddess named Justitia. From the beginning she was depicted as a woman holding measuring scales in one hand, and a sword and her other. The scales were to weigh the competing claims of prosecution and defense, while the sword symbolized the execution of punishment on a guilty party. It was only much later in the 16th century that Western artist began to depict Lady Justice wearing a blindfold.

The blindfold emphasized her neutrality towards a person's status in society, the idea being that every person, no matter their social or economic status, could receive a fair trial. Kendrick states that the blind lady in his story has lost something and that she's struggling to find whatever it is that she lost. We might speculate that what has been lost is justice itself, as many feel that in the modern era of the United States, the idea that the nation's justice system is impartial is a false narrative. We think of the recent Black Lives Matter movement and their protests against the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police officers, most of whom were later acquitted. We also think of the 13th Amendment, which allows for the legal

enslavement of convicts in the 1980s war on drugs that disproportionately imprisoned people of color. These specific injustices, along with the general frustration with the American judicial system, where central themes explored into Pimp a Butterfly. In particular, the pre-hook of All Right features lyrics that criticize the rate at which innocent black people are shot dead in the streets, while also illustrating how a history of injustice forces black people to turn either toward God or a violent retaliation. The contrasting image of Kendrick's knees getting weak while he holds a gun that might blow, seems to be another reminder that Kendrick, along with those in the black community,

must decide whether they'll choose the way of weakness or the way of wickedness. In the parable of blood, Kendrick's character seems to be choosing the way of weakness. He offers a helping hand to the blind woman who has lost something, a gesture that's received in an unexpected way. Having a hard time finding him. So after watching her struggle for a while, I decided to go over and lend a helping hand, you know. Hello, ma'am. Can I be of any assistance?

Seems to me that you have lost something. like to help you find it. She replied, oh yes, you have lost something. You've lost your life. Kendrick politely offers to help the blind lady saying, can I be of any assistance? It seems to me that you have lost something. I would like to help you find it. Speculating that the blind lady represents the American justice system and perhaps America itself, Kendrick's gesture to help might be viewed as a metaphor for his attempts to promote change in unity through his music. In our last two episodes, we spent a good amount of time talking about how Kendrick viewed his music and message as having the potential to end the cyclical and generational curses placed upon his community.

The blind lady responds to Kendrick by disregarding the fact that she's lost something. Instead, she turns a loss on Kendrick, saying, Oh yes, you have lost something. You've lost your life. Which is of course followed by a gunshot. The assumption here is that Kendrick or the character he's playing was murdered by the blind lady. While we're beginning to see how the parable of blood could relate to the wickedness-weakness dichotomy presented at the beginning of the track, it's unclear whether the skit is an argument for choosing wickedness or weakness. Jesus' life seemed to suggest that choosing weakness

could lead to a blessed life. However, when Kendrick's character chose weakness and acted generously, he immediately fell prey to violence. Just after the gunshot, we hear a second iteration of the question, Is it wickedness? You've lost your life. Notice how there's no reiteration of weakness here. Could it be that the point of the story is that we're better off choosing wickedness so that we can preserve our lives? Could it be that Tupac was right in suggesting that black people need to be inspired by Nat Turner's slave revolt? Is bloodshed a necessary evil for black people to overcome oppression?

Without providing any more details, blood ends with what should be a familiar news clip. Views on police brutality with that line in the song, quote, and we hate the po-poe want to kill us in the street for show. Oh, please. I don't like it. As we already discussed, the news segment that appears at the end of blood is taken from the Fox News talk show Fox 5. The two anchors are criticizing Kendrick's performance of All Right at the 2015 BET Awards, wherein Kendrick stood on the roof of a graffiti-covered cop car. Given All Right's discussion of black men getting shot by police officers and the fact that Foxxed

Fox News caters to a specific segment of American conservatism. It's not surprising that Fox News was critical of Lamar's performance. We can hear more of this criticism in the full Fox 5 segment. This is why I say that hip-hop has done more damage to young African Americans than racism in recent years. This is exactly the wrong message. And then to conflate what happened in the church in Charleston, South Carolina, with these tragic incidents involving excessive force, of use of force by cops is to equate that racist killer with these cops.

It is so wrong. It is so counterproductive. It gives exactly the wrong message. It doesn't recognize that a city like Baltimore, where remember Freddie Gray, they've had a homicide a day since Freddie Gray, no one's protesting that. Baltimore, a tiny city, 7% the size of New York, has just as many murders as New York. You know, we've got to wake up at a certain point and understand what's going on. Roldo Rivera expresses his view that hip-hop has done more damage to the black community than

racism in recent years. He also asserts that Kendrick's performance was equating police officers with the white supremacists who murdered nine African Americans during a prayer service in Charleston, South Carolina, a tragedy that occurred just 11 days before the BET Awards. Finally, Rivera speaks on the high murder rate in Baltimore, Maryland, and implies there's hypocrisy in protesting the murders of black men like Freddie Gray, but not protesting the murder rates in places like Baltimore. The irony of Riviera's accusations and assumptions about the meaning of Kendrick's performance is clear to anyone familiar with Kendrick's music and message. As we've already discussed at length, Kendrick's entire catalog preaches

nonviolence and peaceful resolution through respect and love of self, respect and love of others, and a devotion to a higher power. He speaks directly to those in cities like Compton and Baltimore and provides solutions that he feels has the potential to end generational violence Kendrick himself experienced firsthand during his youth. He's explicitly stated many times that its objective is to be a vessel of God and help others reverse circumstantial curses placed upon them. Kendrick actually responded directly to the Fox News criticism in an interview with TMZ. How can you take a song that's about hope and turn into hatred?

You know what I'm saying? the message, the overall message is we're going to be all right. It's not the message of I want to kill people. Him addressing the problem saying this hip hop is not. It's again avoiding the problem, which is going on out here. The oppression of having guns and drugs in these streets and us being in the mentality where we have to somewhat survive in these hostile situations. That's the real problem.

And the more and more he's trying to avoid that, the more and more we're going to keep talking about it and giving our people to game as far as how to control these situations and overcoming it. Through his music and message, Kendrick is attempting to lend a helping hand to America, and the misrepresentation of his music by media outlets like Fox News represents a segment of America that have not only failed to recognize his message, but also cynically turn the tables on him and present his music as being part of the problem. And so the inclusion of the Fox 5 clip begins to add some clarity to the parable told on blood. It seems to represent Kendrick's personal experience attempting to help America, and as represented

by the Fox News clip, the rejection of that help by some segments of the country. On the other hand, we can also view the parable more broadly as representing the lethal force that the American justice system routinely uses on its black citizens. While this dual meaning is coming into focus with the inclusion of the Fox 5 news clip, it still remains unclear whether the track is advocating for black individuals to choose weakness through forgiveness and non-violence, or wickedness through vengeance and violent retaliation. The last place we can look for context and understanding is in the song's title, Blood. As you likely know, all 14 tracks on Dam are titled with a single word written in all caps with a period at the end.

The fact that each song can be reduced to a single word indicates that understanding Kendrick's usage of that word is key to our understanding the track as a whole. However, the track, Blood, is one of only a few cases in which the track's title is not said anywhere in the track. With this being the case, we turned out Kendrick has previously used the word blood in his music to provide insight into its use here at the onset of dam. You ran outside when you heard my brother cry for help. Held him like a newborn baby and made him feel like everything was all right and a fight he tried to put up but the type of bullet that stuck had went against his will.

That's blood spill on your hands. My plan's rather vindictive. Everybody's evictive in my eyes. The most notable usage of the word blood in Kendrick's catalog is found in the pivotal track Sing About Me I'm Dying a Thirst. Kendrick uses the word blood in two distinct ways. In the first verse we just heard, Kendrick recounts how the blood of a slain friend spilled onto his hands. The phrase, blood on your hands, is a common idiom that implies that the person being addressed is responsible for another's death. Later in the song, we hear the second way Kendrick uses the word

blood. Kendrick says, I hope I hear a I hope I hear a cry out from heaven so loud it can water down a demon with the blood of Jesus. Here, Kendrick claims that the blood of Jesus covers over evil spirits, just like water covers over a drowning person. This concept of blood drowning out evil is rooted in the ancient Israelite view that blood was a symbol of a creature's life. At the same time, the Israelites believed that a physical space could become tainted with death if someone committed an evil act there.

In order to deal with the numerous acts of wickedness that were committed within the ancient Israelite community, God instructed Moses to institute a yearly ritual known as the Day of Atonement. The word Atonement most literally means to make one. or whole, and was normally used to describe the process of restoring ruined relationships into full unity. Every year on the Day of Atonement, the priest would sacrificeally kill a goat and use the goat's blood to cover various spaces throughout the Israelite temple. Through this ritualistic act, the torn fabric of society was restored to unity. In addition, the death caused by human evil was restored through the life found in innocent blood. This is where we get the Hebrew name

Yom Kippur, which most literally means the day of covering, as in covered with blood. After celebrating Yon Kippur every year of their lives, the authors who wrote the gospel accounts saw a clear parallel between the life of the sacrificial lamb and Jesus' life of self-sacrifice. This is why they referred to Jesus as, quote, Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and a quote, sheep led to the slaughter. The slaughter here refers to the execution of Jesus at the hands of the Roman. Roman judicial system, the very creators of Lady Justice, after Jesus was falsely accused by an angry mob. Let me say that again, and this time keep in mind the parable that opens dam. The sheep

led to slaughter refers to the execution of Jesus at the hands of the Roman judicial system, the very creators of Lady Justice, after Jesus was falsely accused by an angry mob. In the pivotal scene that depicts the execution of Jesus in the Bible, the Roman governor agrees. to grant the wishes of the angry mob to kill. Like we heard and sing about me I'm dying a thirst, this biblical passage contains two key usages of the word blood. Quote, when the governor saw that he could do nothing, but that instead a riot was starting, he took some water, washed his hands before the crowd and said, I am innocent of this man's blood, you take care of it yourselves. In reply, all the people said, let his blood be on us and on our children, unquote.

On one level, this passage is a critique of the Roman judicial system who refused to take responsibility for the shedding of innocent blood. On a deeper level, though, there is an inadvertent effect of Jesus' blood covering over them and their children. Like the blood of the sacrificial lamb on the Day of Atonement, Jesus' innocent blood has the power to drown out the evil spirits that would otherwise control generations of people. His blood covering over them would allow their bodies to become temples for God's spirit. This transformative power of Jesus' blood is what Kendrick was referring to at the end of the prayer on Sing About Me I'm Dying a Thirst. Thank you, Lord Jesus for saving me with your precious blood. Thank you, Lord Jesus for saving me with your precious blood.

In Jesus' name, amen. This prayer concludes, thank you, Lord Jesus for saving me with your precious blood. This line suggests that Jesus' death was the means by which Kendrick was able to live in peace. Such peace was only possible because Jesus taught his followers to forgive their enemies. Had Jesus not commanded such a radical standard of forgiveness, his followers likely would have taken revenge for Jesus' death and cursed subsequent generations to an endless cycle of violence. The death of Jesus would have thus become a cause for many others to die.

However, by choosing weakness and forgiveness, Jesus' death preserved life for generations of people. So I was taking a walk the other day, and I seen a woman, a blind woman. And so bringing this all back to Dam, the song titled Blood seems to symbolize how various people respond to the deaths of the innocent, just like the character Kendrick seems to be portraying in the parable. On one level, blood symbolizes how justice systems often refuse to take responsibility for the innocent victims who've been killed. We saw this displayed when ancient Rome's Jewish. judicial system wash their hands of the blood of Jesus. We also see this in contemporary America,

where the justice system seems to wash their hands of many of the deaths of their black citizens. At the same time, as symbolized by the transformative power of the blood of Jesus, the song blood also suggests that by choosing weakness and reconciliation, a person's life can begin to resemble the life of Jesus, a forgiveness powerful enough to drown out evil, to drown out wickedness. We should also recall that good Friday, the day Dam was released, is the day that followers of Jesus remember both his death and the transformative power of the blood that Jesus shed. This strategic release date, combined with positioning blood as the first track on Dam, seems to suggest that the

song's two main components, a parable with a twist ending and a Fox News segment, is meant to demonstrate the parallel between our own day and a day nearly 2,000 years ago. In other words, the conditions of modern society have us facing today the same decision that the disciples of Jesus faced when Jesus was killed in a state-sponsored lynching. Will we retaliate with violence and bloodshed, or allow the blood of the innocent to cover over us and repair relationships with forgiveness? Will we choose wickedness or weakness? Conclusions Despite its brevity, the opening track from Kendrick Lamar's dam is ripe with meaning and significance. Kendrick draws on both ancient and contemporary history to craft a parable about the death of an innocent man

killed by the same society he was attempting to help. On one level, the story seems to echo the death of Jesus, the incarnation of God who preached nonviolence and forgiveness, and who was ultimately assassinated by his own community and betrayed by its justice system. We also hear in the parable Kendrick's own story and as implied by the Fox News clip, The backlash he faced after the release of Tipinpa Butterfly, an album that attempted to help restore unity among his community through weakness, through non-violence and forgiveness. Finally, we can view the parable as representing the various ways different societies,

from ancient Rome to modern America, react to the mistreatment and abuse of the innocent, something that seems especially relevant in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement and the election of Donald Trump. Ultimately, Kendrick presents this parable to ask what he feels to be a truly timeless question for all humanity. Do we move through life with wickedness, selfishness, vengeance and violence, or do we move through life with weakness, selflessness, forgiveness, and peace? In this way, we can view blood as a direct continuation and reiteration of the cliffanger

we heard at the end of Topipa Butterfly's mortal man. There, Kendrick spoke of the deaths and downfall of historical prophets similar to himself, and we were left wondering how our newfound prophet would lead his people in the wake of the ongoing injustice they face. Considering the backlash he took for his efforts on to pimp a butterfly, we wonder if Kendrick would continue to be inspired by the butterfly, by weakness, by forgiveness, or would the betrayal inspire him to feel like you're damned if you do, damned if you don't? And would he then go the other way, turn away from the commandments of God, and incite vengeance against his adversaries a la Nat Turner. By the sounds of the album's next track. It seems that Kendrick might be doing just that.

Tell me something. You motherfuckers can't tell me nothing. I'd rather die than to listen to you. My DNA not for imitation. But DNA in abomination. Of course, this hostile verbal assault is Dan's next track DNA. A song will thoroughly examine note by note, line by line. Next time on Dissect. Dysect is produced by me for Spotify Studios.

Today's episode was written by Femi Olu Tade and me. song recreations by Andrew Atwood Audio editing by Eric Bass and me Original theme music by Birocratic You can now stream all the original Dysect themes composed by Birocratic on Spotify Just click the link in the show notes If you enjoy Dysect, please tell a friend about the show

And be sure to say hi on Twitter and Instagram At Dicect Podcast You can also purchase Dysk merchandise at Dicekpodcast.com Okay, thanks for listening, everyone. I'll talk to you next episode.