“I’m so fuckin’ sick and tired of the Photoshop / Show me somethin’ natural like afro on Richard Pryor / Show me somethin’ natural like ass with some stretch marks”
Kendrick Lamar’s new single, “Humble,” could not have come at a better time. In a week during which two teenage girls were barred from boarding a United Airlines flight for wearing leggings; the rapper released a powerful message of feminist support.
For his latest video, which made a surprise debut on YouTube last night, Lamar, who has taken on racial politics and the trappings of consumer culture in the past (remember his groundbreaking performance at last year’s Grammys?), set his sights on the dehumanizing effects of a zeitgeist obsessed with perfection. Forget the celestial lighting and The Last Supper imagery that are sure to stoke conversations among believers and atheists alike—or even its title, “Humble”—nowhere does the song rail against modern artifice more succinctly than when it comes to women’s bodies.
“I’m so fuckin’ sick and tired of the Photoshop,” Lamar raps to a split-screen image of a model retouched to doe-eyed, flawlessly complected perfection on one side before cutting to a closeup of her shapely backside set to the lyrics, “Show me somethin’ natural like ass with some stretch marks.”
It’s a split-second ode to natural curls and real curves devoid of the pseudo-body-positive messages that tend to accompany, say, artfully constructed crop top selfies on Instagram, acting instead as reminder that true beauty can come down to peeling back the layers of a carefully constructed persona.
His line about the stretch mark-clad booty has been the source of particular scrutiny, inspiring many reactions on social media. There are some women who feel that Kendrick is progressive for embracing a body type that is usually underrepresented in popular culture (and hip-hop). Others, though, feel differently — arguing that Kendrick is simply bringing up “natural” women in his song because they are sexually pleasing to him at this point in time.
With rumors of an upcoming album reaching a crescendo, something tells us Lamar is just getting warmed up.
I was curious if you ever thought of changing the structure of your site? Its very well written; I love what youve got to say. But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having one or two pictures. Maybe you could space it out better?
How would feminist use this for their “revolution” or whatever the fuck them damn feminazis are fighting for…its legit just a bar talkn bout thick chicks ….real chicks…with thighs and a phat ass ….not pictures with all that blemish shit like 99 percent of girls with iphones be using catfishing niggas or them girls who be spractically starving themselves n shit actn like men will think their sexy cuz they weigh 40 pounds yet have no ass or boobs lmao …wow please learn to decipher shit right lmao im dead…this aint a world about feelings like just come to the realization that no matter how much you act like shit is going to change or whatever its not this shit is just programmed with our dna or sumn cuz this is just real un cut rap nun to do with yahs ignorant agenda