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"These are my demons."Īs for police brutality and political disenfranchisement, "I know the history," he said. I know the hurt that I've caused families," he added. Lamar said in response to critics who said he was ignoring institutional racism. "When I speak, I speak for self first - this is my experience," Mr. In his new interview with the Times, Kendrick clarifies this sentiment even further: Don't start with just a rally, don't start from looting - it starts from within." But when we don't have respect for ourselves, how do we expect them to respect us? It starts from within. What happened to should've never happened. At that time, Lamar drew criticism from some in the activist community for saying, "I wish somebody would look in our neighborhood knowing that it's already a situation, mentally, where it's fucked up. Lamar's "The Blacker the Berry," released in February as the second single from the album, plays both themes concurrently, a confrontational, fiery track that doubles down on his controversial Ferguson-related remarks to Billboard in early January. The pride found on "i" and throughout the rest of the album is largely in celebration and empowerment of those with black skin, regardless of the particular shade - see "Complexion (A Zulu Love)." The guilt comes through in Lamar's fear that he has abandoned his community in the pursuit of wealth and fame, and is especially evident in the song "u," which can be seen as a self-hating counterpoint to his single "i," which bursts with positivity and netted the rapper two Grammy awards for Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song early this year. Throughout the course of the album, themes of guilt and pride run side by side. See also: Rapper Talib Kweli Claims Police Threatened His Life in Ferguson "Kendrick is somebody who, in his music, is very much aligned with movement and activism, and the whole 'Black Lives Matter' movement," fellow rapper and activist Talib Kweli, who spent time on the front lines in Ferguson, told Rolling Stone in another interview published today. That rubbed off," he said, referencing the unrest in Ferguson, Mo. "The world today has a bunch of problems. Mark Spears, an in-house producer at Top Dawg Entertainment known as Sounwave, said there is "a whole lot of anger, a whole lot of frustration" in the music, which was influenced in equal parts by Miles Davis and Dr. In an interview with the New York Times, published today, one of the producers from Lamar's TDE crew acknowledged last year's turmoil in Ferguson as an influence on the direction of the album: See also: Kendrick Lamar Addresses Criticism to His Ferguson Remarks With "The Blacker the Berry"