9. Momma = 4:43
“Until I realized I didn’t know sh*t”
The song begins with Kendrick talking about his success. He knows all the things he accomplished, and he even says, “This feelin’ is brought to you by adrenaline and good rap.” Everything he has done brought him success but it also back home and he is glad about that. He says, “I would say it got me get a plaque, but what’s better than that? The fact it brought me back home.” Kendrick then goes on to talk about everything he knows, which is everything. He knows himself and mortality; he knows the streets, religion, and politics. It goes on for a very long time, and as we know Kendrick is very educated so it may be true that he knows all these things to some extent, but he ends his knowledge with saying he realized he knew nothing when he returned home which means he is acknowledging that if he knows everything it means nothing without his home. In verse 3 Kendrick begins talking about a little boy he met in South African that resembled him when he was younger. This relates him to him returning home to Compton, showing how he was still connected to the people around him despite being away for a while. The boy says, “Kendrick you do know my language/You just forgot because of what public schools had painted.”
10. Hood Politics = 4:52
“They give us guns and drugs, call us thugs”
This song begins with Dr. Dre portraying one of Kendrick’s old friends who have been left on voicemail. The voice is laughing at him over becoming a rapper telling him, “Don’t tell me they got you on some weirdo rap sh*t. No socks and skinny jeans.” A lot of Kendrick’s friends growing up weren’t used to his new lifestyle since he couldn’t talk with them daily and most of them took offense to this behavior. Kendrick starts the chorus by calling everything boo-boo (the funniest thing ever to me). He’s been A1 since day 1 and everyone else and boo-boo! He goes on for bit naming things, but the main focus of this song are “politics” of the hood/rap, with Kendrick saying he doesn’t care about these politics despite being a very political person. He speaks on gangs/cliques who fight with others about different neighborhoods. He even talked about the LAPD saying, “The LAPD gamblin’, scramblin’, football numbers sladerin’.” Which is rereferring to certain scandals they have been in and tried to cover up. “Football numbers” refers to a term being served in prison. Kendrick also says, “From Compton to Congress/Demo-Crips and Re-Blood-icans”, Which talks about how some officials talk down on these communities despite being a big part in communities being separated and being against one another. He also references the book “DemoCRIPS and ReBLOODlicans: No More Gangs in Government” that was written by Jesse Ventura, who was a former Minnesota governor about how certain places are marked certain colors (red and blue mainly), which seems like it’s separated as a gang territory. Kendrick uses this allusion to point out hypocrisy in some government officials. The poem continues in this song, “But that didn’t stop survivors’ guilt/Going back and forth/Trying to convince myself the stripes I earned/Or maybe how A-1 my foundation was/But while my loved ones was fighting a continuous war/Back in the city/I was entering a new one.”
11. How Much a Dollar Cost = 4:21
“My selfishness is what got me here”
Kendrick starts this song by saying, “How much a dollar really cost? /The question is detrimental, paralyzin’ my thoughts.” Kendrick is pondering the actual worth of a dollar, but this entire song is Kendrick questioning his moral because he introduces us to a homeless man asking him for a dollar. Kendrick refuses to give it to him, assuming that he’ll be using it for drugs despite the homeless man begging for the money to have food. The man also starts to convince Kendrick he doesn’t want the money for drugs saying, “My son, temptation is one thing I’ve defeated. Listen to me, I want a single bill from you. Nothin’ less, nothin’ more.” Kendrick even goes on to tell the man he doesn’t have it despite just buying gas. We’re at a gas station! The chorus is sung by James Fauntleroy in the perspective of God, saying, “It’s more to feed your mind/Water, sun and love, the one you love/All you need, the air you breathe” This voice is telling us that life itself is worth more than a singular dollar, and these things are really all you should need in your life. The homeless man is in disbelief over Kendrick not giving him the singular dollar he had asked for, and Kendrick begins angry as he wonders why this man is so upset with him. He even says, “Until I could see/ A reason why he was mad, a stranger like I was supposed to save him/Like I’m the reason he’s homeless and askin’ me for a favor.” Kendrick is infuriated with this man, even saying that he was being guilt tripped by him. He begins telling the man he needs it all and that he has nothing to give out to him, even calling him a bum. SO, the big reveal comes as the man says, “Known the truth, it’ll set you free. You’re looking at the Messiah, the son of Jehovah, the Higher Power/And I’ll tell you just how much a dollar cost/The price of having a spot in Heaven, embrace your loss, I am God.” This tears Kendrick apart the next line being, “I wash my hands, I said my grace, what more do you want from me?” His selfishness caused him his spot in Heaven.
12. Complexion (A Zulu Love) = 4:23
“I made a flower for you outta cotton”
This song starts off by saying, “Complexion don’t mean a thing (It’s a Zulu love).” In this song it talks about the color of your skin and how that shouldn’t dictate the type of person you are. Zulu love is relating to the Zulu philosophy which translates to “human kindness” or “humanness”. In verse 1 Kendrick starts off saying, “Dark as the midnight hour or bright as the mornin’ sun.” Then he goes on to say that he doesn’t care about anyone’s complexion, and it also refers to how many different colors African Americans can be despite all being Black people. In the next line Kendrick talks about being snuck into a window by a White girl who he gave a flower made of cotton to, and he tells her he’s “ten toes down/even if master listenin’, cover your ears, he ’bout to mention complexion.” Kendrick is infatuated with this girl and doesn’t want “master” to stick the idea of racism into her head. Later in the song Kendrick introduces Rapsody who wrote her own verse for this song. She talks about complexion and how darker Black Americans usually feel inferior to those around them, she even says, “Light don’t mean you smart, bein’ dark don’t mean you stupid.” She ends her verse saying, “Black as brown, hazelnut, cinnamon, black tea/And it’s all beautiful to me/Call your brothers magnificent, call all the sisters queens/We all on the same team, blues and pirus, know colors ain’t a thing.” The song ends on a sad note with Kendrick saying, “Barefoot babies with no care/Teenage gun toters that don’t play fair, should I get out the car? /I don’t see Compton, I see something much worse/The land of the landminds, the hell that’s on earth.” This elaborates on the communities that have been formed with people holding hate against one another and oneself, and people being fearful in their own neighborhoods, usually young teenagers.
13. The Blacker the Berry = 5:28
“All them say we doomed from the start cah we Black.”
Kendrick starts this song off with a monologue about everything being black., but the background vocals say, “They want us to bow/Down on our knees/And pray to the God/We don’t believe.” It’s speaking of how a lot of people want African Americans to submit in this modern society despite suffering for so long. Kendrick goes on to say, “I own black, I own everything black.” which is him saying that African Americans deserve more than what has been giving to them. In the first verse Kendrick calls himself, “the biggest hypocrite of 2015” and says, “Once I finish this, witnesses will convey just what I mean.” SO, we will come back to that line at the end. Kendrick says that he’s been feeling this way since he was sixteen, that America never liked Black Americans despite the actions made to give us more freedom. He says, “You never liked us anyway, f*ck your friendship, I meant it.” Kendrick even lists characteristic stereotypes of Black Americans saying that his hair is nappy and his nose is round and wide. He turns to the audience speaking to us saying, “You hate me, don’t you? /You hate my people, your plan is to terminate my culture.” Kendrick even calls himself a “proud monkey,” which is him taking a word used against Black Americans to reclaim as his own. He even talks about how he was born during the Reagan era, addressing this by saying, “You sabotage my community, makin’ a killin’/You made me a killer.” And this addresses how drugs were put into impoverished areas and led to many killings, that Kendrick had witnessed himself. The line, “The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice” alludes to The Blacker the Berry: A Novel of Negro Life written by Wallace Thurman during the Harlem Renaissance. It’s simply a positive affirmation to darker African Americans, but Kendrick ends this pre-chorus saying, “The blacker the berry, the bigger I shoot.” which alludes to a darker skinned person being more likely to get hurt due to their skin color. In the Chorus, Kendrick gets Assassin to sing where he talks about being treated as lower due to being Black. He says, “How you no see the whip, left scars ‘pon me back/But now we have a big whip parked ‘pon the block.” Which talks about luxury, but this American dream of materialism is another form of oppression. At the end Kendrick talks about Zulu and Xhosa, two of the biggest tribes in South America, who might go to war which reminds him of gangs in Compton. He accepts that it doesn’t matter if he likes to preach with the Panthers, referring the Black Panther party. Or say that Marcus Garvey has all the answers, the man who supported the “Back to Africa” movement saying that all Black Americans should get on a boat and sail back home. He says he tries to celebrate February like it’s his birthday, and eat watermelon, chicken, and drink Kool-Aid on the weekdays, or jump as high as Michael Jorden. He just goes on about stereotypical things that he wants to enjoy, but he ends the song saying. “So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street /When gang-banging make me kill a n- blacker than me? / Hypocrite.”
This is getting kinda long, and I actually want people to read this, so I will save the other songs for another blog. Oopsie!!
