Red and blue aren’t just colors. Colors have meaning, whether it be red lights signaling for a vehicle to stop in traffic or the connotation many people have with blue being the calming hue of the sky or the ocean. In many neighborhoods across the world, red and blue represent a quest for power in communities riddled with violence and despair.
On the cover art for rapper Kendrick Lamar’s newest single “i,” two people stand side-by-side, one wearing blue and one wearing red. The colors signify the rival gang affiliation that grew from the streets of Compton, California, Kendrick’s hometown, to create conflicts that reach as far as Europe. In his world, red will always stand for Blood, and blue will always stand for Crip; peace on Earth begins with peace on his streets.
The men that stand side by side in this image aren’t gesturing to create the gang symbols that are often associated with the sets they represent; they both have fashioned their hands in the shape of a heart. The message of street gang peace is important and poignant, but there is a larger picture that the audio and music video that accompany “i” helps depict even better than the thumbnail associated with the single.
The song’s most striking feature is its unconventional sound. Instead of sampling, producer Rahki commissioned musicians to replay elements of The Isley Brothers’ 1973 hit “That Lady, Pts. 1 & 2,” a song written during the genesis of Los Angeles street gangs. Many of these clubs were founded in the interests of the self-policing of black neighborhoods after events, such as the Watts Riots, strained the relationship between the black community and the police.
As the leadership of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements in Los Angeles began to dwindle, many black youth used their angst as a reason to band together. The funky tunes of this era, much like the gang lifestyle of the region, serve as defining features in West Coast rap music from the advent of the subgenre with early artists such as Ice-T, N.W.A., Compton’s Most Wanted and DJ Quik. Kendrick and Rahki, along with a band including popular L.A. area bassist Thundercat, reimagined the popular G-Funk sound that is almost synonymous with the Los Angeles rap scene. The guitar riffs are more frantic than Ernie Isley’s slaps on the original, and the drums thump deep into the groove.
Even with its “dancing-through-the-street” style motif that mirrors the video from Pharrell’s 2013 smash “Happy,” Kendrick’s adept lyricism teeters on the edge of darkness before jolting itself back to the light.
“I’ve been dealing with depression ever since an adolescent, duckin’ every other blessin’, I can never see the message,” Kendrick raps in the opening stanza of the song’s third verse.
With the familiar feel-good warmth of disco funk blanketing each word Kendrick speaks, many of the brutal punches of his paranoia are easy to miss.
For all the lows Kendrick presents in his verses, he tops them off with a high-energy chorus that proclaims over and over “I love myself!” Between each cadence of the self-serving mantra, Lamar inserts zen-like quips such as, “The world is a ghetto with big guns and picket signs,” and, “One day at the time, sun gon’ shine.” His voice rings through a tinny effect that sounds reminiscent to a PA speaker, further invoking psychedelic, anti-establishment vibes that rallied outspoken American youth in the early 1970s. This melding of the plight of the African diaspora with the flower child aesthetic are both characteristic of Kendrick’s meteoric rise to rap prominence as a member of the appropriately-titled collective, Black Hippy.
Some rap purists weighed in with negative reviews of the record, which reaches far outside of Lamar’s usual bag of tricks. In an interview with FADER, Kendrick responded to critics of “i,” stating: “You’re supposed to innovate and, not only challenge yourself, but challenge your listeners.”
In an interview with a Los Angeles radio station, Power 106 FM, Lamar extended his challenge to fans to internalize the song’s message.
“The reason behind a lot of the turmoil in (my) city is because we don’t have self love,” he said. “It starts from within.”
