There is a message in Kendrick Lamar’s latest album, To Pimp a Butterfly. This message seems to be imbedded in every song on the album. Line by line, Kendrick Lamar unveils a poem, at the end of these songs: “I remember you was conflicted, misusing your influence. Sometimes I did the same,” he recites repeatedly after many tracks. “Abusing my power, full of resentment.” Who Kendrick is referring to when he says “you” is a little ambiguous but he clarifies this through visuals in his videos and complex lyrical genius. After listening to the entire album, it all comes together to pose the primary concept of this album: Rappers have a responsibility to their communities but they are ignoring it. Kendrick even admits that he was once guilty of doing this himself. This message is also present in the title of the album. To pimp something is to make it attractive. Kendrick compares pimping a butterfly to the ostentatious lifestyles rappers choose to live, these rappers symbolic for butterflies because they have morphed from caterpillars (black people who live under the austerity of America) to butterflies (people who fly high above these usurpations). 

 In Kendrick Lamar’s Alright video, a reoccurring pattern of him being suspended above the ground adds much indistinctness to an already complex video. In the first instance, he is in a car with his peers; when the camera pans out the audience is made aware that police officers are carrying the car. The strong message Lamar is trying to deliver here is that black celebrities are often exempt from the brutality that most African Americans in our country endure. The audience can come to this symbolism because the three people in the vehicle with Kendrick are Schoolboy Q, Ab Soul, and Jay Rock-all three are famous black people. The camera view in this scene also strengthen this imagery by Kendrick. The view is shot from below, not necessarily bugs eye view, but it still makes the individuals in the vehicle seem more significant. This exclusion from police brutality makes it more difficult for these rappers to empathize with those undergoing exploitation, therefore, also making it very easy to ignore the problem all together.

The second time that we see Kendrick Lamar above the ground is in a completely different context. This time he is floating, or some would say flying, much like a superhero. This refers to the way rappers are generally idolized by most Americans, especially the youth. Kendrick Lamar seems to be conscious of the fact that many people place him on a pedestal and view him as a hero. Rather he likes this view of him is a little more complex to interpret. As a “superhero” it is his and other rappers’ duty to help their community. It is a well-known saying that “with great power comes great responsibility”. These rappers have the power to shape the minds of the black community in a positive way but they instead choose to stand by and watch their community go through turmoil. Kendrick wants to use his power to make a strong impact on his community and influence other rappers to do the same.

 He remains flying throughout most of the video and only hits the ground in the last scene of the music videos when a police officer shoots him. When Lamar finally falls to his “demise” he looks directly at the camera, as if intentionally addressing his audience, and winks. This small, yet crucial gesture by Kendrick tells the audience that at the end of the day, black or white, rich or poor, no one is untouchable. This leads me to believe that even though he accepts being a role model to the youth he still wants them to know that he’s only human, just like they are. Taking this one step further, it’s a message to the “other side”, the police officers that are taking lives. The message delivered is that the officers and the opposition are both people, “equal in the eyes of God.”

In the final example, we see of Kendrick suspended above the ground, he is suspended by a group of people-specifically a group of African American people. The symbolism here is one of black empowerment. He is expressing that “We” as black people have the responsibility to uplift one another. The lyrics in the hook “We been hurt, been down before” and then lines later “Nigga, we gone be alright” strengthen this argument. The hook goes back to the history of black people, in which the only resource we’ve had has been each other and we used that resource to come this far and we must use it if we wish to get any farther. Here, Kendrick takes it one step further and claims it is the responsibility of all black people, not just those in power to help change their community for the better.  The camera angle in this scene, birds eye view, places the emphasis on the group and not one specific individual. This is important to the idea of togetherness that Kendrick wishes to implicate. 

In Kendrick Lamar’s Alright video, he uses the same motif-him being off the ground-to articulate many strong ideas. Even though these ideas are different, they all strengthen each other in the overall theme of black empowerment. Lamar expresses a systematic problem in which the rappers in America see our country suffering and instead of using their influence to help, they focus on things that don’t matter. He then builds on the same idea of idolizing celebrities in the second instance but this time he expresses that they should use the position they’re in to make a difference, and finally he distributes the responsibility to the community because if they want something to change they must act and not expect someone to liberate them. This video is a perfect example of the message Kendrick Lamar wished to portray with his album, To Pimp a Butterfly. 