Kendrick Lamar isn’t going to discuss Donald Trump. (C Flanigan/Getty Images)
You can’t look to Kendrick Lamar for any lofty statements on Donald Trump, but you can nudge him to discuss his enlightening trip to South Africa.
On the topic of Trump, the socially conscious rapper, who targeted the president on his single “The Heart Part 4,” thinks there’s nothing more to say about the Commander-In-Chief.
“I mean, it’s like beating a dead horse,” he said in a lengthy Rolling Stone article Wednesday, Aug. 9. “We already know what it is. Are we gonna keep talking about it or are we gonna take action? You just get to a point where you’re tired of talking about it. It weighs you down and it drains your energy when you’re speaking about something or someone that’s completely ridiculous. So, on and off the album [Damn.], I took it upon myself to take action in my own community. On the record, I made an action to not speak about what’s going on in the world or the places they put us in. Speak on self; reflection of self first. That’s where the initial change will start from.”
Reflection of self is something Lamar is pretty familiar with nowadays, thanks to his 2014 journey to South Africa, which he described as “a place where I belonged.” Sitting in the jail cell of late anti-apartheid revolutionary and former president Nelson Mandela was a spiritual experience for the “Humble” rapper.
“You could feel their spirits there basically saying, ‘Take a piece of the story back to your community,'” Lamar, a native of Compton, Calif., said. “That’s exactly what I did. ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’ … is me talking to my homeboys with the knowledge and the wisdom that I gained.
“If you could see this cell, man,” Lamar continued, “and they’re laying on the floor, a cold floor. To still be able to carry out a message and socially move your people from inside that cell, you just gotta be a strong individual.”
