
- #I REMEMBER YOU WAS CONFLICTED MISUSING YOUR INFLUENCE HOW TO#
- #I REMEMBER YOU WAS CONFLICTED MISUSING YOUR INFLUENCE FULL#
- #I REMEMBER YOU WAS CONFLICTED MISUSING YOUR INFLUENCE FREE#
#I REMEMBER YOU WAS CONFLICTED MISUSING YOUR INFLUENCE HOW TO#
Lamar isn’t so much releasing an album as he is laying out a road to the genre’s tomorrow: The tools technology brings, and the knowledge of how to use them an understanding of the past, a sense of what needs to be retained and what needs to be left behind. There’s no point to coming to a tabula rasa at the end of the album, speaking to the past, if the intention’s not to pivot toward the future. He’s gone, and the album ends in sudden silence. “Misusing your influence/Sometimes I did the same.” In the end, Tupac can’t answer all of Lamar’s questions. He ends literally talking to hip-hop’s past: “I remember you was conflicted,” he repeats.

“Butterfly” is akin to the mythological Inana’s descent into the netherworld, shedding bits of clothes at each level, until he’s left vulnerable and exposed at the end, talking plainly to deceased hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur. Once in awhile, though, when in the hands of artists who know what they’re doing, the sound can be entrancing. Often, it seems forced, unnecessary: enhancement for enhancement’s sake. Technology has been shaping music for years now, for better or worse. The legacy of ambient and electronic music is nothing new, of course. It’s tempting to reach for old-school melodies and harmonies in this album, but when they appear, they’re fleeting. good and evil (I remember you was conflicted / Misusing your influence). That emotional resonance becomes the soul of the album, shining through the cracks of the chaotic structure and stuttered melodies Lamar’s built. video clip for These Walls, off his fifth studio album To Pimp A Butterfly. Instead, he digs deeper, finding something withered and human. He touches all of it, and doesn’t condemn it - but he doesn’t show it as beautiful, either. Lamar looks straight into the darkness that lurks in commercial hip-hop’s soul - the misogyny, the vain self-aggrandizement, the glorification of violence, the frustrated racial politics. This album isn’t just a personal journey of self-destruction, it’s a portrait of self-destruction for the entire genre.
#I REMEMBER YOU WAS CONFLICTED MISUSING YOUR INFLUENCE FULL#
“I remember you was conflicted,” says Lamar, in a spoken word piece that refrains throughout the album, “Misusing your influence / Sometimes I did the same / Abusing my power, full of resentment / Resentment that turned into a deep depression / Found myself screaming in the hotel room / I didn’t wanna self destruct.” Each listen reveals new layers, scratches at something ineffable. But then came Kendrick Lamar’s recent surprise release of “To Pimp a Butterfly” - a brilliant, brisk and dense album that’s challenging at every turn, and which seems almost unreviewable. The devil offers great fame and power, but requires Kendrick to turn against his people and give in completely.And it seemed like it was a one-time deal: A substantive album from a major artist emerging seemingly from nowhere. Writer(s): Michael Jackson, Johnny Burns, Kendrick Lamar, Mark Anthony Spears, Stefan Kendal Gordy, Ahmad A Lewis. Thanks to Hannah Kable for correcting these lyrics. Lucy is a romanticised form of Lucifer (a.k.a Satan). I remember you was conflicted, says Lamar, in a spoken word piece that refrains throughout the album, Misusing your influence / Sometimes I did the same. Kendrick Lamar (Kendrick Lamar Duckworth) Letra de These Walls: Intro: Kendrick Lamar / I remember you was conflicted, misusing your. I remember you was conflicted, misusing your influence Submit Corrections.

Kendrick’s love for Lucy is a metaphor for the acceptance of evil into our lives. Lucy ultimately represents all of the evil desires and wishes that Kendrick has. In the neighborhood we wanted to have power, and with success comes power. When asked about what kind of things Kendrick replied: “Everything that we glorified in the hood – smoking, drinking, women, violence – was at my feet times 10. In this episode we find our hero Kendrick Lamar on top of the rap game yet constantly faced with the endless temptations of Lucy.Īccording to Lamar, Lucy is symbolic of all the things that can be detrimental to not only himself but the people around him.
#I REMEMBER YOU WAS CONFLICTED MISUSING YOUR INFLUENCE FREE#
This piece is an examination of the concepts of temptation and free will.

D' Evils of Lucy is a tribute to Kendrick Lamar, Grammy Award winning rapper, writer, and 2018 Purlitzer Prize recepient.
