mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:#222222;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA">On Sunday, rapper Kendrick Lamar
stole the show at the Billboard Awards when he walked away with six wins. His haul of awards came off the back of his
critically-acclaimed, multi-platinum selling 2017 release, DAMN.
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:#222222;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA">Throughout his career, Lamar has had
a penchant for crafting songs that paint vivid and alluring pictures of the
continent. We looked for and found three instances where he did
just that:
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:#222222;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA">To Pimp A Butterfly,
Berry
Kendrick Lamar performing at the 60th annual Grammy Awards at Madison Square Garden in New York. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:#222222;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA">This entire project gave a powerful
narrative on black life. But it was this passage where he notably referenced two South African tribes that went for:
“It’s funny how Zulu and Xhosa might go to war / Two tribal armies that want to
build and destroy / Remind me of these Compton Crip gangs that live next door /
Beefin’ with Pirus, only death settle the score!”
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:#222222;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA">
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:#222222;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA">Untitled, Unmastered,
(Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:#222222;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA">Lamar’s off-the-wall album, Untitled,
Unmastered was packed with some riveting African references. One of the
strongest was Blue Faces, which touches on Cape Town’s history of slavery:
"Your pain ain’t mine half the time/ A brand new excuse ain’t nothing to
me / See I made my moves, with shackled feet... Cape Town, Cape Town, Cape
Town, Cape Town…”
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:#222222;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA">
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:#222222;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA">To Pimp A Butterfly,
Photo: KEVIN WINTER/GETTY IMAGES
At the end of the
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:#222222;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA"> Grammy award-winning single,
i, Lamar proposed an
Ethiopian alternative to the word n***** - negus. He raps: "Well, this is my explanation
straight from Ethiopia / N-E-G-U-S definition: royalty; King
royalty – wait listen / N-E-G-U-S description: Black emperor,
King, ruler, now let me finish."