Kendrick Lamar Is Over It

Kendrick Lamar doesn’t want to be a savior, but he’s certainly a spokesman on his latest track, released guerilla style just days after his Super Bowl LIX announcement. The song, where Kendrick raps about it being time to “let the party die,” doesn’t find him expressing much joy at being the first rap soloist to grace the Super Bowl stage. Instead, it sounds like there are more pressing things on his mind — he’s so fed up with the rap ecosystem that he uploaded the five-minute song without a title.  Over Cardo’s brooding beat, Kendrick calls out a rap game that, from his vantage point, is full of “clowns,” “devils,” and “degenerates.” He goes on to target “the rappers that report the lies,” and “the radio personality pushin’ propaganda for salary.” He ponders, “Why reason with these niggas if they can’t see the future first? / Why argue with these clowns if the circus is well at work?” In the runup to 2022’s Mr. Morale and The Big Steppers, Kendrick shared “The Heart Part IV,” where he lambasted the ills that we’ve come to accept as “culture,” complete with a music video in which he shapeshifted into figures like Kanye...