Kendrick the Hypocrite, Trippin’ and Lovin’ It
On ‘GNX,’ Kendrick is a mortal, a savior, an icon, and a firestarter all rolled into one.
Hypocrisy has long been one of Kendrick Lamar’s favorite vices. When he called himself “the biggest hypocrite of 2015” on To Pimp a Butterfly’s “The Blacker the Berry,” the Compton native was attempting to address several racially coded paradoxes: How could he, a Black man and rap superstar struggling with survivor’s remorse, dare take pride in his heritage when “gang-banging made me kill a nigga Blacker than me?” The uncomfortable, contradictory mess of it all was the point, albeit one served with a heaping spoonful of respectability politics. This dichotomy has been at the core of his work since at least 2012’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City—it’s right there in that album’s title. But over the last decade, it’s manifested in several forms, from the pious doomsaying of Damn. to the fidgety melodrama of Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers to this year’s piping-hot rap world war with Drake. Kendrick may have walked away triumphant, but he’s not really one for mindless victory laps. He’s still plenty conflicted. And now, his hypocrisies animate his entire being.
