Essay: Kendrick Lamar politically and socially conscious style of music

Music is something that has been around for a long time, effecting many people in many different ways on a daily basis. We listen to it to feel comfort, to express our feelings, and to build strength. Music can be used as a gateway to explore the creative mind as well as the world for not only the artist, but the people who listen to it. It is more than just a combination of melodies, harmonies, and instruments. It has lyrics that have a deeper meaning to them. One genre I found to has a deeper meaning behind its music is rap. Rap has always been a way for an artist to tell their story. It can be seen specifically through NWA and their aggressive, violent, and yet truthful raps about their society. Rappers use their music to give people a glimpse into their crazy world. But with that, rappers also use their music to help promote social change. Kendrick Lamar, a current skilled rapper, has been known to promote these changes in society, influencing more and more people to listen to his music and follow in his footsteps.
Kendrick Lamar style is a politically and socially conscious style that focused on not only the reflection of his life but, also focused on the community around him. He is known in his albums to have a social impact from the black community. His album “Good Kid M.A.A.D City” Was one of his most popular albums where he talked about his experiences as a teen in the gang filled drug infested lifestyle of where he is from which is Compton. With that he made a theme of don’t let the situation you’re in prevent you from being successful. Kendrick also talks about these social problems while also giving a reflection in his album “To Pimp a Butterfly”. In this album he goes through basically three stages to get his point across. His way of explaining things in the order he does is like the life of a caterpillar. When we think of the life of a caterpillar we think of caterpillar, cocoon, butterfly, and through his sixteen songs we can see the progression of his life and what he learned going through it as if he were a caterpillar.
Kendrick Lamar best explains being the caterpillar in the song Mortal Man “The caterpillar is a prisoner to the streets that conceived it / Its only job is to eat or consume everything around it, in order to protect itself from this mad city” He shows this through his first three songs Wesley Theory, For Free, and King Kunta. With these we can see how he takes in what he sees and what is being created because of his environment. These songs help to depict his idea that in America they simply pimp out blacks for their profits. In doing this, it gives the feeling of devastation or distress because there is the essential feeling that there is no other choice but to do these things. These songs overall help to talk about how Kendrick is in the beginning of success but feels as if he’s being suppressed by the environment around him which essentially comes back to him falling to being pimped out by America.
We then transition into the part of the album that is essentially the cocoon. We can picture the idea of being trapped and closed in. In Mortal Man, Kendrick best relays this by saying “Already surrounded by this mad city the caterpillar goes to work on the cocoon which institutionalized him / He can no longer see past his own thoughts / He’s trapped.” We see this feeling of being trapped in the songs Institutionalized, These Walls, U, Alright, and For Sale. With these songs we get this sense of hopelessness because Kendrick feels as if he’s trapped in his hood.
With these we go in deeper with the cocoon and we see Kendrick head back to his place of birth, Compton. In this we have the songs Momma, Hood Politics, and How Much a Dollar Cost. Through these songs Kendrick comes to the realization that if he continues on the path of greed from his success and being insensitive he won’t be able to get the true position he wants to be in. He will still be in the position of essentially still being pimped out. With this we get the feeling that Kendrick needs to get rid of the temptations around him and move on and make
Now with all Kendrick has learned he begins to break that shell while also letting go feeling of emptiness and seclusion. Mortal Man is how he breaks down his breaking free “The result? / Wings begin to emerge, breaking the cycle of feeling stagnant / Finally free, the butterfly sheds light on situations that the caterpillar never considered, ending the internal struggle”. Through his songs Complextion, The Blacker the Berry, and You Aint Gotta Lie. Kendrick gives us the switch in how he thinks the black community should truly feel. He wants people to learn from his mistakes and that they can come together against racism from an institutionalized stand point. But he also wants blacks to understand that they don’t have to be stuck in the cocoon of what America perceives of him, and instead of succumbing to a fake lifestyle they should essential be “Real”.
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