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Kendrick Lamar - I

Kendrick Lamar - I Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: To Pimp A Butterfly
Released: 2014

I Lyrics

I done been through a whole lot
Trials and tribulations, but I know God
Satan wanna put me in a bow-tie
Praying that the holy water don't go dry, yeah yeah
As I look around me
So many motherfuckers wanna down me
But ain't no nigga never drown me
In front of a dirty double-mirror they found me

And I love myself
(The world is a ghetto with guns and picket signs)
I love myself
(But it can do what it want whenever it wants and I don’t mind)
I love myself
(He said I gotta get up, life is more than suicide)
I love myself
(One day at the time, sun gone shine)

Everybody looking at you crazy (Crazy)
What you gone do? (What you gone do?)
Lift up your head and keep moving (Keep moving)
Or let the paranoia haunt you? (Haunt you)
Peace to fashion police I wear my heart
On my sleeve let the runway start
You know the miserable do love company
Fuck do you want from me and my scars?
Everybody lack confidence, everybody lack confidence
How many times our potential was anonymous?
How many times the city making me promises?
So I promise this

And I love myself
(The world is a ghetto with guns and picket signs)
I love myself
(But it can do what it want whenever it wants and I don’t mind)
I love myself
(He said I gotta get up, life is more than suicide)
I love myself
(One day at the time, sun gone shine)

They wanna say there's a war outside and a bomb in the street
And a gun in the hood and a mob of police
And a rock on the corner and a line full of fiends
And a bottle full of lean and a model on a scheme, yup
These days of frustration keep y'all on tucking rotation
I duck these gold faces, post up fee-fi-fo-fum bases
Dreams of realities peace
Blow steam in the face of the beast
The sky can fall down, the wind can cry now
The strong in me, I still smile

I love myself
(The world is a ghetto with guns and picket signs)
I love myself
(But it can do what it want whenever it wants and I don’t mind)
I love myself
(He said I gotta get up, life is more than suicide)
I love myself
(One day at the time, sun gone shine)

Walk my barefeet (Walk my barefeet)
Down, down valley peak (Down, down valley peak)
I keep my fee-fi-fo-fum (Fee-fi-fo-fum)
I keep my heart undone (My heart undone)

And I love myself
(The world is a ghetto with guns and picket signs)
I love myself
(But it can do what it want whenever it wants and I don’t mind)
I love myself
(He said I gotta get up, life is more than suicide)
I love myself
(One day at the time, sun gone shine)

I went to war last night
With an automatic weapon, don’t nobody call a medic
I'mma do it 'til I get it right
I went to war last night
I've been dealing with depression ever since an adolescent
Duckin' every other blessin', l can never see the message
I can never take the lead, I can never bob and weave
For my nigga that be letting ‘em alienate me
And the sound is moving in a meteor speed
From a 100 to a billion lay my body in the street
Keep my money in the ceiling let my mama know I'm free
Give my story to the children and the lesson they can read
And the glory to the feeling of all of y'all scenes
Seen enough, make a motherfucker scream, "I love myself!"

I lost my head, I must've misread what the good book said
Oh woes keep me, it's a jungle inside
Give myself again 'til the well runs dry

Writer/s: ISLEY, O'KELLY / JASPER, CHRISTOPHER / ISLEY, ERNIE / ISLEY, RUDOLPH / ISLEY, RONALD / ISLEY, MARVIN / LAMAR, KENDRICK / SMITH III, COLUMBUS
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

I Song Chart

The first single from Kendrick Lamar's third studio album finds him rapping about the need for self-assurance to get by in this world. While premiering the song on LA's Power 106, Lamar explained the confidence boosting anthem was inspired by what he's experienced on the streets of Compton. "It's about self love [which] comes from within," he said. "A lot of cats that go to jail, be in these homes, or in foster homes they grew up in from these hoods, they never had that love within themselves. They thinking they get it from their parents or their mothers or big homies or grandmas, but it starts with themselves and that's why we carry ourselves the way we do."

The track kicks off with a pastor preaching about Kendrick:

We got a young brother who believes in all of us
Brother Kendrick Lamar
He's not a rapper
He's a writer
He's a lover
If you read in between the lines
We'll learn to love one another

The preacher sets the tone for the religious theme of the first verse.

The funk-infused track was produced by Los Angeles musician Rahki, who previously provided the beat for the good kid, m.A.A.d city bonus track "Black Boy Fly."

Rahki's production incorporates a sample from Isley Brothers' 1973 hit "That Lady." Lamar told Flaunt magazine in 2013 that he hadn't been "listening to rap for the last six months. I bought the whole Isley Brothers collection."

Speaking to Zane Lowe on BBC Radio One, Lamar revealed that he turned up at Ronald Isley's house to personally ask permission to sample his song. "I actually had to go to St. Louis and get the blessings from Ronald Isley," he said. "That was a trip. We got in the studio and just vibed and talked about how things were back then and how they are now, and you can actually hear him on the record with a few ad libs that he actually did. We got it on camera and things like that, it's a beautiful thing."

The single's striking cover art shows a Crip and a Blood making "heart" signs with their hands. Speaking with Carson Daly on the Los Angeles radio station KAMP, Lamar explained the message behind the image: "Where I'm from, there's a lot of gang culture and things like that," he said, "so instead of throwing on up gang signs, which we used to, I put a Blood and I put a Crip together and we're throwing up hearts."

Lamar performed the song live for the first time when he made a surprise appearance during the We Day Toronto event at the Air Canada Centre on October 2, 2014.

This was only the fifth song with a title containing just one character to reach the Hot 100. So what were the previous four? They were:

1993 "7" by Prince and the New Power Generation

2005 "O" by Omarion

2009 "3" by Britney Spears

2014 "X" by Chris Brown.

The jubilant video, directed by Alexandre Moors and the Little Homies, finds Lamar rapping, dancing and spreading the love through the Los Angeles streets. Look out for Ronald Isley's cameo as the rapper's driver.

The feel-good song actually came from a time when Lamar was feeling low. "The record feels great; it feels good," the rapper said during an interview with 93.7 The Beat in Houston. "But it comes from a place of depression. It comes from a place of insecurity. Not only for [other people], but for myself. It's a lot of things that I deal with personally. That you deal with, that everyone in this room deals with."

"So, it touches on so many different things, as far as equality within us as human beings, and accepting one another," K-Dot continued. "People that wanna commit suicide; people that just don't respect themselves or like the way they look, feel, talk, dress, and not accept who they are. We all put on this world to be kings, and walk in his image, and that's how it starts - that song."

Lamar rapped this song on the November 15, 2014 episode of Saturday Night Live. K Dot adopted a wild hair style during his performance with parts of his dreads combed out and he also wore some creepy black contacts, which made his eyes look dilated. This was in homage to Method Man whose Tical album was celebrating its twentieth anniversary.

Kendrick Lamar told Billboard magazine the song's "I love myself" chorus was a self-conscious effort to make himself happier. "That's a psychological trick I wanted to play on myself," he explained. "Now that I put this song in the atmosphere, what's going to happen? I have to perform it every night for the next three years when we go on tour. Every time I'm in a weird mood or something goes on at home that I can't handle, I've got to perform it anyway."

This won the 2014 Grammy Awards for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance.

Kendrick Lamar attempts to reclaim the N-word as a source of black pride by exploring its (allegedly African) roots on the song's extended version.

Well, this is my explanation straight from Ethiopia
N-E-G-U-S definition: royalty; King royalty – wait listen
N-E-G-U-S description: Black emperor, King, ruler, now let me finish
The history books overlook the word and hide it
America tried to make it to a house divided
The homies don't recognise we been using it wrong
So I'ma break it down and put my game in a song
N-E-G-U-S, say it with me
Or say no more
Black stars can come and get me.

Speaking to NME in a 2015 interview, Lamar admitted that he doesn't feel ready to omit the N-word from his lyrics. "The closest I can do to stopping is putting the root word, negus, on my album," he said. "But I don't know if I'm there mentally to stop saying the N-word yet. I dunno, maybe one day. That's 27 years of reversing that word, I probably been saying that since I was one-year-old."

Kendrick Lamar - The Blacker the Berry

Kendrick Lamar - The Blacker the Berry Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: To Pimp A Butterfly
Released: 2015

The Blacker the Berry Lyrics

Everything black, I don't want black
I want everything black, I ain't need black
Some white some black, I ain't mean black
I want everything black
Everything black, I don't want black
I want everything black, I ain't need black
Some white some black, I ain't mean black
I want everything black

Six in the morning, fire in the street
Burn baby burn, that's all I wanna see
And sometimes I get off watching you die in vain
It's such a shame they may call me crazy
They may say I suffer from schizophrenia or something but homie you made me
Black don't crack my nigga

I'm the biggest hypocrite of 2015
Once I finish this, witnesses will convey just what I mean
Been feeling this way since I was 16, came to my senses
You never liked us anyway, fuck your friendship, I meant it
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 dick is big, my nose is round and wide
You hate me don't you?
You hate my people, your plan is to terminate my culture
You're fuckin' evil I want you to recognize that I'm a proud monkey
You vandalize my perception but can't take style from me
And this is more than confession
I mean I might press the button just so you know my discretion
I'm guardin' my feelins, I know that you feel it
You sabotage my community, makin' a killin'
You made me a killer, emancipation of a real nigga

The Blacker the Berry, the sweeter the juice
The blacker the berry, the bigger I shoot
I said they treat me like a slave, cah' me black
Woi, we feel a whole heap of pain, cah' we black
And man a say they put me in a chain, cah' we black
Imagine now, big gold chain full of rocks
How you no see the 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, just remember that

I'm the biggest hypocrite in 2015
Once I finish this, witnesses will convey just what I mean
I mean it's evident I'm irrelevant to society
That's what you're telling me, penitentiary would only hire me
Curse me till I'm dead
Church me with your fake prophesizing that I'mma be another slave in my head
Institutionalize manipulation and lies
Reciprocation of freedom only live in your eyes
You hate me don't you?
I know you hate me just as much as you hate yourself
Jealous of my wisdom and cards I dealt
Watchin' me as I pull up, fill up my tank then peel out
Muscle cars like pull ups, show you what these big wheels bout
I'm black and successful, this black man meant to be special
CAT scans on my radar bitch, how can I help you?
How can I tell you that I'm making a killin'?
You made me a killer, emancipation of a real nigga

The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice
The blacker the berry, the bigger I shoot
I said they treat me like a slave, cah' me black
Woi, we feel a whole heap of pain, cah' we black
And man a say they put me in a chain, cah' we black
Imagine now, big gold chain full of rocks
How you no see the 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, just remember that

I'm the biggest hypocrite in 2015
When I finish this if you listenin' I'm sure you will agree
This plot is bigger than me, it's generational hatred
It's genocism, it's grimy, little justification
I'm African-American, I'm African
I'm black as the heart of a fuckin' Aryan
I'm black as the name of Tyrone and Dareous
Excuse my French but fuck you, no fuck ya'll
That's as blunt as it gets
I know you hate me, don't you?
You hate my people, I can tell because it's threats when I see you
I can tell because your ways deceitful
Know I can tell because you're in love with the Desert Eagle
Thinkin' maliciously, he get a chain then you gone bleed him
It's funny how Zulu and Xhosa might go to war
Two tribal armies that want to build and destroy
Remind me of these Compton crip gangs that live next door
Beefin' with Piru's, only death settle the score
So don't matter how much I say I like to preach with the Panthers
Or tell Georgia State "Marcus Garvey got all the answers"
Or try to celebrate February like it's my B-Day
Or eat watermelon, chicken and Kool-Aid on weekdays
Or jump high enough to get Michael Jordan endorsements
Or watch BET cause urban support is important
So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street?
When gang banging make me kill a nigga blacker than me?
Hypocrite!

Writer/s: SAMUELS, MATTHEW / CAMPBELL, JEFFREY / LEWIS, KEN / KOZMENIUK, STEPHEN / EPSTEIN, ZALE / KOLATALO, BRENT / DUCKWORTH, KENDRICK
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

The Blacker the Berry Song Chart

This impassioned, racially charged song features lyrics that celebrate Lamar's African-American heritage, and takes on social issues and hatred. The Compton rapper concludes by referencing his own hypocrisy of being outraged over the 2012 killing of African American teenager Trayvon Martin while gang violence still plagues neighborhoods.

The song title and its ideals are pulled from Wallace Thurman's 1929 novel of the same name, which explores colorism and racial discrimination within the black community.

Lamar quotes 2Pac's 1993 single "Keep Your Head Up," when he raps, "The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice." That line most likely references The Jungle Brothers song "Black Woman," which includes the lyric, "the darker the berry, the sweeter the juice."

The single art shows a mother and her twins, from the tribe of the Surma, in the Valley of the Omo of Ethiopia. It was taken by Italian photographer Giordano Ciprian.

Boi-1da came up with the beat with the help of Stephen "Koz" Kozmeniuk, whilst Terrace Martin added the jazz part at the end. Martin explained his contribution to Billboard magazine: "I was listening to the record, zoning out... what he's talking about is a perfect time for what's going on in life. It's a soulful record, it's a record that needed to be done, and it's like the modern times of Public Enemy. It's a black record. It's a record about being black and being proud at the end of the day."

"It inspired me to counteract what he was doing with something hella jazzy. He just got done talking about 'hypocrites' and pro-black s--t, and I'm like, 'Let me calm that down because we [are about to] cause a riot out here!'"

The song's hook is performed by Jamaican Dancehall artist Assassin, who is notable for his vocal contribution on Kanye West's Yeezus track, "I'm In It."

This is the official song of the NBA 2014-2015 regular season.

Lamar told Rolling Stone that he begun writing the song's lyrics when he saw the news of Trayvon Martin's murder. "It just put a whole new anger inside me," he said.

Lalah Hathaway, often referred to as the First Daughter of Soul, sings the track's intro. The daughter of soul singer Donny Hathaway and a classically trained vocalist, the songstress' performance on Snarky Puppy's "Something" garnered widespread praise due for her astonishing ability to sing multiple notes at one time and earned Hathaway her first Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance.

Jazz pianist Robert Glasper is a frequent collaborator of co-producer Terrace Martin and he ended up contributing to this song. He recalled to Billboard magazine: "Terrace was like, 'Let's get a band together and go in the studio, and just try to come up with some ideas for Kendrick's record.' [The riff] was a little something I came up with in the studio, and we just started jamming on it. It was just something to have, and in the end it was like, 'Oh, I don't think we're going to use any of it for the songs.' But then they ended up tagging it on the end of 'The Blacker The Berry.'"

Lamar concludes the song by rapping:

So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street
When gang banging make me kill a n---a blacker than me, hypocrite

MTV News asked the Compton rapper who he was talking about on the last verse? "A few people think it's just talk and it's just rap; no, these are my experiences," he replied. "When I say, 'Gang banging made me kill a n---a blacker than me,' this is my life that I'm talking about. I'm not saying you, you might not even be from the streets."

"I'm not speaking to the community, I'm not speaking of the community," K-Dot added. "I am the community."