Kendrick Lamar has deep and deliberate messages in his music, but rather than explain his motivations he’d rather leave it up to the listener. So when MTV News correspondent Sway Calloway prodded about K. Dot’s inspirations behind his latest video, the good kid tried his best to maintain the mystery.
“It’s a few different hidden messages over there but the most obvious showing that even a grieving situation, your vibe can’t be killed,” Lamar said when he came offstage at this weekend’s Hangout Festival in Gulf Shores, Alabama. “There’s other little intricate things in there, I like to leave it up to the viewers and the listeners.”
The video appropriately opens in a church as the somber chords play under Kendrick’s melodic declaration of his sins. “I am a sinner, who’s probably gonna sin again. Lord forgive,” he harmonizes.
After several beats pass, it becomes apparent that Lamar is attending a funeral, as he walks past several grievers wearing white and places his hand on a white casket before walking out of the church. In his conversation with Kendrick, Sway pointed out the similarities between the rapper’s all-white funeral and West African Yoruba customs where death is celebrated as a transition into another life. “That was an idea,” Kendrick confirmed, not giving up much else.
As far as the hilarious Mike Epps cameo, where the comedian baptizes Kendrick in a pool full of liquor: “That was just being funny. That was him being crazy,” Lamar said. “I’ve always been a fan of him and that was just something right on the spot just because we were there.”
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