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Final Paper

Elizabeth Ruggiero

Professor Murray

Visual Culture

May 3, 2017

Humble by Kendrick Lamar

The recently released song and video, Humble by Kendrick Lamar covers many of the key terms discussed in class this semester. The overall theme is that humanity has lost its sense of humility in modern times and Lamar brings it upon himself to make his audience realize this. The goal of the video was to show just how removed from reality society has become.

In the opening scene we see a man dressed like the Pope in a cassock, standing in a beam of light. The camera zooms in and the audience is shown that this man is none other than Kendrick Lamar. Immediately the scene jumps into the next. Lamar is shown this time, all in black and laying on a table full of money while he uses a cash cannon to shoot more into the air. This collage shows how one can go from an unassuming, innocent man of the church into a money hungry egotist. These scenes back to back let the audience know how easy it is for someone to go from their best to worst quickly. This could also be Lamar’s way of giving God and religion a shoutout. Kendrick shows off the good and the bad, as he goes from the pew to the trap. The audience has an aerial view looking down on Kenrick, while girls are sitting at the table counting money. In this scene we see the first example of the male gaze. Since it is an aerial view we cannot see any of the women’s faces only their breasts. This is a pleasing angle for the male audience members to enjoy. The over-sexualizing women is common among hip-hop culture.

The scene then switches again to a beauty salon where women are sitting at hair dryers and Lamar is between them. The women sitting all the way to the left has “HUMBLE” written on her shirt. Again we see that Lamar’s face is the only one lite up by a divine light that shines on him.

Lamar and his pose then reenact Leonardo da Vinci’s 15th-century painting, The Last Supper. He makes his own replication of the famous image. Lamar takes the spot of Jesus at the middle of the table while his disciples unappreciative gorge on wine and food. This appears to make Lamar the Christ-like figure of hip-hop. One of the men sitting next to Lamar starts acting obnoxiously and stands up. At this point Lamar looks at his friend, points and reminds him to, “sit down, be humble”. He does as Lamar instructs.

The next scene shows Kendrick riding a bicycle while an uncommon angle shows the world around him. This deformed lens makes it seem as though Kendrick is on top of the world even though he is still home riding his bike through the condo’s in Compton. This was a clever and creative shot by the directing team, as Kendrick continues the good kid, m.A.A.d. city story line and that he’s still able to reach in to the people. It also could reflect that no matter how big he gets as an entertainer, he’ll forever will be lil’ Kenny from the block.

The most direct visual in the song is when Lamar gets to the line, "I'm so f--kin' sick and tired of the Photoshop.” At this point in the video Lamar and a model are standing on either side of a split screen. The black model has her hair straighten and a full face of make-up, with much cleavage showing. When they cross sides the model changes to reveal her natural, curly hair and clean face. In the next line Lamar raps, “Show me somethin' natural like afro on Richard Pryor/ Show me somethin' natural like a-- with some stretch marks”. At this point the camera focuses on a woman’s unedited behind, showcasing her cellulite and stretch marks which Lamar says are still attractive. By doing this alone, Kendrick challenges the media to portray women in their natural state. Comedian Richard Pryor, who Kendrick mentioned on had an afro, which is a naturally-occurring hairstyle. Due to social expectations of beauty, black people, especially women will go to great lengths to straighten their naturally curly hair. Kendrick is not only asking for natural beauty, but also affirming black beauty.

When Kendrick delivers this line in the music video, he raps at a model who crosses a split screen showing the difference between her manicured self and her natural look. When Kendrick crosses the line, his appearance doesn’t change at all, suggesting that he doesn’t fake anything for his audiences and he is as real and as truthful as he can be to his fans.

Lamar then raps, "I don't fabricate it / Most of y'all be fakin’ / I stay modest 'bout it / She elaborate it / This that Grey Poupon, that Evian, that TED Talk / Watch my soul speak / You let the meds talk”. This is a subtle jab at the cough syrup-drinking, pill-popping rappers who rhyme about their supposedly awesome lives from the bottom of a Styrofoam cup. In the video, Lamar hilariously says this while spreading mustard on a slice of bread in the back of a chauffeured convertible. Kendrick puts his own spin on the classic Grey Poupon commercial, as he exchanges mustard with his close homie from back in the day. This exchange might seem a bit pompous to the uninitiated, but to those who know, this is something we all wish to do when one goes from rags to riches, share with those close to us.

One of the most controversial scenes in the music video is when we see Lamar being targeted by unknown assailants to the viewer. Dressed all in white a dozen red sniper dots appear across his body and the window. Red and blue police lights reflect off the glass. Kendrick has invested a lot of time in crafting images showing the threat of police bullets, and “Humble” shows him in the Establishment’s laser crosshairs. As we’re on the shooters point-of-view looking into the house, we see that Kendrick knows who is coming for him and still has enough time to basically deliver a screw you to whoever is coming to attack. The entire “Humble” video is an exercise in irony and is also filled with messages that could be perceived as anti-conformist. There are many scenes throughout the video where Lamar and his corn-rowed head is the only one with hair in a sea of bald, black men.This scene happens when the hook goes up. Heads are bowed in unison and in humility to the creator, Kendrick, who has been touched by the divine at the beginning of the video. Lamar stares intently at the camera while saying “Sit down, be humble”. All the while, his face invasion is ready to do the same. During the closing shot, Lamar is the only man wearing white at what's seems to be a funeral, these are both jarring images that could have deeper meanings. This also goes for the scene where Lamar is taking golf swings on the roof of an old car and the part where he’s surrounded by black-shirted peers whose heads are wrapped in kerosene-soaked rope then set ablaze while Lamar, the only one in a white hoodie, is the only one with his face revealed, while his scalp is ablaze.Tongues of fire sit upon the heads of Kendrick Lamar and four more “disciples” who stand behind him. It could also be the representation of the Holy Spirit that rests on each of them. This frame shows Kendrick executing his vision in startling and amazing fashion.

By virtue of making the song, one with a simple “Sit down/ Be humble” hook, listeners can champion the idea of Kendrick being one of the meek, who in The Bible’s Matthew 5:5 says “shall inherit the earth.” Those who follow him on social media know he’s not much of a tweeter or Instagrammer. And for every lyric he has about earning his fortune, there’s usually sure to be one about the evils that wealth brings. This dynamic video is essentially what Lamar is as an artist, balanced with a clear message.

In this music video I believe that Kendrick Lamar wanted to make it an experience for his audience. He did not want them to simple watch a video and enjoy it as a passive audience. Instead of observing, Lamar wants an active audience to watch the music video and learn something, hopefully to be more humble and display that in their everyday lives. The audience after seeing the video should be actively involved in improving their own lives as well as teaching others ways to be humble and not take the things they have for granted.

In the music video we saw reproduction of an image and it’s authenticity. The recreation of the last supper shows Lamar’s “disciples” being selfish and indulging in all those things brought to the table by another, instead of being grateful and humble for the things they have, they begin acting selfish. This is a modern adaptation of the image as the first was created over a thousand years ago. Instead of wearing long draping tunics those at the table are wearing modern day clothes and hoodies. This gives the reproduction a different meaning, possibly that Kendrick is the savior of hip-hop who is humble enough to teach others his ways.

There are many underlying messages of representation in this video. The one I believe is the most prominent is black lives matter. Lamar simply wants to put black people in the spotlight for positive things instead of negative things that the media is often trying to portray them as. This is why he’s constantly surrounded himself by other black people, from the girls in the salon to his pose under the bridge. It’s a message that they can stand together to create anything and be successful in what they do.

Kendrick Lamar’s role of intention in the creation of the video was to open people’s minds to realize the type of life they are leading. There are many hypocrites in today’s society who believe they are doing good or have the correct opinions when in reality they’re the ones that’re wrong and have no idea, the role of this video was to bring those people some humility.

Encoding of a message is the production of a system of coded meanings which is created when the sender needs to understand how the world is comprehensible to the audience. At first glance it seems as though Lamar and his directors were able to come up with a very eye appealing video. However, upon further determination and decoding it is able to easily figure out what the song and video are truly about.

The decoding of a message is how the audience is able to understand and interpret the message. The coded information must be translated in a way they will be understood. The audience tries to reconstruct the idea by giving meanings to symbols. By putting the lyrics together with Lamar’s visual clues we can really see the meaning of selflessness he is attempting to spread to his fans.

The male gaze is used a few times throughout the video. The first is the second scene in the video when Lamar is lying on the table of money. The girls counting the money are placed there so that we do not see any part of their body except their breasts. This is a position that is beneficial to the male therefore it is part of the male gaze. There other time the male gaze is used is during the beauty salon scenes where the girls are under the hair dryers. This is the only other time we see females in the video and they’re all dressed sexualized for the pleasure of the male. To say there's been a shift in the hip-hop world regarding beauty standards would be a stretch. The male dominated genre is not only notorious for misogyny but also known to glamorize, and exploit scantily dressed women with hourglass figures, long straight hair, and an "exotic" look.

Reflexivity is also relevant in this music video. This is the self-awareness as critical viewers of media culture. Kendrick Lamar could have chosen to do a much simpler music video that would have been more widely understood. However, he chose not to do this for a reason. He wanted a video that would force the audience watching to become self-awareness of their own actions through the video and cause them to question the media culture they see every day.

Although Kendrick disses the use of photoshop in the song he does a bit of digital manipulation in his own music video. We see this done in the scene where Lamar is riding his bicycle. Digital manipulation has been done to the image to make it appear as though Kendrick is riding his bike on top of this orb. Kendrick Lamar however does take a stance against digital manipulation stating that he is, “Stick and tired of the photoshop”.

Lastly the music video has many examples of postmodern themes. Postmodern themes include, contradiction, lack of absolutes, question social norms, irony, disinterestedness, genre as mixed, judgment of culture, references the past. References to the past are made through recreations such as the last supper scene. Lamar also spends a majority of the song and video judging our current state of culture in american and specifically black culture and they ways they are treated. As mentioned earlier the video includes many points of irony as well. He also questions social norms and what our society accepts as beautiful.

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