This is the second week in a row we have been treated with a new drop from Kendrick. The release of his latest “HUMBLE” comes a week after his promotional single release “The Heart Pt. 4” and a week before the rumored release of his new album.
A native of Compton, California, Kendrick has achieved commercial and critical success while gaining the respect of those who inspired him and becoming President Obama’s favorite rapper. Coming off a break from personal releases since 2015’s To Pimp a Butterfly, Kendrick’s latest singles are hard-nosed checks of his lessers. On “The Heart Pt. 4,” he not-so-subtetly drops references to his ongoing feuds with Drake and Big Sean and makes the claim “I am the greatest rapper alive!”
“HUMBLE” echoes these sentiments, with K Dot challenging his listeners to sit down and be humbled by his lyrics. The beat was provided by Mike Will Made-It and features a deep piano riff and a banging 808 bass line, which is a departure from the jazz-influenced sound of To Pimp a Butterfly. The lyrics zig zag from tellings of his humble beginnings to world-conquering boasts to a G check of his lessers to a critique of modern beauty standards.
The song is enhanced by its accompanying music video, which juxtaposes religious imagery with urban life. It opens with Kendrick dressed in papal robes, shifts to scenes of urban life and then back to a re-enactment of the Last Supper. These seemingly-disparate themes are connected by their focus, Kendrick, who is at the center of the frame in each iteration.
Only a week removed from his last sweeping airstrike, it isn’t hard to imagine how “HUMBLE” fits into to Kendrick’s current theme of the self-proclaimed savior of rap on his fourth LP. Stay tuned for more humbling declarations.
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