For those of you who don't know, Kendrick Lamar is my favorite artist. Like, ever. And being the nerd that I am being a fanatic entails unnecessary amounts of timing diving into lyrics, interviews, videos, and performances trying to find the messages that he leaves for us. This I guess is really the reason for my adoration of his work; a rhetorical analysis of a Two Chainz video I'm sure would be somewhat short winded. However KDot provides us so much substance that I can feed my nerd cravings for hours on end with just one video.
So when Kendrick came out with the video for his first interlude, "For Free?" I was more than excited because this happens to be the track with in my opinion the best lyrics on To Pimp A Butterfly which is saying something for an album that I don't think has been matched lyrically in this generation. Imagine my disappointment when I go to read the reviews of the video and they were all shallow, poorly thought out, and lacking deliberation. I mean, no one that I read really got it, no one really took the time to study the video, the costumes, the setting, the underlying themes, motifs, etc. Which is sad, because Kendrick Lamar is probably the best writers and rhetoricists (is that a word?) we have in 2015. So I decided to do it myself. If you haven't seen the video I got you right here Lyrics The lyrics of For Free? are presented as a fight between America and Kendrick Lamar (who also is doubling as Black people on a macro scale). The gist of the song is that Kendrick is telling America that "This dick ain't free", playing on the title of the album as Kendrick constantly uses sexual imagery to describe ways in which Black People have been pimped by America. In the song he refuses to work for America, make her rich, make her beautiful music, without being properly compensated for not only his labor, but also his suffering; "Living in captivity raised my cap salary, celery tellin me green is all I need evidently all I seen was spam and raw sardines" and "I need 40 acres and a mule not a 40 ounce and a pitbull". He goes on to get angrier at America, expressing his disgust for her deceitful ways, how she sold him the American dream taking advantage of his trust, while at the same time only being given "Pornos and Poverty" (which again also plays on the sexual imagery of only getting a cheap porno instead of the real thing). He finally cusses out America "Fuck your feelings, Fuck your sources all distortion/ if we fuck its more abortion more divorce courts and portion", and ends with a one liner that wraps everything up "Oh America you bad bitch/ I picked the cotton that made you rich now my dick aint free". The Mansion The setting of For Free? is a mansion which is apparently owned by America who is embodied by a strikingly gorgeous Black woman (I'll get to that later). The beginning scene we are started with a young black man wearing an LA Dodgers hat playing the sax and hanging out of a window which also has an American flag hanging from it, which I think not only is symbolic for what Kendrick sees as his people (young black people from LA) but the flag also asserts that the house is indeed a physical metaphor for America. As we pan out we see that the lawn has been taken over by a black jazz band and choir while America stands angry and disgruntled, next to an Uncle Sam who seems unworried, and a serious looking Kendrick Lamar. America (who I think represents the psyche and conscious of American society) is visibly angry, most likely because she has been confronted about her mistreatment of black people. Kendrick has also asserted Uncle Sam as the American Government in the song proceeding this track on the album, additionally Uncle Sam also serves as to protect America's status quo and comfort her conscious (America tells Kendrick later "I'm gonna get my Uncle Sam to fuck you up") so Uncle Sam could also be institutions such as the media, education, politics, etc that are used to perpetuate American society's pimping of black people. Kendrick goes on to haunt the mansion. Blinds open without anybody opening them on two instances to reveal Kendrick's waiting face, he teleports across a balcony, he makes doors close on their own, he turns from a Jim Crow era statue into himself, he appears in different costumes, makes the lights flicker and change colors, and in the end of the movie the mansion grounds are occupied by what has to be a dozen different Kendrick Lamars. This haunting to me is a metaphor for how the horrors of what Black people have been subjected to so that Americans can live in the "mansion" of American wealth and comfort that they inhabit. This mansion was built on these horrors and Kendrick is the embodiment of them. The mansion is filled with Jim Crow era statues that are caricatures of black people, one of which actually turns into Kendrick Lamar. They portray black people as inhuman, as monkeys, apes, as caricatures of their real selves. I think Kendrick does this to show that America still houses these negative portrayals of Black Americans. These statues could be a metaphor for what is today the "thug" or "ratchet" image that is attached to many black men and women today which allows for America to continually justify subjugation. The cellar scene is of particular interest to me. Kendrick dresses himself as Uncle Sam, America's protector, and tricks her into following him into the cellar where he is shoveling coal into the mansion's heating system. This seems to be a metaphor for the condition in which black people live. Kendrick and his band are housed in the cellar, where they work to keep the mansion running, a possible metaphor for the ghettos and prisons which were created so that suburbs and towns thriving on prison economies could also be erected. As Kendrick angrily confronts America images of the statues pop up again, supplementing Kendrick's anger with grotesque images of how black people were and still are being portrayed. America as a Black Woman??? This threw me for a loop as well. I think Kendrick is trying to show how we've internalized our own oppression. We no longer need white America to feed us the lie of the American dream, and to fill our head with stereotypes of how Black people should live because we've internalized the lies ourselves. The black woman also shows how one dimensional portrayals of black women are in the media. Whether it be rap videos, movies, news clips, magazines, etc. images of scantily clad black women with an attitude is not an uncommon caricature of our ladies. I think it's also worth noting that To Pimp A Butterfly's cast was all black, which I don't think was an accident. Jazz I also saw metaphorical connections with Jazz music and the musicians. Jazz music was the music of the Jim Crow era, an era which contains very strong imagery for Black struggle and so the music and musicians could be a metaphor for black struggle.. The statues in the mansion and which flash on screen in the cellar and are everywhere in the house are also Jim Crow era statues. The jazz music could also be from the era in which the mansion was built so the music and the musicians have always been haunting the mansion and Kendrick Lamar is a new addition which gives the music a voice, just as other artists and leaders have given black struggle a voice. Conclusion The video ends with a scene in which at least a dozen Kendrick Lamar's have taken over the mansion grounds. Some are playing croquet, some are drinking champagne, others are trimming hedges and making the yard their own, the mini van from Kendrick's previous album Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City is in the driveway with several Kendrick Lamar's sitting in and on top of it, and there's even one Kendrick Lamar sitting in the shade of a tree reading a book. I think this is a metaphor for Kendrick and subsequently black people getting the payment they deserve for the services, or rather the takeover of a property that they and their ancestors had built. Many reviewed the video as comical, which to me seems like an ignorant assessment, willful or otherwise. To watch the images given to us in the film and think that the purpose was to be funny is exactly the OPPOSITE of the point is. These images and portrayals are ancient, and were once used for humor. To think that Kendrick would take all of these images and use them for humor is just beyond me. This video was to me an extension of the metaphor that Kendrick had already set up in the audio only version of the track, not comical relief. Congrats Kendrick, you've done it once again. -515
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I've made no apologies about my fascination with the dynamics of race in American society. It is a curiosity that has been with me even in my earliest memories. It just so happens that I chose most hot button, controversial, ambiguous, frustrating and sometimes awkward topic to develop a passion for (which I believe speaks to the massive influence race has on anything and everything American).
Up to now I've spent most of my energy examining our history, policies, tendencies, statistics, and underlying themes. Cutting through bias and bullshit has made this task arduous. Nevertheless I came to the conclusion that racism - along with colonialism and economic exploitation - is a founding and guiding principle in not only American society, but all societies which consider themselves "western". From the smallest most interpersonal interaction to national elections to the highest offices nothing can ever happen independent of race (and subsequently racism), colonialism, and capitalistic greed (in addition to patriarchy, which has an entrenchment far deeper and wider than the relatively short and recent history and reach of what we call "the west"). I seek no validation for my findings. I am no longer constantly searching for ways in which to prove myself not insane. The evidence is overwhelming - after sloshing through shallow cover-ups and willful ignorance - and I am confident in my ability to deduce myth from reality, contrary to what this society would prefer. I can not rest. Which is why I began my journey for answers to the question; "How do you dismantle racism in society". I found theories, the diversity of which is a testament to our humanity. I ran across the idea of the talented tenth. The idea that by having 10% of our most talented men and women we might be able to infiltrate positions of power and prominence and bring equality and equity to our communities. However, after the inception of the idea W.E.B. DuBois himself doubted whether the older, more affluent Black Bourgeoisie was interested in uplifting the masses as much as they were consumed with their own personal advancement. This concern was voiced in an address at the 1948 national conference for Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity (Which, contrary to popular belief, is the first Black Greek-Lettered Organization). There were those such as Garvey, who advised all Africans and people of African descent to unify spiritually, politically, and physically as one nation. He worked in America on his plan to ultimately, move Black people back home. Some questioned whether this was realistically feasible. Others asked if the Black man in America anything left in Africa; so much of his identity is today entrenched, for better or worse, in the states. Then there was Malcolm, who was Black Power before "Black Power." Who preached a reinvestment in Black Pride, and a new investment in controlling the economies and politics of our communities, and most infamously self-defense "by all means necessary." Critics asked if Black People could truly consolidate power without first bringing justice to the crimes of our past. Which is where we find Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He demanded justice, leading courageous (or "delirious" as Malcolm said it) by leading black men in women in civil non-violent disobedience. Skeptics, including Mr. X, asked why Black people should submit their beautiful Black lives over to those who we already knew had complete contempt for Blackness. Furthermore, why should we be the ones to have to prove our moral fortitude to a nation that has committed so many evils on our backs? Should the burden of exhibiting morality, peace, and civility be put on the nation that had up to that point proven incapable of doing such? So what conclusion did I come to? There is no "answer." There is only struggle. And struggle is beautiful. Because when it comes down to it struggle is burns the caricature drawn for us, it dismantles the box we were supposed to be confined to, it rejects the inhumanity designated for us. Their auction blocks made us black. Their "whites only" signs made us black. Their red lines and drug laws made us black. Our struggle makes us human. It actually only hit me last night, at a party of all places. I found myself drowning in shades of black, brown, red, and low yellows of our Latino cousins. I saw Black beauty. I saw King Kuntas touting there chains with a regal swagger. I saw Cleopatras who commanded the attention of emperors. We laughed. We danced. We spoke in what would seemingly be a foreign language to the other side of America. Blunts were rotated, flirty passes were made, and even when the music went out and as with tradition we improvised and held a freestyle rap cipher. And then of course, the cops shut us down. It occurred to me as we walked in the street, some among us half-jokingly holding their hands in the air, that all of this was struggle. Our music, our language, our dances, our culture, our embrace of life is all struggle against what they have tried to take from us the moment we stepped foot here. Black Humanity is struggle. We must know this, and keep it close. We must always know this. -515 |
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October 2018
Matt BruceViva DSM!! |