Andrew Veeder on February 10th, 2015

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Fresh off of two Grammy wins on Sunday — best rap song and best rap performance for his positive and uplifting single, “i” — Kendrick Lamar flipped the script this week and dropped a new track “The Blacker The Berry.” Over a boom bap beat from Boi-1da and a hook from Jamaican artist Assassin, Lamar launches a ferocious assault on the legal system, race relations, racism and the hypocrisy of street violence compared to police violence, because in the end, it’s still violence all the same. His flow is raw and energized, spitting lines like “Came from the bottom of mankind / My hair is nappy, my dick is big, my nose is round and wide / You hate me don’t you? / You hate my people, your plan is to terminate my culture,” and, “Institutionalize / Manipulation and lies / Reciprocation of freedom only live in your eyes.” On his third and final verse, he digs in with, “I’m the biggest hypocrite of 2015 / When I finish this, if you listenin’ I’m sure you will agree / This plot is bigger than me, it’s generational hatred / It’s genocism, it’s grimy, little justification / I’m African-American, I’m African / I’m black as the heart of a f*ckin’ Aryan / I’m black as the name of Tyrone and Darius / Excuse my french, but f*ck you — no, f*ck y’all.” As hip-hop’s heir apparent, and with such anticipation building for his new album, it’s great that Lamar is using the soapbox he’s been thrust upon to continue the conversation started by N.W.A. over 25 years ago about what’s really going on in the street and questioning where we are as a society.

||| Stream: “The Blacker The Berry”:

||| Live: Kendrick Lamar plays the Shaun White Air + Style concert at the Rose Bowl on Feb. 21 with The Black Lips, Diplo, Metz, Phantogram, and Portugal. the Man.