
Often times, distinctive features are portrayed throughout artwork and music videos in a way to provoke subliminal thought in a viewer’s mind. Our minds are always subconsciously picking up underlying meanings whether we realize it or not. Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” music video subliminally acts on our minds by being shot in black and white. Our eyes subconsciously pick up on the contrasting looks of the darkly colored African American men and the white police officers. We have been trained to relate dark colors to evil and white to be a more positive color. The music video also provokes thought with the integration of meaningful lyrics that act as a catalyst to our imagination, allowing us to connect to our past experiences and affect the views we have on the controversial topics presented in the music video. We then relate these ideas to what is happening in today’s world. Lamar uses frames instilled with issues and ideas representative of today’s current problem between African Americans and police officers to evoke awareness in viewers. One of the current problems he was insinuating towards was the “Hands up, don’t shoot” movement. This is a movement that stemmed from the shooting of unarmed Michael Brown, who was shot while his hands were above his head in compliance with police officer’s requests. Since then, several other similar shootings have occurred. The imagery portrayed in Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” shows African Americans running from cops and trying to survive in a world filled with discrimination.

A visual motif often portrayed in Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” music video is an image of African American men rising above police officers and law. The first way in which this is portrayed is a shot of Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul, Schoolboy Q, and Jay riding in an old, beat-up car, being carried on the shoulders of four police officers. In this shot they appear to be “vibing” to music being played in the car and one of the rappers is drinking alcohol in the back of the car. This imagery of these four African Americans in the car shows them as looking gangster. He uses a black and white shot to contrast the opposing skin colors of the four black men in the car against the white skin tone of the four police officers carrying the car, without focusing too much on the background or foreground. The reason for using black and white is because the skin color of the men in the car, and the skin color of the police officers carrying them, can be categorized into either black or white. By creating a neutral ground for all other background colors, it allows the viewer to focus on the centerpiece of the shot, the racially divided people. This scene symbolizes Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul, Schoolboy Q, and Jay having fun, in their old car, listening to music, while staying above police. They are not doing anything illegal, and would therefore not give the police any reason to submit dominance upon them and take control of the situation. The way the scene is shot gives the impression that the African America men are driving the car. Then, upon zooming out, you see the car is being carried by four police officers. This camera work is representative of the conclusions that our minds jump too and how the entire situation needs to be analyzed before making judgements.

While we should not judge the scenes of Lamar’s music video before the shots have been fully established; likewise, police officers should not judge the four African Americans based on their looks. In today’s society, an issue of high political importance is racial discrimination, the judging of a person based on their skin color. In the criminal justice system today, police frequently discriminate against African Americans. Kendrick Lamar looks to reverse the roles and show African Americans being treated well by police. He achieves this by showing the police putting the black men in higher regard by carrying their car. In doing so, it causes the viewers to think more in-depth about the message Lamar is trying to send. When the viewer perceives something as being abnormal, it makes them want to figure out what it is that makes the scene seem odd. The shot of the police officers carrying Kendrick Lamar’s car causes the viewer to think deeply about the message that the music video is trying to convey. 

Another way in which a motif is displayed in Kendrick’s “Alright” music video is with an image of Kendrick Lamar standing on top of a traffic light. This frame, while showing a lot in it, can also have a lot of underlying connotations. The scene showing Kendrick Lamar perched on top of the traffic light is in a big city with other African American bystanders looking at him in admiration. The traffic light is representative of our laws and the policing system in our society. Kendrick sitting on this stoplight is an image used to portray an African American man rising above the law. The African Americans down below looking up at Kendrick have a look of admiration in their eyes and a smile on their faces. They are smiling because they see another member of their African American community rising above the law and taking a stand for his rights. The lyrics of the song at this moment in the music video say, “I can see the evil.” With Kendrick Lamar being above the law and being able to see the entire city around him, he is able to see the evil in our corrupt criminal justice system.

 The final scene of the music video brings everything back into reality. The scene shows Kendrick Lamar standing on a light post on a hill outside of a city. Him being on this light post again symbolizes him as being above the law. Kendrick Lamar is singing and dancing on top of the light post when a white police officer pulls up in a cop car. Kendrick is seemingly doing nothing wrong. Then the white police officer pulls out a gun. The shot switches to a slow motion shot of the white police officer holding up his fingers in the shape of a gun and “firing.” No bullet is actually fired, but Kendrick still gets hit in the chest and blood shoots out. He falls from the light post in a very dramatic, slow-motion manner. By the police officer not actually firing a bullet and still shooting down Kendrick, it shows that black people are oppressed by the police in many different ways other than gun violence. This shot reverses the motifs in the music video that black people are safe above the law. Kendrick Lamar, a prominent figure in the African American community who has done nothing wrong, is shot down by white police officers. Throughout the entire music video, Kendrick tries to spread positivity with the lyrics, “We gon’ be alright”. After Lamar is shot and is lying lifeless on the ground, the music cuts out and zooms in on Kendrick’s face. He opens his eyes and smiles and the music video ends. This symbolizes the positivity that Kendrick wishes to spread even in wake of all the problems between blacks and police officers.

Throughout “Alright”, distinct visual features including the scenes mentioned above are all working collectively towards the common purpose of displaying the current predicament in America, African Americans vs. police forces. The music video encases the principal problem of police, in which they shoot harmless citizens. Many forms of streamed media like Kendrick Lamar’s music video for “Alright” have underlying meaning about today’s current issues and we tend to not even grasp them. These messages influence our viewpoints on these issues by the way they are depicted and presented to us through pop culture media. Sometimes you must stand back and look at the messages the artist is trying to get across through his works. 