From Kanye to OJ: Kendrick Lamar’s new music video challenges how we see problematic idols
, whose 2019 murder shocked everyone, even beyond those who knew him intimately).
In doing so, Lamar asks a simple question: Are they still a part of the culture? If so, what shall we do with them? Powerful Black men engage in morally questionable behavior all the time. Of course, there’s Bill Cosby and R. Kelly, who used their cultural cache to craft a shield of impenetrability, but that’s the extreme end of the spectrum.
Lamar could’ve chosen to transform into anyone, or even simply remain as himself, but he knows as well as any other artist the value in generating conversation that extends his art and gives it renewed, deeper meaning. He doesn’t operate as a shock jock who considers both negative and positive press to be rewarding. Instead, his work values the beauty of delving into complexity without a surefire pathway forward but a mandate to figure it out.
If we can’t make space for the possibility that there’s more complexity than what’s on the surface, then what’s the use?
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