FEAR by Kendrick Lamar is such a beautiful song to me. It encapsulates such an array of different experiences and fears from Lamar's perspective of the world. He expresses apprehensions from living through gang life, fame, even being an African American kid walking home from the drugstore. His fears transform but remain relevant as he goes through experiences from when he was 7, 17 and 27. He's scared of retaining success, he's scared of racism, he's scared of gangs, he's scared of the world, but he has to persist and continue creating. I also love all the sonic layers- phone message recordings, jazz and electronic mixing- interwoven with his poetry.
This is such an incredible piece, and another amazing example of how individual experiences help make larger protests and messages even more potent and powerful. It's for good reason Kendrick has said that this song contains his best verse. The way it's spoken and woven is strong and heart wrenching.
ReplyDeleteI love how candid this track is. Giving us a peak into his innermost thoughts and fears really paints a picture of the world he grew up in and lives in, and shows how it is systemically broken from the oppression of the black community in the United States.
ReplyDeleteI haven't listened to a whole lot of contemporary hip hop, but the more I do, the more I find this thread of 'confessional' and deeply personal/autobiographical music that runs through it. Tupac, Eminem, Kendrick, Biggie. I'm interested to know more about how you hear this as protest.
ReplyDeleteI love Kendrick Lamar! He definitely is one of the leading voices in contemporary rap that constantly challenge the system and oppressive forces. Lamar is really good at creating incredibly thorough story arcs depicting the disenfranchisement of Black Americans in his albums, and "DAMN." is no exception.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great protest piece. I cannot begin to understand what it means to be an African American. Historically speaking America has always been inherently racist; making laws that are specifically designed to disadvantage POC. This track's most important line for me is "if I could smoke fear away I'd roll that muthafucka up." It just speaks to the inherent fears that have plagued POC because of police brutality, racist groups (and others that I probably can't begin to perceive). "Am I living through fear or living through rap?" Kendrick poses this question because he can't discern what drove him to be a successful artist, fear, or rap?
ReplyDelete[This comment is for Hannah's post, it kept returning a "blogger refused to connect" on her post]
This seems like an effective way to engage an audience since the audience is encouraged to take part in the performance. It's also arguably an effective piece because of how uncomfortable the audience to performer interaction is. Frankly, that's a lot of trust to allow the audience to get close to you with sharp objects. The piece left me with a churning stomach honestly; I was pretty nervous as the audience started to just make her topless. This alone speaks to the implications that women are inherently sexualized by the greater society. As someone who cannot relate I like to think we've made progress, but I know we still have a long way to go.
I'm too am interested in the interaction of sonic layers. I think the phone recordings at the beginning and end bring in a fresh dimension that pull us into his thoughts. Chris used the word candid, which I agree with. There doesn't feel to be anything excessive in this track.
ReplyDeleteI love when artists take voice recordings from messages on their phones. I have been experiementing with this some in my work, and what I love about it is that it adds another layer of connection from artist to their work. For the audience to experience such a personal vulnerability, such as messages from the artist's phone, is a special connection for the artist to make. I know this is just the first 10 seconds of an amazing track, but I wanted to recognize how interesting personal anecdotes can be .
ReplyDeleteThe framing of Fear with the voice message(s) quoting scripture really struck me. It is really interesting how, while they promise a future in heaven for God's people, they simultaneously claim God causes his people's struggles for their worship of false idols, etc. This seems like a very oppressive idea in that it pushes a narrative that the struggles of the oppressed are their own fault. I think Kendrick's lyrics "Why, God?" and "God damn us" highlight this seeming conflict. I am not sure if he meant it this way, but it jumped out to me as a possible protest of religion in addition to the other narratives.
ReplyDeleteThis track manages to fit so many interesting elements sonically while still leaving a ton of room for his voice to cut through, which is so effective to me. I think it's so important to leave that room for a track like this because of the oppression and racism (to name only a few of the problems in our society addressed in this track) that he is talking about. We are given a clarity in his voice so that these issues are explicitly pronounced throughout the track.
ReplyDeleteKendrick Lamar is my all-time favorite wrapper / poet / artist. He uses his unique perspective to bring voice and agency to so many who haven't "made it out" yet. I'm so glad he's mainstream because I feel that he is always trying to raise the consciousness of his audience through his art. He never wastes a moment to speak his truth in a nuanced and poetic way.
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