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- [00:01]
Cole Kushna
From the Ringer Podcast Network. This is Dissect Long form musical analysis broken into short digestible episodes. This is episode 13 of our season long analysis of Kendrick Lamar's Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers. I'm your host Cole Kushna. This episode is brought to you by Amazon Prime. Ever finish a movie and the next thing you know you're totally obsessed? Like I'm talking about ordering a book about 70s film lighting or buying the soundtrack on vinyl. Kind of obsessed. Whatever it is, prime helps you get more out of whatever passions you're into or getting into. Head to Amazon.com prime and follow your obsession wherever it goes. This message is brought to you by Apple Card For a limited time, get a new Apple card and get $150 bonus daily cash when you spend $150 or more at Nike in your first 30 days using your new Apple Card with Apple Pay. Visit Apple Co nikepromo for important offer details. Subject to credit approval. Offer valid only for new Apple Card accounts open by June 15, 2025. To qualify, you must spend $150 or more on Nike purchases within the U.S. offer may not be available elsewhere. Additional terms and limitations apply. Last time on Dissect, we examined Savior Interlude, where Baby Keem describes the imperfect circumstances of his childhood while expressing astonishment at beating the odds and finding success. This interlude is a mirror image of Kodak Black's rich interlude from Disc one, and we posited that Kendrick is using Keem, Kodak and himself as reflections or representatives of the big steppers all across America. Born into a ruthless environment without reliable role models, born into a country and system designed to fail them. Both Keem and Kodak expressed how they still feel lost even after obtaining the American Dream at such a young age. Like Kendrick himself learned the wealth did not save Keem and Kodak from the trauma of their youth. Thus, Savior Interlude ends with Keem describing his reckless intuition and calling out for moral and spiritual guidance.
- [02:05]
Baby Keem
Sn be fresh out suicide doors a suicide suicide lambo body who gonna stop me Baby Keem is too wild Functioning at the temple Jesus pieces sending luau Mr. Morale.
- [02:22]
Cole Kushna
This plea to Mr. Morale is a cry for help. It's a young man seeking direction, looking for someone to look up to. And often when children and teens don't have role models in their life, they look elsewhere for guidance. They look to celebrities, to athletes, to politicians, to musicians. This sets the thematic stage for Mr. Morales. Next track the subject of our episode today, Savior Kendrick, made you think about.
- [02:46]
Baby Keem
It, but he is not your savior Cole made you feel empowered but he is not your savior Future said Get a money counter but he is not your savior Bron made you give his flowers but he is not your savior.
- [03:03]
Cole Kushna
He is not your savior Scored by piano and the rhythmic Big Stepper stomps Kendrick Lamar retakes the stage after Keem's solo interlude to perform his own brief monologue. He names four black male celebrities, each of them uniquely talented and offering some admirable quality. Kendrick Made youe Think about it conveys how Kendrick Lamar's intricate, deeply thematic art inspires active thought not only in decoding the conceptual puzzles of his albums, but also in our endless reflection on their meaning. Cole Made youe Feel Empowered conveys J. Cole's talent to connect and embolden the common man. Where songs like Love Yours teach us to find beauty and wherever we might be in our life, no such thing.
- [03:41]
Baby Keem
As a life that's better than yours no such thing as a life that's better than yours Love yours.
- [03:48]
Cole Kushna
Future said Get A Money Counter conveys Future's aspirational wraps of wealth and extravagance. He is the epitome of cool, another kind of empowerment LeBron made youe give His Flowers as a slight pivot as LeBron James is of course an athlete, not a musician. Like Kodak and Keem, LeBron became famous at an incredibly young age. A high school phenom and basketball savant, there were historically high expectations for his career when he entered the NBA at age 18. He faced criticism throughout his career, even after two championships and four MVP awards by age 28. He would then go on to win another title with the Cleveland Cavaliers and another with the LA Lakers in 2020, after which he gave this speech.
- [04:36]
Baby Keem
We just want our respect.
- [04:37]
Cole Kushna
Rob wants his respect. Coach Vogel want his respect. Our organization want their respect. Laker Nation want their respect. And I want my Damn respect too. LeBron demanding his respect Here might be the moment Kendrick's nodding to as to give someone flowers means to give them the respect they deserve. Kendrick, Cole, Future and LeBron are all incredible success stories, supremely talented at their respective arts and genuinely model qualities that could be viewed as aspirational. We all want to be as intelligent as Kendrick, as articulate as Cole, as cool as Future, as dominant as LeBron. Their success is also made more impressive understanding their shared inheritance. Like Kodak and Keem, all four are black men that were born into poverty and and all but Kendrick grew up without their father. Naturally, kids like Kodak and Keem are going to see themselves reflected in them, they symbolize hope and transcending the circumstances they have in common, and thus they can be venerated as saints because their accomplishments are genuinely miraculous. Especially knowing their backgrounds, however, Kendrick undercuts each individual with the same refrain, but he is not your savior. Today, a savior is defined as a person who saves someone or something from danger and who is regarded with the veneration of a religious figure. The fact that Kendrick has to say these famous men are not saviors implies that they are sometimes mistaken as such. This feels especially true in a country where traditional religion has been in decline for decades, where human beings religious instinct seems increasingly fulfilled through celebrity worship. Indeed, the term savior is invariably tied to Jesus Christ, the one who saves humanity from sin in the Christian religion. Christians believe Jesus is the savior because he lived a sinless, perfect life and his moral and spiritual perfection made him the only worthy sacrifice to reconcile people with God. And within the themes of Mr. Morale and Savior specifically, the relationship between a false savior and perfection is ultimately what Kendrick aims to critique. Because in our conflation of celebrities as saviors comes an expectation of perfection. And when celebrities inevitably prove themselves to be imperfect, they are often crucified. They are judged. We criticize them in a way that many of us never criticize ourselves. Their moral failures and mistakes feed our ego's need for superiority. And what better way to make yourself feel superior than to witness or even contribute to the fall of someone who was once exalted. We'll talk more about this throughout the episode, but as it relates to the introduction of Savior, Kendrick is already setting up the fact that these men are not saviors to be worshiped, but imperfect humans just like you and me. They are but mirrors. The potential for both good and evil resides in them just as it does you. They are both beautiful and ugly Mr. Morale and the big stepper and we should see ourselves in them in the same way we see ourselves in every human being.
- [07:25]
Baby Keem
He is not your savior Mr. Morrell give me high five two times Seneca defendant judgin my life back peddler what they say you do to cha cha imma stand on it 6ft 5 from 55 fun fact I ain't taking back like it when they pro black but I'm more credit black tell me where the money at hey where the homies at Universal car out I can members.
- [07:46]
Cole Kushna
Only that hey after the spoken intro, Savior progresses into its opening verse, which prominently features a sample from a 2020 track called Hypnotized by River Tiber. The sample is Chopped and affected to ultimately sound like this and savior. Over this sample, Kendrick delivers an intense opening verse, his voice firm and resolute. He begins, Mr. Morow, give me high five. Two time Center Co defendant judging my life. The image here is a courtroom with Kendrick Lamar being put on trial. The irony is that those who are judging Kendrick are described as co defendants, meaning they too are part of the same trial. However, they're oblivious to this fact. They're prosecuting defendants while being a defendant themselves. It's a potent analogy, as Kendrick is pointing to the fact that ultimately we're all being judged by God and that this is the only judgment that matters. It's an idea we discussed in detail in our episode on Kodak Black. Taking insight from an interview in which Kendrick broke down why the Big Steppers, pictured on Topimpa Butterfly's cover, are standing over a judge knocked out on the ground.
- [09:10]
Baby Keem
That's a judge laid out on the ground. You look at these individuals and, you know, you look at them as bad people or a menace, menace to society. But they're actually good people, you know, as a product of their environment. And the one person they always represent their lives negatively is the judge. You know, only God can judge these individuals right here.
- [09:34]
Cole Kushna
To those who judge the Big steppers, Kendrick says, backpedaler. What they say you do the cha cha. They here represents the consensus and you as the person doing the judging. This person backpedals or alters their past opinions in order to gain approval from the consensus. It's a jab at performative morality. These actors don't actually believe wholeheartedly in what they say. They're simply doing it for the applause, the social credit, and to ultimately exalt themselves. This is why, Kendrick says, they do the cha cha, a dance that requires you to follow the commands of a specific step pattern, including a back step. Hence, backpedalers. Again, these moral actors are just following the script of the consensus. They are dancing in sync with popular opinion. Kendrick continues the courtroom wordplay, rapping, I'm a stand on it 65 from 5 5. Fun fact I ain't taking shit back. Unlike the moral actors, Kendrick claims that when he takes the witness stand, when he's being judged, he's going to stand on what he believes in, even if it opposes consensus and finds him guilty in the court of public opinion. He's standing so tall on business, it elevates his height an entire foot. Even though his physical stature is small, his integrity is high, proving he's unafraid of criticism. Kendrick continues, I like it when they pro black, but I'm more Kodak Black. While we've grown accustomed to this line with time, we shouldn't overlook how jarring this was. At the time of Mr. Morale's release, Kendrick Lamar was considered a poster child of the modern pro black movement, an image that was in large part cemented by tpimpa Butterfly, his iconic performances at the Grammys and BET Awards, and his song alright becoming the de facto Black Lives Matter anthem. Some of Kendrick's specific critiques of this movement will be named near the end of this verse, but given the context so far, it seems Kendrick is saying that it would have been very safe for him to formally align with this popular movement, even if he didn't agree with some aspects of its approach or wholeheartedly identify with all of its supporters. It would have certainly earned him moral applause, but it would also force him to stay silent on the more challenging realities of his community, like what to do with someone like Kodak Black, a victim of the social conditions that BLM was protesting, but someone whose immoral actions have made him an outcast. In other words, it seems Kendrick finds hypocrisy in the fact that those who are fighting for the Kodak Blacks of the world are the same people that would cancel the Kodak Blacks of the world. Throughout Mr. Morale, Kendrick has been illuminating the dire circumstances his community inherited and how often the abused turns into the abuser on the wheel of generational trauma. And with black people in America, much of this trauma can be directly linked back to the horrors of American slavery. To simultaneously condemn Kodak Black's actions while having compassion for the life circumstances that influence those actions can be an incredibly challenging, nuanced position to hold that requires education. It requires an extreme degree of compassion and empathy. It requires prohibiting your ego's penchant to judge others, to exalt yourself. Yet throughout Mr. Morale, Kendrick has been asserting all of this is required if we are truly fighting for the black community to heal something. That's going to take more than posting Black screens on social media, but more on that shortly. At the same time, Kendrick is also explicitly identifying and aligning himself alongside Kodak Black. We've talked about the reasons for this throughout the season, but here he says it directly. This is why Kodak Black is on Mr. Morale because he sees himself in the Kodak Blacks of the world. While we see Kendrick Lamar as Mr. Morale. Kendrick has been telling us over and over on every album that he is equally a big stepper, that he's still at war with the influence of his trauma, trauma that's influenced behavior he condemns but can't entirely control. Kendrick then continues by embodying the cliche ethos of the big stepper, saying tell me where the money at, where the homie's at? Then follows rapping Universal callout I can members only that as a member of the black community, he maintains the right to call out everyone, members of his community as well as outsiders fighting on their behalf. Once again, this feels aimed at the actors that use his community's plight to gain public approval, to feed their ego and exalt themselves above others by playing the role of a morally superior person.
- [13:42]
Baby Keem
Wait a minute Ben a qui, Ben a qui C' est la vie, c' est la vie I tell the whole truth from A to Z Show me you real show me that you bleed hello crackers I seen niggas arguing about who's blacker Even blacked out screens and called it solidarity Meditating in silence makes.
- [14:00]
Cole Kushna
You wanna tell on me after proclaiming a universal callout, Kendrick universalizes his message by speaking different languages, rapping cc wait a minute venequi.cc is Spanish for and yes, while venequi means come here. Cleverly, cece can also be heard CC as in closed captions playing into the foreign language motif. He universalizes it further by switching to French as c' est la vie is the French idiom that translates directly to that's life, but is generally used to mean that's just the way things are. Thus, Kendrick follows by saying I tell the whole truth from A to Z. It's another clever play on the language motif. He's speaking truth and nothing but the truth in all languages. Next he raps, show me you real show me that you bleed. Instead of acting and posturing like a perfectly moral person, Kendrick wants you to take your mask off. He wants you to be real about your true motivations and shortcomings rather than deflecting and judging everyone around you. He wants you to be truthful about the human condition, the fact that we all suffer, that our nature is imperfection. Kendrick continues his universal callout, taking aim at both black and white, saying hello crackers, I seen n words arguing about who's blacker Even blacked out screens and called it solidarity. Once again, Kendrick takes shots at what he considers shallow expressions of so called activism. He specifically calls out Blackout Tuesday, a social media initiative in which users posted a solid black square in protest of racism and police brutality. Everyone from corporate brands to individuals posted the black squares immediately Facing criticism for clogging up timelines with empty symbolism and bearing informative posts from actual activists and organizations. For Kendrick, it appears the Black Square epitomizes the shallowness of a certain brand of social media activism. A bare minimum effort action item that conveniently doubles as a symbol of your own virtue. It gives the appearance of solidarity without the actual commitment of solidarity. Finally, the verse ends with the line meditating in silence made you want to tell on me. This acknowledges the criticism Kendrick received for not being publicly active during the height of Black Lives Matter. It's something we'll talk a lot more about on the song Mirror, but directly following the reference to Black Squares, Kendrick is calling out the hypocrisy of criticizing. His silence when he's seeing what's passing as activism, I assume is especially frustrating because Kendrick's been creating socially aware art for over a decade, before it was trending, before there was pressure to say something or else be ostracized by the court of public opinion. In reality, Kendrick was taking a huge step. He was going to therapy, healing from the very same trauma that the BLM movement was protesting against.
- [16:34]
Baby Keem
Are you happy for me Millie? Are you happy for me? Smile on my face but are you happy for me? Yeah I'm out the way Are you happy for me?
- [16:44]
Cole Kushna
Beach?
- [16:44]
Baby Keem
Are you happy for me Minnie? Are you happy for me? Smile on my face but are you happy for me? Yeah, I'm out the way Are you happy for me?
- [16:54]
Cole Kushna
Baby Keem joins the track for the song's refrain, creating some strong reflection points that contribute to the mirror motif of the album's overall structure. Recall that Silent Hill ended with a feature from Kodak Black, which transitioned into Baby Keem's Savior interlude, itself, a mirror of Kodak's rich interlude. Now Savior is Kendrick's song with a Keem feature, just as Silent Hill was Kendrick's song with a Kodak feature. It's reflection upon reflection, a mosaic of mirrors that composite into an imperfect portrait of beauty, ugliness, joy, pain, and everything in between. Keem's lyrics are succinct. He asks, are you happy for me? Then repeats the question with emphasis, really, are you happy for me? This isn't a passing question. Keem and Kendrick really want you to think about it. Think about your relationships with celebrities. These so called saviors, we praise, we worship, we exalt. That is, until they falter, until the facade of their celebrity collapses and their human imperfections are exposed. And what then? What happens when our saviors fail to meet our lofty expectations when shit hits the fan, are we still a fan? Or do we cast them aside for a new temporary savior to put our hope and faith in? And if so, what does that say about the relationship to begin with? Did we ever really care? Were we ever really happy for them? Or was the relationship grounded in self interest all along? It's the same kind of intense scrutiny Kendrick displayed on Crown, where he challenged his conception of love and concluded that many of his relationships were conditional. Now Kendrick is pointing the mirror back at his audience, challenging us to scrutinize not only our relationship with celebrity, but everyone in our lives. Indeed, so much of Mr. Morale has been attempting to expose what's truly real and what is facade, and his many shots at the Internet are aimed to illuminate how it only makes authenticity harder to distinguish. Social media offers all of us the opportunity to dabble in celebrity, to fabricate the image of our life to resemble perfection, to show the world that we have somehow avoided the reality of the human condition. But Kendrick is exposing how these are barriers that make authentic relationships and connections impossible, both online and in real life. We're wearing too many masks and Kendrick is proposing to connect through our shared imperfection, bond through our shared human condition. Enough with the facades, enough with feigning happiness show me that you're real show me that you bleed bite they tongues.
- [19:14]
Baby Keem
And rap lyrics scared to be crucified about a song but they won't admit it. Politically correctus how you keep an opinion n is tight lipped fuck who dare to be different Seen a Christian say the vaccine marker the beast Then he cut Covid and prayed to Pfizer for relief Then I cut Covid and started to question Kyrie Will I stay organic or hurt in this bed for two weeks?
- [19:33]
Cole Kushna
Kendrick picks up verse two where verse one left off, attacking fellow rappers for censoring themselves out of fear of cancel culture. His specific use of crucified in the line scared to be crucified about a song but they won't admit it develops the savior motif of the track, alluding to the fact that Jesus is considered a savior because he was willing to be crucified motivically. This leads us to the next lines. Seeing a Christian say vaccine mark of the beast. Then he caught Covid and prayed to Pfizer for relief. Kendrick alludes to the fact that white evangelical Christians resisted getting vaccinated at higher rates than any other religious group in the United States. The mark of the Beast is a seal for followers of the Antichrist as stated in the book of revelation. Within the context of the song, we should assume this Christian was following the groupthink of his church, weaponizing his religion to cast judgment on anyone who chose to get vaccinated, exalting himself in the process. It's a textbook example of the ego's superpower to exploit anything you identify with for its own egoic advancement. However, when this Christian caught Covid and his life was potentially at risk, when push really came to shove, all that moral grandstanding, judgment and groupthink collapsed. It proved itself to be a facade, a mask of superiority, and his true colors were exposed. Kendrick also plays with the vaccine producer named Pfizer and its proximity to the word Father, as in God the Father, continuing the religious motif when his life was potentially in danger, when his feet were really held to the fire, he abandoned God the Father and put his faith into Pfizer instead, giving himself the mark of the beast. Kendrick then turns the mirror back on himself, rapping Then I caught Covid and started to question Kyrie. Will I stay organic or hurt in this bed for two weeks? Kendrick here references Kyrie Irving, the NBA player who receives significant backlash for electing not to vaccinate himself during the 202122 season. In theory, this is what Kendrick has been looking for, someone who stands by their beliefs even when it challenges consensus and results in backlash. However, Kendrick questions his affinity with Kyrie when he himself contracted Covid. That's because like Kendrick, Cole, Future and LeBron, Kyrie is not your savior. Ultimately, Kyrie can't make decisions for us. The choice to get vaccinated was Kendricks and Kendricks alone. Also similar to the Pfizer Father wordplay, the name Kyri is a Greek word that means Lord. So we can also read the lines as Kendrick questioning God. Will he stay organic, maintaining the purity of the body God gave him, or will he inject himself like genetically modified foods? Notably, vaccination was a polarizing issue during COVID inspiring passionate, often vicious rhetoric on both sides of the issue. It was a textbook example of egos colliding, and I think this is exactly why Kendrick brings it up. In my interpretation, he doesn't really take a side because his point isn't whether or not we should get vaccinated. His point is that the beliefs many people are so vocal about are sometimes not as strong as they portray them to be. A lot of times you're just virtue signaling to your particular group. It's theater is tap dancing on the stage of public opinion, and behind the curtain, we're much more Vulnerable than we portray ourselves to be.
- [22:41]
Baby Keem
Do you want peace? Then watch us in the street 1 protest for you 365 for me bladder man making nightmares but that's how we all think The Collective Conscious Calamities.
- [23:01]
Cole Kushna
Verse two continues with a call and response between Kendrick and singer Sam Dew, who sings, you really want to know how I get so low Only one way to go higher. It's somewhat of a contrast to Kendrick's sentiments in the song, a reminder that when we confront the truth, it will take us to a place that feels low in the moment but ultimately raises the ceiling of our potential, a notion that will be expanded upon in the song's bridge. Kendrick, for his part, continues his critique of recent social justice movements. He raps, do you want peace? Then watch us in the street one protest for you 365 for me the wording here is nuanced. On one hand, he's calling out those who attend one protest, yet fail to do anything else and expect things to change. It's a similar critique to the black squares, especially considering there are multiple influencers caught attending protests solely for the photo op. Kendrick suggests that if we really want peace, then watch us in the streets. It plays on the imagery of a protest, but it's really a call to watch his community. In the streets of places like Compton or Kodak Black's Pompano beach, they don't have the luxury of picking and choosing when to fight, then returning to a normal, peaceful life. They're fighting against the system that failed them simply by trying to survive every day of the year. So while single events of injustice can galvanize and inspire mass protests, Kendrick is reminding us this remains an everyday reality for kids like Kodak Black. When the protests are over and how many of those who attended the protest are really paying attention year round? How much of attending the protest was for the cause, and how much of it was to make yourself feel better? How much of it was in service of your own ego? These are the uncomfortable questions Kendrick is demanding us to ask ourselves. Try to break through the masks of your own psychology to the actual motivations behind your actions. Because it's so easy to lie to ourselves, to be manipulated by our own egos. And this idea leads us into Kendrick's final statement of the verse, Vladimir making nightmares but that's how we all think. The collective conscious calamities. On repeat, Kendrick brings up yet another polarizing political the invasion of Ukraine led by Russian President Vladimir Putin, a war that's resulted in hundreds of thousands of human beings being killed. Kendrick acknowledges the horrific trauma of war by describing it as a nightmare, but then counterintuitively points the mirror back on us, claiming that the way Putin thinks is also how we all think. Putin is but a reflection of the general state of human consciousness at this moment in time, and there's not a single period of human history without war. Killing each other en masse has been one of the fundamental expressions of humanity since the very beginning. This is what Kendrick is pointing to when he says the collective conscious calamities on repeat. World leaders come and go, yet violent conflict between human beings remains constant. Kendrick is once again challenging us to really think about this. We can't just blame it on a single corrupt leader, because history tells us subsequent leaders won't be much different. It's deeper than one individual. It's deeper than politics. It cuts straight to the heart of the human condition and our collective evolution over time. It's similar to the themes of Worldwide Steppers, where Kendrick described all of us as unconscious walking zombies trying to scratch the itch of our egos. As we talked about in that episode, these ideas are influenced by Eckhart Tolle, who very often discusses humanity as a single entity with a shared consciousness.
- [26:21]
Eckhart Tolle
Any thinking that takes possession of your mind is not really personal. There is no personal thought as such. It pretends to be personal. It's a human collective mind. In the same way, of course, any emotion generated by that is not. It looks like my emotion, but it's either it's anger or it's sadness or it's jealousy, or it's whatever it is. And that's basically. It's the same in everybody. When it arises, it attaches itself to slightly different stories in the mind of why I'm angry, But the anger is anger, human anger. Again, it's not yours. You pick it up and then it gets hold of you. And then many humans live virtually with a mind that has taken possession of them, pretends to be them, and they're stuck with it without even knowing it. If they knew it, they would be the beginning of freedom.
- [27:12]
Cole Kushna
Tolle goes on to explain how the collective thought of human consciousness can be observed during different periods of human history, where large groups of people and countries get possessed by an ideological zeitgeist, which inevitably leads to things like war and genocide.
- [27:26]
Eckhart Tolle
You can see how, for example, certain collective thought forms can take possession of an entire country, such as happened, for example, during Communism, Soviet Communism in Russia, Maoism in China, millions of people all thinking the same thing. But even in our Society. It's not necessarily one monolithic thought form such as that, but different. There are different thought forms through the media, become perpetuated, and without knowing it. Often they are our most basic assumptions. How we interpret the universe and the world around us, our basic assumption. Our thought forms that come out of the collective have taken possession of us. And they're all forms that consciousness takes in the mind. And that's all fine in itself if there is an awareness. But if thought is all there is, it becomes destructive and insane without awareness.
- [28:27]
Cole Kushna
Tolle here speaks directly on Kendrick's calamity. On repeat, unconscious humans that are completely identified and entirely possessed by their minds, individual expressions of collective thought. In Tolle's view, this is the root of the problem. When we identify so strongly with our egoic mind and its ideas, we can justify any action. Mix that with the collective trauma of humanity, and we get a recipe for destruction, for war, for genocide, for murder. To blame a single tyrant like Putin for the world's calamity is the same as putting all our faith in a single savior to rescue humanity. The responsibility is shared. All of our feet need to be held to the fire.
- [29:17]
Baby Keem
It resides in the fire. The need of his dire deceiving. The lies I know.
- [29:26]
Cole Kushna
Kendra Keir Singh's truth. It resides in the fire. The need of its dire deceiving the lies I know. He employs a classic symbol used throughout a myriad of cultures and religions across human history. It is fire as a destructive power of purification, an illuminating source of divine light with the ability to burn away falsehoods and reveal ultimate truth, which is often a painful or trying process. Just as alchemists use fire to transform base metals into gold, Kendrick suggests that actual personal transformation and human evolution can only come if we're willing to be utterly truthful about ourselves, especially when it hurts. Because that pain is the fire. It means you've touched something real. Throughout Savior and Mr. Morale in general, Kendrick has been holding our feet to the symbolic fire, just as he has his own. Whether it's Kodak Black or Vladimir Putin, vaccines or religion, he's been challenging our programmed thought patterns and conditioned intuition, forcing us to consider these things in a different light. Here on Savior and elsewhere on the album, his rhetoric has been aggressively and uncomfortably direct. And that's totally by design. Kendrick wants us to feel uncomfortable. That's the fire of truth. The question is, will we run from it or run toward it?
- [30:37]
Baby Keem
The cat is out the bag. I am not your savior. I find it just as difficult to love thy neighbors, especially when People got it ambiguous favors but they hearts not in it See everything for the paper the struggle for the right side of history Independent thought is like an eternal enemy Capitalist posting as compassionate be offending me yeah suck my dick with authenticity yeah Tupac dead gotta think for yourself yeah Heroes Looking for the villains to.
- [31:02]
Cole Kushna
Help, Kendrick begins his final verse the cat is out the bag I am not your savior. Pulling no punches, not veiling the truth and metaphor or wordplay, Kendrick states his position plainly for us, but equally for himself. The line formally unburdens Kendrick from the pressure he seemed to feel in single handedly saving his community or ending the eternal struggle as it was stated at the end of tpimpa Butterfly. He then admits his own struggle with morality, saying, I find it just as difficult to love thy neighbors. This joins the many references to the Gospel According to Matthew on the album. When Jesus was asked what is the greatest commandment of all? He had many commandments from the Old Testament to choose from. However, he replied with only two. The first was to love God with all your heart, soul and mind. Then he said, and the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. In the Gospel according to Luke, Jesus was asked, who exactly is our neighbor? He responded with the parable of the Good Samaritan, a story about a man who is beaten by robbers and left on the road. Both a priest and a religious leader walked by the man without helping. It was a Samaritan who finally stopped someone considered an outsider an enemy by the Jews. The lesson of the parable is one of radical inclusivity, that true neighborly love means showing compassion to anyone in need, regardless of social or cultural boundaries. In other words, every human being is your neighbor and you should love them as you love yourself. While Jesus, the model human being and actual savior from a Christian perspective abided by this central tenet perfectly, Kendrick admits his own imperfection by saying he struggles to love his neighbor. Hence, Kendrick is not our savior. He's more like mortal men like Kodak Black or Vladimir Putin than he is Jesus Christ. Kendrick is human, just like you and I on the same moral and spiritual journey we're all on in this life. His gift is articulating the struggles of this journey, but he is not our salvation from them. Kendrick then continues by explaining some of the reasons he struggles to love others, rapping, especially when people got ambiguous favors, but they heart's not in it. See, everything's for the paper. The struggle for the right side of history. Independent thought is like an eternal enemy. Capitalists posing as compassionates be offending me. It's more critique of selfish motivations disguised as kindness, favors being done with expectations, greed disguised as charity. Again, it's mask wearing, it's facade, it's moral acting. Addressing these people directly, Kendrick proclaims, suck my dick with authenticity. It's not exactly something Jesus would say, but again, the severity of his tone is part of the point, displaying how unfit he is to be our savior. Saviors don't talk like this. They don't harbor this kind of resentment for their neighbors. Someone who definitely would say this, however, is Tupac Shakur. Thus we get the following Tupac dead Gotta think for yourself. On one hand, Tupac joins Kendrick, J. Cole and Future as another musician who is not our savior. Despite how progressive, motivational and revolutionary his rhetoric was, Tupac ultimately became a victim of violence perpetrated by another human being, joining hundreds of millions of human beings before him. However, the line cuts deeper, knowing Kendrick's personal history with Tupac, someone he has a deep affinity with beyond a mere musical influence. Tupac visited Kendrick in a dream and told him not to let his music die. Kendrick also immortalized his connection with Pac into Pimpa Butterfly, an album that ends with a metaphysical conversation between Kendrick and the spirit of Tupac. It's very clear he holds Pac in high regard, perhaps even venerating him like a saint in his own life. However, Tupac Dead Gotta Think for Yourself intentionally strips away all of the romantic reverence and spiritual mystique as he has throughout the entire song, Kendrick is being uncomfortably blunt to prove his point. Tupac was a mortal man. He didn't save us and neither can Kendrick. Like this verse's opening line, I am not your savior, the Tupac line seems equally aimed at himself. Where he once may have viewed Pac like some kind of savior figure, Kendrick has matured to recognize that his heroes are only human. He then continues rapping heroes, looking for the villains to help. The phrasing here is clever. It's not the heroes helping society by eliminating villains. It's the villains that are helping the heroes. It's another expression of exalting oneself by condemning another. These self appointed heroes wear a cape of moral superiority, flattening the complexity of human behavior for their own benefit.
- [35:30]
Baby Keem
I never been sophisticated same face Being manipulative such a required taste I rubbed elbows with people that was for the people they all greedy I don't care Careful, no public speaking and they like to wonder where I've been protecting my soul in the Valley of Silence Kendrick.
- [35:47]
Cole Kushna
Closes the verse and song, reinforcing its central themes. He reveals that his influential status has granted him access to speaking with other influential leaders and politicians who claim they are working for the people's best interests. He's been behind the curtain and he's here to let the cat out of the bag. These people, these saviors, are also greedy and motivated by self interest. Thus he rejects public speaking, not wanting to be a puppet or mouthpiece for someone else's selfish agenda. He then ends the verse similar to the end of verse one, rapping and they like to wonder where I've been protecting my soul in the valley of Silence. This time around, we get a taste of that silence as Savior ends with Kendrick going silent. There's no final chorus. Instead, the track concludes with a 20 second instrumental break, allowing us to absorb and reflect on all that Kendrick unleashed over his three scathing verses. Conclusions as track five on Mr. Morale's second disc, Savior is the mirrored reflection of Father Time, track five on the album's first disc. Why are these songs paired together? Because both address the fallacy of putting all our faith into one person. On Father Time, Kendrick directly confronted his father's shortcomings, going into painstaking detail about the daddy lessons or morality he was taught as a child and how it failed him as an adult. Ultimately, the song was about Kendrick accepting his father as human, as imperfect, recognizing his father was doing the best he knew how. Given his own life circumstances and upbringing, Kendrick understands it's now on him to evolve past his father's lessons for the sake of his own children. Kendrick's father is not his savior. This is his responsibility and his alone. Now here on disc two, Savior broadens a similar theme, cautioning us against putting our faith into any single person, be it your own father, a celebrity, a president, or, as we'll discover on the album's next track, a preacher. As Kendrick will say later on, faith in one man is a ship sinking. Projecting our desires onto one person is a recipe for disappointment, as they will always reveal themselves to be imperfect. And when those imperfections come to light, we're so quick to judge, to crucify, and ultimately that judgment becomes a mirror, revealing how empty our faith was all along. It's something Kendrick spoke directly about during one of the first live performances of Savior at the 2022 Glastonbury Music Festival. Kendrick took the stage wearing the same diamond encrusted crown of thorns he dons on Morale's album cover and before Beginning the song, he revealed why he wears the crown.
- [38:31]
Baby Keem
And this next record I want to perform is my favorite record off that album. It's the reason, the true reason, the true meaning of imperfection. And that's beautiful. No matter what you're going through, imperfection is beautiful. I wear this crown. They judge Christ. They judge you. They judge Christ. They judge you. They judge Christ. I wear this as a representation so you'll never forget one of the greatest prophets that ever walked the earth. They judge you. They judge Christ. We're gonna continue to try our best to walk in this image.
- [39:14]
Cole Kushna
Let's get it despite being the actual savior, Jesus Christ was ridiculed and judged. He was perfect and he was still crucified. So what does that say about us mortal, imperfect humans? As Kendrick proclaimed, they judge you. They judged Christ. If Christ himself couldn't escape judgment, then neither would you. We can live in fear of that judgment and futilely attempt to avoid it by letting popular opinion dictate our behavior. Or we can live in defiance of judgment, thinking for ourselves and expressing who we truly are. Judgments be damned. At the same time, like all things, Mr. Morale, Savior also challenges us to turn the mirror on ourselves from the ones being judged to the ones doing the judging. Because despite his blunt tone throughout the song, Kendrick's critiques of judgment are ultimately rooted in empathy. The song calls to see ourselves in everyone, even the so called villains and outcasts. And we can be like those who judged Christ and ridiculed him with a crown of thorns. Or we can wear the crown ourselves, accept the judgment, and do our best to, as Kendrick said, walk in his image, to have compassion for our neighbors, even those who persecute us. Understanding the same intuition to ridicule and judge is also inside of us.
- [40:27]
Eckhart Tolle
This is how we conceptualize human beings.
- [40:41]
Baby Keem
Monty is a man now. I think I'm old enough to understand now.
- [40:46]
Cole Kushna
Savior's themes of judgment, religion, imperfection and authentic self expression all culminate in Mr. Morale's next track, where Kendrick tells a story about his transgender relatives who are ridiculed and judged by his friends, his family, and even his local preacher. Of course, this is the controversial track Auntie Diaries, a song we'll examine note by note, line by line, next time on Dissect. If you enjoyed today's episode, please leave a comment, share with a friend or post about Dissect on social media. It all really helps. You can also support the show by purchasing limited season 13 merchandise@dissectpodcast.com all right, thanks everyone. Talk to you next week.