Name(s): ______
Lyric Analysis
You will be analyzing Kendrick Lamar lyrics from a collection of songs from his recent album “To Pimp a Butterfly.” Lamar’s songs and prose deal with very similar issues of oppression, internalized racism, and institutionalized hatred.
Song: Blacker the Berry (Lyrics attached)
Step 1: Read the lyrics attached. Highlight/underline powerful lines.
What do you think is the message of the song?
What is the tone? Who is the audience?
List 1-2 powerful lines and provide an analysis. How do these lines relate to your understanding of The Bluest Eye?
Step 2: Youtube the song. (It is your choice if you listen to the clean or explicit version-profanity can be beneficial when analyzed for meaning)
How does watching the song enforce or change your perception of the song?
How does the melody or vocal tones contribute to the message?
What are some institutions of oppression?
How does this relate to institutionalized racism in The Bluest Eye?
Is poverty a personal responsibility or an institutionalized construct?
Explain the connection between this song and The Bluest Eye.
Analyze the following lyrics:
I'm trapped inside the ghetto and I ain't proud to admit it
Institutionalized, I keep runnin' back for a visit
And once upon a time, in a city so divine
Called West Side Compton, there stood a little n****
He was 5 foot something, dazed and confused
Talented but still under the neighborhood ruse
You can take your boy out the hood but you can't take the hood out the homie
Institutionalized
[Intro: Kendrick Lamar]
What money got to do with it
When I don't know the full definition of a rap image?
I'm trapped inside the ghetto and I ain't proud to admit it
Institutionalized, I keep runnin' back for a visit
Hol' up, get it back
I said I'm trapped inside the ghetto and I ain't proud to admit it
Institutionalized, I could still kill me a n****, so what?
[Interlude: Anna Wise and Bilal]
If I was the president
I'd pay my mama's rent
Free my homies and them
Bulletproof my Chevy doors
Lay in the White House and get ****, Lord
Who ever thought?
Master take the chains off me!
Zoom ZoomZoomZoomZoom
Zoom, Zoom, Zoom
Zoom ZoomZoomZoomZoom
Zoom, Zoom, Zoom
****
[Verse 1: Kendrick Lamar]
Life can be like a box of chocolate
Quid pro quo, somethin' for somethin', that's the obvious
Oh ****, flow's so sick, don't you swallow it
Bitin' my style, you're salmonella poison positive
I can just, alleviate the rap industry politics
Milk the game up, never lactose intolerant
The last remainder of real ****, you know the obvious
Me, scholarship? No, streets put me through colleges
Be all you can be, true, but the problem is
Dream only a dream if work don't follow it
Remind me of the homies that used to know me, now follow this
I'll tell you my hypothesis, I'm probably just way too loyal
K Dizzle will do it for you, my n**** think I'm a god
Truthfully all of 'em spoiled, usually you're never charged
But somethin' came over you once I took you to the ****** BET Awards
You lookin' at artists like the harvests
So many Rollies around you and you want all of them
Somebody told me you thinkin' 'bout snatchin' jewelry
I should've listened when my grandmama said to me
[Hook: Bilal]
****don't change until you get up and wash yo' ass, n****
****don't change until you get up and wash yo' ass, boy
**** don't change until you get up and wash yo' ass, n****
Oh now, slow down
[Bridge: Snoop Dogg]
And once upon a time, in a city so divine
Called West Side Compton, there stood a little n****
He was 5 foot something, God bless the kid
Took his homie to the show and this is what they said
[Verse 2: Kendrick Lamar]
****am I 'posed to do when I'm lookin' at walkin' licks?
The constant big money talk 'bout the mansion and foreign whips
The private jets and passport, presidential glass floor
Gold bottles, gold models, sniffin' up the ass for
Instagram flicks, **** * ****, ***** is this?
One more **** away from wavin' flashy wrist
My defense, mechanism tell me to get him, quickly because he got it
It's a recession, then why the **** he a King of Diamonds?
No more livin' poor, meet my four-four
When I see 'em, put the per diem on the floor
Now Kendrick, know they're your co-workers
But it's gon' take a lot for this pistol to go cold turkey
Now I can watch his watch on the TV and be okay
But see I'm on the clock once that watch landin' in LA
Remember steal from the rich and givin' it back to the poor?
Well that's me at these awards
I guess my grandmama was warnin' a boy
She said...
[Hook]
[Outro: Snoop Dogg]
And once upon a time, in a city so divine
Called West Side Compton, there stood a little n****
He was 5 foot something, dazed and confused
Talented but still under the neighborhood ruse
You can take your boy out the hood but you can't take the hood out the homie
Took his show money, stashed it in the mozeywozey
Hollywood's nervous
****you, goodnight, thank you much for your service