The song became an anthem and the hook “we gon’ be alright” was the mantra chanted during marches. It highlights police brutality and the continuous murders of African-Americans by police. ), but was seen as a rallying cry for African-Americans. In the song ‘Alright,’ produced by Pharrell Williams, he raps “Nigga, and we hate po-po/Wanna kill us dead in the street fo sho'.” The line drew contempt from Fox News (an audio grab is featured on ‘DAMN.
I wanted to put that experience in the music.” Amongst his exploration of African-American history, Lamar shines a light on the Black Lives Matter movement. Probably one of the hardest things to do is put a concept on how beautiful a place can be, and tell a person this while they're still in the ghettos of Compton. I saw all the things that I wasn't taught. Lamar said “I felt like I belonged in Africa. After a visit to Nelson Mandela’s prison cell on Robben Island, something in his mind clicked. The record was inspired by a trip that Lamar had taken to South Africa. Kunte’s right foot was cut off following attempts to escape the plantation on which he was enslaved.
A fictional character based on a real-life slave from the 18th Century. ‘King Kunta,’ for example, is about Kunte Kinte, a character from the ground-breaking mini-series, ‘Roots,’ and the novel of the same name. It takes us on a journey through African-American history, encompassing Hip Hop, Jazz, Soul and Funk, amongst others.
‘To Pimp A Butterfly’ is one of the most important records to be released in our time. In fact, when I contemplated listening to this new version of the list, this was the first album I thought about. I’d imagine what I was feeling would be akin to how people felt hearing Little Richard or Elvis Presley for the first time. ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’ was unlike anything I’d ever heard before. Everything I thought Hip Hop was or could be was thrown out of the window. It was one of those “I remember exactly where I was when I heard it” moments. In fact, I thought he was a novelty artist thanks to ‘Swimming Pools (Drank).’ But then ‘King Kunta’ came out, and doing as good singles should, it piqued my interest and encouraged me to listen to this record in full. I was aware of Kendrick Lamar thanks to the singles from 'good kid, m.A.A.d city' (#115), but to be honest I didn’t think much about him. Around its release I had only just started dipping my toe into Hip Hop, with a newfound appreciation for its artform. It let’s me know that our fans’s brains are somewhere else in an amazing way.This album was a revelation to me. For you to be able to grab a brand new album and to get that from such a small amount of information is amazing to me. But there’s a bunch of different concepts that you can get from it, I don’t want people to feel like what I said is what the meaning is. If you look at the tracklist, you have “FEAR.,” where he’s kicking real bible stuff with references to scriptures that I haven’t even heard from him.
We could’ve made a full album, all of us at that moment. I had the MPC, Dahi had Ableton, Cardo was using what he was using - everybody was just linked in and it came out crazy. All those names that you see on the production credits were working at the same time on “GOD.” Everybody was plugged in, enhancing the beat at the same time. But whenever he comes to L.A., he’s in my studio and I’m going to where he’s at. If you let him tell it, I’m bougie and don’t wanna work with him. Now, I’ll catch him writing because he wants everything to be pronounced and felt that much more. He used to never write - it was a lyrical exercise thing in his head. Things that he would do back then are enhanced times ten now. He’ll be like, “Right here, I want the beat to switch up on that 15th bar and then come back in.” And it always works.Īs far as the little things that he does in the studio, it’s the same. He’ll tell you the most outlandish things and it’s like, What are you talking about? But, when you do it, it sounds genius. I tweeted this video about what it’s like to engineer Kendrick Lamar, and it’s really like that. To get a chance to work with U2 and have the song come out the way did it was a dream come true for me and for Kendrick. It was just all about opportunity and this was the perfect opportunity. Bono and Kendrick had been talking on the phone and they’ve wanted to work with each other for the longest.