Kendrick Lamar Drops New Song, ‘The Blacker the Berry’
Kendrick Lamar has rewarded his fans after winning two Grammys on Sunday by releasing a new track, "The Blacker the Berry."
Unlike his single "i," which won the Grammys for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance, "The Blacker the Berry" single features a much darker theme.
The latest single, which was uploaded onto YouTube by Lamar's label, TDE (Top Dawg Entertainment), has been described as the inverse of "i."
The song, with the opening line, "I'm the biggest hypocrite of 2015," is centered on sell-awareness, self-assessment and self-interrogation. "The Black the Berry" is racially charged as Lamar addresses several issues, such as police violence and gun crime.
He raps, "I'm African-American, I'm African, I'm black as the moon/ Heritage of a small village, pardon my residence / Came from the bottom of mankind, my hair is nappy, my ... nose is round and wide/ You hate me, don't you, you hate my people / your plan is to terminate my culture."
Lamar references the hypocrisy that he sees within the African American community, stating that this community is quick to protest when a while policeman kills a black person but says nothing when a black people kill one another.
"So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street? When gang-banging make me kill a nigga blacker than me? Hypocrite," he raps.
The track also addresses the criticism he received when he commented on the Michael Brown incident that occurred in Ferguson.
"What happened to [Michael Brown] should've never happened. Never. But when we don't have respect for ourselves, how do we expect them to respect us? It starts from within," Lamar, 27, had said to Billboard.
Fellow American rapper, Azealia Banks was quick to call Lamar out by stating that his comment was the "dumbest s*** [she has] ever heard a black man say."
Listen to Lamar's newest track:
Lamar's new album still does not have a release date. It also does not have a title or a cover. Lamar will head to two music festivals, Sasquatch! and the Wireless Festival, later on this year.
