In new album, Kendrick Lamar delivers introspection and biting social critique

wow Pulitzer Prize ….

Spoken-word track "We Cry Together," which features actress Taylour Paige, portrays a fighting couple whose biting words see personal anger transition into structural rage.

*"You the reason why strong women ****up / Why they say it's a man world / See, you the reason for Trump / You the reason we overlooked, underpaid, underbooked, under shame," read the lyrics.

I’m always curious about lyrics. Rap, not so much. But I’m not seeing any connection in this snippet.

Lots of blame in those words, and a airplay jump for mentioning Trump. Hey, that rhymes. Maybe I should rap.

Anyway, I wonder if there’s a song on it about the corrupt BLM leader and her $6 mill house purchase with donated funds. Probably not

Maybe I should rap.

Nobody stopping you. Maybe you’ll get famous and then lots of whiny jealous people can post about you on JT someday.

Lots of blame in those words, and a airplay jump for mentioning Trump. Hey, that rhymes. Maybe I should rap.

I love how people think it's so easy to rap. Ever see someone try to do it at Karaoke? It's a nightmare every single time.

StrangerlandMay 15  11:27 pm JST

Lots of blame in those words, and a airplay jump for mentioning Trump. Hey, that rhymes. Maybe I should rap.

I love how people think it's so easy to rap. Ever see someone try to do it at Karaoke? It's a nightmare every single time.

I (barely) remember the early rappers from 1979 and the early 80s. I saw them on MTV and other networks, they had bands of musicians (no samplings), wore glammy outfits and at the time I just took them to be another form of soul or at least funk. Lyrical themes were about anything but they sure didn't glorify criminal activity or violence, and swearing was minimal. They were fun to listen to and watch, I liked them. Rapping also was/is an art form, made up on the spot with a certain meter and rhyming. In its best form, it's a discipline. In my own navy recruit training company we had about three rappers who'd make up raps about what we were doing.

All those aspects changed when 2 Live Cru put out their first album in late 1986. They go out of their way to be pornographic, offensive and sick. There's still a few that aren't that way. Ice-T uses dirty language and writes about city street gangs but he definitely doesn't glorify their actions, he condemns it. The movie 'Colors' shows that.