I thought my computer froze the first few times I watched it but no, for reasons I can’t fathom it’s intentional. The video freezes like a buffering computer or a glitch in the matrix when a skateboarder appears soaring across the sky. The next scene is where things get weird. The addition of a drunken Kendrick in a hotel room on the verge of jumping from the 16th floor mixed into this array of images would perfectly symbolize the depression and loneliness of “U.” It’s like a mini video within the video, a sign of things to come. They intertwine an audio clip of “loving me is complicated” in the background before our ears are filled with Kendrick’s horrifying scream from “U.” Both screams are used during a strange shot of a black ceiling with mini lights glowing. Zooming in on the Port of Oakland, boats at sea, a neighborhood cloaked by smoke and sky scrapers. The first 30 seconds is completely b-roll footage that’s made into a slideshow of deserted locations, bleak and almost apocalyptic imagery. It’s a black and white tone with a deep contrast that gives off a gorgeous yet ominous ambiance. It’s bigger than just a song.’ It’s a bittersweet moment.The video begins with a wide angle shot of the Oakland Bay Bridge in a color that can only be described as dark sky paradise (you’re welcome Sean). Goosebumps were happening: ‘Wow, this is a part of history happening. “One of our guys showed us a video of and what they were chanting. “We were on the set of the Ellen show when was performing,” Sounwave says, remembering the moment when he realized the song became a rallying cry. That’s how a song becomes centripetal to a new age civil rights movement, from Black Lives Matter marches, to Cleveland protesters bravely chanting after being pepper sprayed by police, to Chicagoan Trump protesters singing it after canceling a rally appearance, and onward.Īnd perhaps the next generation will have its “Alright” when the time comes to demonstrate once more, just like the ones prior had “Fight the Power” and “A Change Is Gonna Come.” It’s a heavy honor for the songwriters: Perhaps in a better world, there wouldn’t need to be such protest anthems. But the anthem’s significance lies in how black America’s cross-generational link to the struggle for the liberty they’ve been denied extends beyond teachings to pass on - it’s felt. In plainspoken terms, “Alright” was a banger, earning Kendrick two Grammys and a modest No. His voice is bass-less but resolute, jubilant but not quite naive. Producer Pharrell magically condenses those complexities with a four-word refrain. Kendrick valiantly raps through an impossible scope within three-and-a-half minutes, emphasizing arcane Christian and Greek mythology references, riling against homicidal police, brooding about temptation, and ending it with a coda that strives for self-love. By the end of Barack Obama’s presidency, that dream corroded with reminders of black America’s mortality, crudely captured through cellphone footage.īillboard Cover: Kendrick Lamar on Ferguson, Leaving Iggy Azalea Alone and Why 'We're in the Last…Īnd yet, “Alright” carries the temerity to hope. Perhaps the closest 21st century analogue in terms of political and cultural impact is Jeezy and Nas’ “My President.” It’s materialistic, but the charm doesn’t rest in the blue Lambo this is the ecstasy of having a black president, physical proof of there existing a limitlessness in being African-American.
“Once we finished that, it opened Kendrick’s mind to go where he went with it.” People thought it was crazy to throw a saxophone on a song like that, so I had to tell everybody, ‘Trust me, it’s gonna feel right.’ I got Terrace Martin in there - he killed it.
“In order for it to work, I had to make it feel like the rest of the album. I just remembered that fact that we loved the skeletal version of the ‘Alright’ beat that Pharrell did,” Sounwave says. “We needed that high-intensity song but just didn’t have it yet. In that quest for an undeniable LP centerpiece, they stumbled onto a generational hymn.
“Alright” was finished a week before To Pimp a Butterfly’s release as its conspirators decided they needed that one beacon to shine through the album’s multi-genre thicket. Kendrick Lamar and company sat for months on choir of Pharrell voices that became “Alright.” During that timespan, Akai Gurley and 12-year-old Tamir Rice were introduced to the nation not as sons, but corpses.