Kendrick Lamar takes off our masks
I’m absolutely crazy about the new album by Kendrick Lamar, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers. This is a track from it, called N95, after the face-mask Americans wore during the pandemic. Lamar use it as a symbol for the masks we all wear, hiding our true selves behind designer cloths and fake attitudes, judging others while refusing to take a close, honest look at ourselves.
Take off the fake deep
Take off the fake woke
Take off the I’m broke, I care (take it off)
Take off the gossip
Take off the new logic, that if I’m rich, I’m rare (take it off)
Take off the Chanel
Take off the Dolce
Take off the Birkin bag (take it off)
Take all that designer bullshit off
And what do you have? (bitch)
Huh, huh, uh, you ugly as fuck
Take the mask off and not much is left. Lamar appears to criticise his government’s Covid policy and our adherence to material things and fake attitudes at the same time. He seems to take a jab at cancel culture:
What the fuck is cancel culture, dawg?
Say what I want about you n******, I’m like Oprah, dawg
I treat you crackers like I’m Jigga, watch, I own it all
Oh, you worried ’bout a critic? That ain’t protocol
And at duality:
I’m done with the sensitive, takin’ it personal, done with the black and the white, the wrong and the right
I find his lyrics very Christian. In the brilliant video there are two references to Jesus Christ: when Lamar floats in the air with his arms spread, like he’s nailed on an invisible cross, and when he walks on water. On the cover of his new album he wears a crown of thorns. He raps:
Can I vent all my truth? I got nothin’ to lose
I got problems and pools, I can swim on my faith
I’m guessing he says he wants to say whatever he feels is the truth, like Jesus, and that people can love him and hate him for it, for all he cares. He’s got “problems and pools”, which maybe sounds like he’s bragging about his wealth, but they’re the pools of his faith. So when he’s in trouble, he’ll have the power and the consolation of his faith.
Anyway, I think it’s genius. (PB)





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