Rap music has always had an interesting relationship with pop culture.  Even with the controversial lyrics that are associated with rap music, a majority of the top 40 hits are made from rap artists. Many think that rap is nothing more than bass heavy music about guns, sex and drugs, but artists like Kendrick Lamar prove otherwise.  In the song "The Blacker the Berry" Kendrick Lamar criticizes not only racism in the government but also criticizes the black community for its hypocrisy. 

The title of this piece is extremely important. "The Blacker the Berry" is the title of a book by Wallace Thurman that gained huge popularity within the black community for its insight into racism and color based discrimination.  But, it wasn't about racism between blacks and white, rather discrimination within the black community.  This novel attempted to illustrate the hypocrisy of blacks in America complaining about injustice brought on by whites while they themselves discriminated against each other.  Similarly,   in this song, Kendrick Lamar brings out a different kind of hypocrisy that occurs in African-American communities.

In the first verse, it is clear the narrator is directing his words towards a white audience.  He says "You hate me don't you?/You hate my people, your plan is to terminate my culture."  This is building up the mentality that Lamar believes most Blacks in America have, that the problems are between Whites and Blacks.  At the end of the verse he makes a reference saying, "You sabotaged my community, makin' a killin'/You made me a killer."  This is pulling on a big scandal that occurred in the government.  It is believed by many that the CIA is responsible for an rapid rise of crack cocaine in poor black communities in the U.S., especially California.  It was well known that many of the pilots that were supposed to be transporting arms from the south, had a history of drug trafficking.  Creating a dependency in these poor communities would ensure a steady demand for more drugs, allowing the CIA to continue to profit.  This is used to further support that idea that the problem is between oppressed African-Americans and powerful white officials.

The second verse calls out the those who are in charge and believe that Black Americans are actually free. Lamar writes "Institutionalized manipulation and lies/Reciprocation of freedom only lives in your eyes"  Here Lamar could be doing two things.  He could be referencing the Emancipation Proclamation because it is well known that even thought the document said to free all slaves, it was ignored and slavery continued anyways.  Even after slavery was officially ended, segregation and discrimination was still used to keep people of a darker complexion, down in society. The other way this like could be interpreted as, is a reference to incarceration in the United States. In an earlier line Lamar says "I mean, it's evident that I'm irrelevant to society/That's what you're telling me, penitentiary would only hire me" It is known that Blacks are statistically more likely, nearly six times more likely, to be incarcerated than whites. This causes all kinds of trouble for already struggling families.  One less income for a home, diminished job opportunities upon release, inability to receive loans, and much more.

In  the last verse gives on answer to why he has been calling himself a hypocrite at the beginning of every verse.  Lamar says "So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street when/gang banging make me kill a nigga blacker than me?/Hypocrite!" Here we can see how the title is related to the theme of this rap.  Lamar uses the first two verses of the song to build an emotional connection with the idea of inequality between Blacks and Whites but then comes full circle and illustrated how hypocritical it is when looked alongside black on black crime.  Similarly, when asked about the riots in Ferguson Lamar said " What happened to [Michael Brown] should've never happened. Never. But when we don't have respect for ourselves, how do we expect them to respect us? It starts from within. Don't start with just a rally, don't start from looting -- it starts from within."  This is the same mentality that Wallace Thurman had when he wrote "The Blacker the Berry."  Lamar used this historical piece of writing to make a connection to current day issues.  Instead of relating color discrimination between Blacks and Whites to discrimination within the black community he related violence between police officers and young black men to the violence between rival gangs.  

The historical context of this song is what makes it so potent. Bringing up the CIA's involvement in drug trading, the inequalities in the justice system and how it relates to incarceration and poverty, and most effective, the reference to another famous forward thinker, Wallace Thurman all add credibility to Lamar's argument. Lamar recognizes that this hypocrisy isn't something that is new and it is something that needs to be confronted and dealt with before any major changes can be made.

