The song "m.A.A.d city" by Kendrick Lamar and featuring MC Eiht comes off of a concept album about Kendrick's teenage life in his hometown, Compton, California.
The audience is the listener, who is regularly addressed as "you" throughout the song.The speaker in this song is, in fact, the poet (Kendrick Lamar).
Kendrick's occasion is looking back on his teenage past in Compton and his harsh experiences.
The meaning of the song is to expose the reality of living in a neighborhood controlled by violence, gangs, and drugs, and show the struggle of fighting against these bad influences and not giving up hope.
Lamar uses the lyric "Pakistan on every porch is fine, we adapt to crime" to speak about the violence that permeates Compton. He compares the violence in Compton to the violence in Pakistan, and states that in his experience, everyone becomes completely desensitized to this violence. Another one of his lines, "...boy with a chopper/That hold the cul de sac hostage, kill 'em all if they gossip/The Children of the Corn" reflects the Compton gangs' recruitment of children at a young age. The Children of the Corn are children who pledge themselves to a deity they call "He Who Walks Behind the Rows" (The Children of the Corn is a short story by Stephen King). Lamar is saying that Compton children who pledge themselves to gangs are real-life Children of the Corn. After Kendrick smokes marijuana that is laced with cocaine, MC Eiht goes on to comment in his stanza, "Cocaine, weed. Niggas been mixing shit since the 80s, loc." Not only is weed being mixed with cocaine an everyday occurrence, but the lyrics "since the 80s" implies that it has been this way for a long time, and will continue to be this way in the future.
However, Kendrick does not give up hope that things can get better. Lamar uses the line "Warriors and Conans/Hope euphoria can slow dance with society" to show that he still has hope the one day the Warriors and Conans (gang members) will stop controlling Compton. Another line of his, "Would you say my intelligence now is great relief?/And it's safe to say our next generation maybe can sleep/With dreams of being a lawyer or doctor" shows that he wants to put his faith in intelligence, and that it could be an answer to the senseless violence in Compton.
I like your post Aidan. I have heard this song many times and had not thought of it in a poetic way, mostly because I did not listen to the lyrics. However, after seeing your post, you have convinced me that this song is truly a poetic work.
ReplyDeleteI always thought that this genre of music in general was poetic because of the form and lyricism. This was a good analysis of your song.
ReplyDeleteI am a big fan of the song and I think your analysis of the meaning behind the song in a genre of music, which is traditionally misunderstood. The poetic nature of this song and the whole album is really addressed in this post, which I really like.
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