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Briana Ellerby

Mr. Phillips

Cultural Media Literacy Honors

05 January 2020

To Pimp A Butterfly

Kendrick Lamar is one of the most notorious and inspiring artists of the 21st century. He

was born in Compton, California which was, and still is, a dangerous city filled with poverty,

violence, and drugs. He utilizes his experiences in his youth and the discrimination he faces as a

black man to advocate for African Americans. In his music, Lamar often mentions the racial

tensions in America to bring about change to the social injustice African-Americans, especially

those coming from lower social classes, experience today. In America today racial tensions are

very high with the high presence of gentrification, social appropriation, and police brutality.

There are many cases of police brutality that, because of the media, are broadcasted everywhere.

Angering the minority community, and the constant theme of being burdened politically,

emotionally, physically, and financially has led the country to become somewhat polarized like

in the ’60s.

In Kendrick’s best album to date, “To Pimp a Butterfly”, he “didn’t just create this

politically-charged album in order to get his personal story out to the public. He did it to speak

for all African-Americans going through similar problems of integrating into the mainstream”

(Fugate). To Pimp a Butterfly has been labeled the best hip-hop album “since Notorious B.I.G.’s

Ready to Die and Nas’ Illmatic in 1994, and it cements Kendrick Lamar’s spot as an all-time

great” (Singleton). “To Pimp A Butterfly” is a politically charged, controversial, complex,

masterpiece and challenges America’s society. He included a collection of stories, describing

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growing up in Compton, his road to success, and the story of his inner dialogue as he leaves the

streets of one of America’s most dangerous cities and becomes one of today’s most well-known

celebrities. “The Blacker the Berry” is a song on the album that presents the struggle of African

Americans because of discrimination in America and the deprivation Kendrick has faced

throughout his life.

The song, “The Blacker the Berry” is Lamar’s most aggressive, confrontational and

incisive track yet. In “less than 24 hours racked up more than a million streams “and sparked

controversy related to the Black Lives Matter movement. Kendrick began writing the song’s

lyrics “about three years ago when he saw the news of Trayvon Martin’s murder” (Rolling

Stone.) Kendrick demonstrates the anger that is inside him. He uses the saying “the blacker the

berry, sweeter the juice” as a theme of the song and the purpose of discrimination towards

African Americans in society. “The Blacker the Berry” is a grimmer take on how the narrator of

the song wants to show off black pride as fiercely as he can, and yet the memory of his past

actions is getting in the way.

The song starts off with the lyrics, “They want us to bow down to our knees, and pray to

a God that we don’t believe”, and describing the pressures society puts on minorities to submit

themselves and their culture to society’s standards. Kendrick sings in a highly distorted voice

that almost makes the singer shiver saying, “They may call me crazy. They may say I suffer from

schizophrenia or something’ but homie, you made me”. These lyrics state how the reason why

minorities may be depicted as hateful or violent is a result of the discrimination they face in

society. The people with power and money are blamed for ignoring people (minorities) facing

poverty and violence, and instead of holding them down in society. At the beginning of verse one

Kendrick begins his narrating by stating “I'm the biggest hypocrite of 2015. Once I finish this,
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witnesses will convey just what I mean”, making the listener anxious and curious about the

stated hypocrisy. He continues to say “You hate me, don't you? You hate my people; your plan is

to terminate my culture. He addresses his audience: racist white people, corporate America, and

lawmakers and calls out their hatred for African Americans and the effort to terminate “their

culture”. In many urban areas gentrification is prevalent; the act of buying up land and kicking

out the minorities who cannot afford to live there. Along with moving out people, gentrification

rids communities of a distinctive culture. To his audience he says “You sabotage my community,

makin' a killing you made me a killer, emancipation of a real nigga”. By the constraint and

discourage placed, minority communities are depressed and held down in society. When people

do not have the resources to afford school, or it is hard to find a job they have to resort to other

methods of making money. These communities (for example Compton, California) are warzones

and are heavily drug-infested because that is the only way they can feed their families and

survive. With the drugs comes gang violence and like Kendrick, many are forced to make

decisions that may haunt them for life like killing to survive.

One of the most important parts of the song is the chorus. The first part of the chorus is “I

said they treat me like a slave, cah' me black Woi, we feel a whole heap of pain, cah' we black”

describing how because a person is black they are already predestined to pain and discrimination

in America. The next lines start comparing the situations of African Americans today to their

status during slavery. “And man a say they put me inna chains, cah' we black Imagine now, big

gold chains full of rocks”, this line utilizes a clever juxtaposition of how during the antebellum

period slaves were chained but now African Americans wear their own gold chains around their

necks. Now the comparison between the whips used to harm slaves and a slang term for a car

“whip” is used to show the improvement of African American prosperity in “How you no see the
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whip, left scars 'pon me back But now we have a big whip parked 'pon the block”, “All them say

we doomed from the start, cah' we black Remember this, every race start from the block, jus

'member dat”, this line creates huge irony because though Africa has been looked down upon

throughout history, and though African Americans are held down in society the hearth of

civilization in Africa.

Towards the end of the song, Kendrick continues on his campaign of stating how he is

“irrelevant to society” and how society poisons the minds of minorities with manipulation,

telling them that “penitentiary would only hire” them. He states how society will “Curse me till

I'm dead Church me with your fake prophesying that I'ma be just another slave in my head.”

Minorities are institutionalized manipulated into thinking that they do not mean anything in

society and they are meant to suffer.

In the last verse, Lamar takes direct aim at racism in America” (dissectpodcast.) and how

immature the idea of racism is and how “it's generational hatred It's genocism, it's grimy, little

justification”. Then he ends the masterpiece by connecting back to the whole theme of hypocrisy.

He states different things that are popular among the African American community like football,

celebrating February (Black History Month), eating “watermelon, chicken, and Kool-Aid on

weekdays”, and jumping “high enough to get Michael Jordan endorsements”. Then he asks an

important rhetorical question, “So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street When

gang banging make me kill a nigga blacker than me? Hypocrite”. This song was written around

the time when Trayvon Martin was wrongfully killed, which became the inspiration for the

album. He asks himself why he felt sorry and mad for the killing of Trayvon Martin when he

himself has participated in violence and deaths towards his own people. But throughout the song,
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the blame is placed on society itself. Though killing is never right when people especially kids

are placed in unavoidable situations caused by the society they may think they have no choice.

Growing up in a community like Compton when all you know is sadness and violence,

and you are deprived of your freedom and constantly scared to walk the streets worrying whether

you will make it home or not you are haunted. This feeling is carried throughout the minority

community. In the song “The Blacker the Berry” Kendrick Lamar takes aim at society and those

at the top of it by calling out their grimy and grotesque hatred towards African Americans and

how it affects minority communities and derives people for the rest of their lives. Kendrick

Lamar considers himself a hypocrite because of his own wrong-doings towards minorities back

in Compton but blames the manipulation and deprivation placed on communities by society. In

the album “To Pimp A Butterfly”, Lamar’s aim at society and boldness, presents his advocacy

for the African American community and his want for a change.

Works Cited

dissectpodcast. Author. “S1E15/16 – The Blacker the Berry by Kendrick Lamar.” Dissect, 18

Feb. 2017,

https://dissectpodcast.com/2016/12/13/s1e15-the-blacker-the-berry-part-1/#annotations:4
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869548.

Fugate. “To Pimp A Butterfly: Analysis.” Medium, Medium, 15 Dec. 2017,

https://medium.com/@dfugate/to-pimp-a-butterfly-analysis-c8a9b1b829f0.

“Kendrick Lamar – The Blacker the Berry.” Genius, 9 Feb. 2015,

https://genius.com/Kendrick-lamar-the-blacker-the-berry-lyrics.

Kornhaber, Spencer. “What Kendrick Lamar's ‘The Blacker the Berry’ Really Means.” The

Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 11 Feb. 2015,

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/02/kendrick-lamar-is-not-a-hyp

ocrite/385384/.

Rolling Stone. “Kendrick Lamar's 'To Pimp a Butterfly': Track by Track.” Rolling Stone, 25

June 2018, https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/kendrick-lamars-to-pimp-a-

butterfly-a-track-by-track-guide-200991/.

Singleton, Micah. “To Pimp a Butterfly: Kendrick Lamar's New Album Is Perfect.” The Verge,

19 Mar. 2015, https://www.theverge.com/2015/3/19/8257319/kendrick-lamar-album-

review-to-pimp-a-butterfly.