"A Hood Spiritual: Kendrick Lamar"

This will be my last post of Black History Month, and I feel bad. I feel bad because there were so many more Black musicians to talk about and pay homage to. However, because I know that Black History should not be condensed into one month, I am going to continue to celebrate our music for a couple more days. Our music is an everyday thing. I need Black music; I need the gospel, the hip-hop, and the soul everyday!

I feel we can end this month the nation is supposed to acknowledge us on with a man from Compton, California. If anyone saw the animated picture of him beside J. Cole and Drake, you can also believe that he is “the soul” of hip-hop. This man’s name is Kendrick Lamar. Lamar’s most recent cd, To Pimp A Butterfly, is a masterpiece. He mixes Blues with Hip-hop (again, to show you that the music we create for us does correlate), he talks about his own issues as a Black man, and he finds a way to heal. I enjoyed it.

However, like in my post about Tupac, Lamar is complex. We can talk about that complexity or why I cringe on some of his songs at a later date.

The song I would like to leave us with is what I would call A Hood Spiritual. In “Alright”, Lamar successfully mixes hood and religion for it to relate and empower activists, drug dealers, Black families, and many more who are trying to find ways to fight against a system of oppression. The song does not condemn anyone for thinking a certain way. It also isn’t too complicated for anyone in the Black community to understand.

Similar to how Fred Hammond beautifully sings that ,

"No Weapon formed against me

shall prosper

it won't work"

Kendrick Lamar poetically states that,

"Wouldn't you know

We been hurt, been down before

Nigga, when our pride was low

Lookin' at the world like, 'Where do we go nigga?'

And we hate PoPo, when they kill us dead in the streets fo' sho' nigga

I'm at the preachers do'

My knees getting weak, and my gun might blow, but we gon' be alright"

By the end of a gospel or spiritual song I have cried, thought about my life, and began to pick up the broken pieces and feel hope again. This is what happens when I listen to Lamar's "Alright". By the end of the song I am hopeful that everything will be okay.

Watch the video above and really take the time to hear what he is sayin’. It is a great time, as always, to be Black!