Diss track and political track both in a comeback makes Kendrick Lamar one of the loudest rappers in our current generation of pop culture. In The Heart Part 4, this single paves Lamar’s big entrance back onto the top of the Billboard chart after laying low since his last album To Pimp a Butterfly which was released in 2015. This six to seven time beat changing song brings all ears to listen to what he has to say after staying quiet for the past two years. He has so much to say that the farther you listen through his song he gets more and more riled up with anger and frustration, he even counts out loud “Yellin’ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, I am the greatest rapper alive”– let’s be real though, is he really being HUMBLE?
There’s a lot that goes on in The Heart Part 4 leading to the song having such great success and popularity. All in a span of four minutes and fifty seconds Lamar manages to hint on his next album release date, throw shade at an unidentified rapper (even though we all know it’s at Drake), and literally even calls out Donald Trump. That’s not even half of the song but with each point he tries to make the beat changes correlate with his words to create a certain vibe for each message he tries to get out. You have to make sure to listen carefully to his words and try to keep up or you could end up missing something.
https://genius.com/Kendrick-lamar-the-heart-part-4-lyrics
One controversial topic that has come to listener’s attention is none other than the famous name drop in this song. There are lots of unspoken jabs at rappers such as Drake and Big Sean but the one explicit name mentioned is none other than America’s current President, Donald Trump.
Kendrick Lamar raps in the middle of verse two:
Donald Trump is a chump
Know how we feel, punk—tell him that God comin’
And Russia need a replay button, y’all up to somethin’
Electorial votes look like memorial votes
But America’s truth ain’t ignorin’ the votes
In this phrase Lamar pretty much calls out President Trump and his undercover collaboration with Russia during America’s 2016 election against Hillary Clinton. There had been some past controversy on them both working together to intervene with Clinton’s campaign by attempting to release private information that would greatly affect vote numbers. Lamar goes on to question and express his anger on the law between electoral votes versus popular votes during a Presidential election. He is not one of the first to bring this to attention but he is definitely one that is trying to bring this point to light to try to get something done about this. It’s not that often a President wins through an electoral vote without also having a majority popular vote as well. After this past President Election, having popular vote to win the election is being taken into consideration for America’s 2020 Presidential Race.
A lot of disses and attacks are made at unnamed people and even to a certain extent there is no discreet in plain site exposure of specific personal wrongdoings in this song. Everything is all strongly implied and probably remained “anonymous” all thanks to his chorus where he repeats:
Don’t tell a lie on me
I won’t tell the truth ’bout you
Don’t tell a lie on me
I won’t tell the truth ’bout you
This chorus pretty much warns others that if lies about Lamar are made, he’ll share all the little secrets that person has to the world. How much does he know and would there be another diss track just for that special someone? Honestly, I wouldn’t mind.
Hey Ashley, really captivating read. The aggressive attitude Kendrick takes in this track makes it perfect to discuss politically charged music. Kendrick having the guts to discuss the aspects of the 2016 election this directly was a bold statement against Trump’s victory in the election. You made a great point about how the song builds with anger.
I would love to hear more in this article about Kendrick and his political influence outside of the track. His voice has gained a great following from the youth of America and he is putting it to great use. Perhaps a screenshot of an Instagram post or a Tweet addressing some political issue would put this specific track in context with Kendrick’s legacy. Also, where does the beef with Drake come from? Is it because he uses ghost writers?
Overall, I really enjoyed listening to the song and reading this article and it has made me want to throw on some KDot.