Kendrick Lamar - HUMBLE

Kendrick Lamar - HUMBLE:

On HUMBLE, Kendrick Lamar challenges his competition. The music video is directed by Dave Meyers and The Little Homies. It features religious imagery intertwined with urban life, for example Kendrick wearing priest’s robes and a moving re-enactment of Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting The Last Supper — with the hook contrasting this with the concept of humility. Also, religiously, the song is also shown to be a reference to the verse James 4:7. 'So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you'. This can be linked to April 7th, the date Kendrick told the industry to 'have their shit together'.

Mike WiLL Made-It produced the beat. It features a deep piano riff and a banging 808 bass line. This style of production is a real difference from the sound of Kendrick’s most recent jazz-influenced project, To Pimp a Butterfly.

The song ended up debuting at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it one of the highest debuting hip-hop singles since Eminem's: “Love the Way You Lie”. Later, the song hit No. 1 on the chart on June 5, 2017, making it Kendrick’s first No. 1 song and second No. 1 song overall on the charts.

Styles: 

This video is predominantly an illustrative narrative, where the lyrics and the visuals have a strong bond, however some parts can be interpreted differently. The music video has a very religious narrative which is seen from the post-modern scenes of Kendrick Lamar dressed as a Pope and representing Jesus on ‘The Last Supper’ scene. The music video does also have a second narrative, in which involves all the other (unreligious) scenes where it portrays the idea of how the people from his race and culture are represented in the society through political views and through the media, as the lyrics link to these scenes as well as the special effects that have been included in the video. The music video has links with Goodwin’s theory as the actual music video has relation to the song lyrics itself. In the case of this music video, there is no real structure like Todorov’s, however this a consistent message throughout the video. Binary oppositions are pretty much used throughout, the whole video is basically one big binary opposition as previously stated, Kendrick Lamar raps about being humble, when doing the exact opposite thing to that. This creates a ironic effect throughout, which makes this video so successful and powerful. The video is quite free flowing, with no obvious storyline or structure, but that adds to the video more. A forced storyline wouldn't really fit in with the message he is trying to connote; also, storylines aren’t really used heavily within hip-hop videos, which is also a reason why he hasn't opted to you use them.

Techniques: 

Techniques being used in this video are Lip-Syncing, Cutting to the beat and some special effects editing. Lighting is used very strongly in this music video and the connotations which he is trying to bring across are fairly obvious. First of all, at the start of the video, Kendrick is in a very low-key lighting setting, with a beam of light focused on him; this could connote that he is God-like or Jesus-like. This along with the message of be humble, is a great juxtaposition as Kendrick is comparing himself to God, while telling people to be humble, which is what makes this video so interesting and powerful. However, high-key lighting is consistent throughout the video, usually focused around Kendrick himself, showing again he's the most important person.

Mise-en-scene and Locations: 

With the very first shot, it shows Kendrick in what appears to be a religious place. This is typical of the hip-hop scene as a majority of artists are very religious and are open about it. Music videos are a huge part of connoting a rappers thoughts, roots or ideas. Again in the case of Kendrick Lamar - HUMBLE. he uses his video to show his roots from Los Angeles, as at around the 54 second mark, it shows him in the famous Los Angeles river. This is very typical of a hip-hop music video as each rapper is battling it out, for their area to try and make theirs the most prominent and best in the scene, with Kendrick Lamar representing Compton in California, it is typical for rappers to base the majority of their videos near a famous landmark or place in their city, state or area; again to show their culture and heritage alongside the music. In one scene, Kendrick Lamar shows up as a new character - the victim of the media. You can see that the women around him are counting money and counters could almost be mistaken for typewriters; the girls could then represent paparazzi journalists. They are making money of his character. Their faces are also hidden underneath a mask which means they are undercover.

Camerawork: 

There is a lot of interesting and unorthodox shots and camera movements in this music video, which makes the video even more interesting for someone to watch. First of all, at 41 seconds, there is a shot which shows Kendrick riding a bike, the shot is very different and isn’t used often in the hip-hop scene. This shot could connote that Kendrick rules the world and is the only person on it who is important as he is the only person in the shot. Another interesting shot is the shot at two minutes thirty, where the camera appears to be shaking. This shot creates an aggressive tone again, where everything is centred around Kendrick. The shots used in this music video are unorthodox to the genre of hip-hop but create such an amazing effect throughout the video.

Sound: 

The sounds focus is purely on the lyrics and the music track itself. There is no other diegetic or non-diegetic sound involved such as skits of dialogue. This is to really emphasise the beat of the music and its catchy lyrics - the chorus has been the most important lyrics as it repeats 'Bitch, be humble (hol’ up, bitch), Sit down (hol’ up, lil', hol’ up, lil'bitch)'. Kendrick’s pressing his competition to humble themselves to his superiority. The media and his fans, have commented that this chorus is directed at Big Sean, who mentioned that he was abandoning his humble attitude on “No Favors.” He also frequently uses the ad-libs “hol' up” and “lil' bitch,” in his songs but Kendrick is likely addressing all of his competition, not just Sean. Kendrick does also have a 2011 song titled, “Hol' Up,” so this lyric is a common ad-lib throughout his music.

Representation: 

In terms of gender within the music video, male are the more dominant gender throughout the video, however women are used occasionally, but not in the typical way they are used in hip-hop videos. Stereotypically, beautiful women in minimal clothing are used in hip-hop videos as a way for artists to show off power and wealth, but in the case of HUMBLE. the stereotype is broken once again. The use of women isn’t to show-off, but instead used as a way to promote the message of the song; where Kendrick talks about how women are photoshopped and given unrealistic goals for them to reach. This isn’t the case in the majority of music videos within this genre, where women are always typically very slim and are often objectified. For black men, there is the stereotype that they are always violent and in gangs, which is shown nearer the end of the music video where a fight breaks out. Kendrick Lamar is famous for trying to bring peace within gangs and young people, so this part of the video where he ignores the fight could add to his stance on it. This again breaks the stereotype where hip-hop artists are violent and dangerous.  

There is an issue portrayed all the way through the video which is when Kendrick mentions his race and culture and how it is viewed in many different ways and the fact society and government is still very racist towards the black culture. He tries not to hide from his identity but still trying to get a message through that still hasn’t been solved.