A Review of Kendrick Lamars Humble - Paper Example

Kendrick Lamar Duckworth is an American songwriter and rapper from Compton, California. He was born in the year 1987, 17th of June. He first gained huge attention in 2010 after realizing his mix tape O (very) D (dedicated) and had since then rocked the airwaves with hit after hit. Some of his best performing singles are Bitch, Dont Kill My Vibe, DNA, Humble and many more. One of the distinguishing aspects of Lamars talent is his originality and humility. His songs carry great depth and relevance of message like the single, Humble

The song demonstrates a shift and zigzag constantly in the aspect of flow. As it starts, it shifts from retelling low beginnings to conquering the world when he said in the song if he quits, hell still be the greatest. He also critiques the prevailing beauty standards that have been set as portrayed by celebrities plastic surgery and glorification of make ups through reality television. He, however, demonstrates his supremacy as a legendary artist. The sentiment in the lyrics of humble song demonstrates or sets the best tone for the theme: If I quit this season, I still am the greatest, snarling on it, he continues to say, Its levels to it, you and I know, bitch be humble. The icing on the cake is made by the prickling of the soured keys of the piano. The video of the song is further enhanced by dynamic visuals which include the following; a black mob, papal imagery and the Last Supper of TDE. In some scenes, Lamar stands at the center of a big crowd while addressing the audience. In one shot, he dominates the focus as the camera perspective changes, and he remains at the center. In the video, he shows his critique of the obsession of Americans with the creation of perfect aesthetics with Photoshop at the expense of originality. The rapper makes clear his preference for natural looks, especially when it comes to black women. Some of the interesting parts of the video that commands absolute attentiveness through the three minutes include; beautiful piano riffs, booming percussion layers and alarming synths that hit the sweet spot and provides analysis of the talent in the songs wordplay.

On the visual aspect, the video vacillates between interpretations of 20th-century references to hip-hop rap moments and iconic films and the iconography of Catholic. The rapper occupies the role of Jesus, dressed in papal robes in a cozier version of The Last Supper. In this scene, everyone is wearing a hoodie, unlike the supposed biblical flowing tunics. Supported by a multitude of bald and black men, the rapper fast forwards to the 90s with a visual nod to the film Being John Malkovich.

It goes without saying that the media is the basic source of information for the current generation (Kerr, 341). Kendrick Lamar demonstrates his disgust for the kind of negative influence that the media have had on the masses, especially women and beauty. Showing the nudity that has been polished with Photoshop, Lamar laments that the standard of beauty that has been set by the media is wrong. Therefore, he urges that women, especially the black Americans should love and appreciate themselves while embracing realness. To demonstrate that, Kendrick is seen in a salon with women reading magazines in a relaxed posture in the video of the song, humble. That shows the aspect of the type of audience that the rapper is addressing and the source of influence and in this case, it is the media. In many instances of radio talk shows and interviews, Lamar has been heard raising concerns about the fading away of reality, especially with artists. He demonstrated the aspect of realness in the video when he alluded, that he was so sick and tired of the Photoshop, and just then, a woman in full make-up appears at the right side of a split-screen, and she looks flawless. Just so when her beauty beams, she moves to the other side of the screen and her flaws are visible. The artist calls out for the one thing that is most important in the music and entertainment industry, the aspect of real beauty, real talent and general realness in every aspect of an artists work. That is the value that Kendric Lamar is fighting to restore, not only in this song, humble but also in his music career.

The rapper addresses this theme at length, and as the video ends, one can see the humility aspect in the rappers life, who in the Bible in the book of Mathew 5:5 says that the meek shall inherit the earth. In his normal life, his followers on Twitter can attest to his humility virtue given that he does not twit or use the Instagram much. In fact, Lamar has deleted his Instagram photos. Also, in every line or lyric that he has written about wealth, the rapper brings out the shamelessness of acquiring it and the evils that wealth has.

Going by the general analysis of the music industry, the rappers call for originality and humility in the music and the entertainment industries shows that the aspect of originality has longs since faded and what is thrown out there for the audience to consume is sheer junk. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a revolution in the music industry for originality to be embraced. The reality of the music and entertainment industry is that it is no longer relevant for appreciation of real talent but rather the cheer of party culture is dominating. The culture of rap music, for example, was that rap was an essential tool that was used by artists to bring positive change by addressing ills in the society. Artists like Tupac are remembered and celebrated to this day because of the depth that their music brought and no wonder Lamar is one of the most successful rappers today, he has taken the after Tupacs style of music. The music that was created by these artists including Lamar, had deep messages such as addressing the problems of police brutality, the culture of racism and any other evil that the society battled with. The pop culture was also full of originality with the likes of Michael Jackson influencing the society in a big way, with songs like heal the world.

One lethal force that is draining the power of originality in the music and entertainment industry is the aspect of stats and social media traffic. Through agenda setting, the media has fed the public with the notion that party culture is the direction to take and the trend of today. Therefore, consumers of these artistic productions have embraced pomp and color at the expense of originality and relevance of the message that a song or artistic product exhumes. Therefore, many artists go towards the direction of conforming to the pomp and color and party culture at the expense of originality to stay relevant, boost their stats and traffic and eventually get more money. That is how the entertainment industry has gone in reversing priorities.

Works Cited

Kerr, Andrew Jensen. "Rap Exegesis: Interpreting the Rapper in an Internet Society." Colum. J. Race & L. 7 (2016): 341.