Echoes of Empowerment: How Kendrick Lamar’s Song ‘Alright’ Wakes up the Self

I wake up at five o’clock in the morning to one song and one song only. That is Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” from his album, To Pimp a Butterfly (2015). The echoes of empowerment, fighting through fear, and assuring within the souls of individuals that despite the circumstances, we will match the title of the song, envelop my ears.

I jump out of bed and dance. My movements enliven my limbs and allow me to shake off the sleep like dust from a book jacket. But the lyrics resonate with hope and animate my mind to continue through the day. As Lamar writes:

“I keep my head up high

I cross my heart and hope to die

Lovin' me is complicated

Too afraid of a lot of changes

I'm alright and you're a favorite….”

I find immense satisfaction in the oral tradition propounded by this hip hop artist. He says here that he would never fold on a promise and would stand as a man against any tyranny that may threaten his soul. This is even if he is “complicated.” Throughout all of the ugliness that can arise in life, the spirit of going on keeps me motivated to see the next day.

By keeping my own head up high, I embrace the idea of defiance that continues to give me a chance to fight for happiness. The words are like guardians of freedom that protect me from the onslaught of vicious mental attacks.

When Lamar says, “And we hate po-po, wanna kill us dead in the streets for sure,” he expounds upon the “war in the streets” that Tupac Shakur said decades earlier.

George Floyd’s death brought about world wide movements that for the most part, championed individual rights. By banding together, we will be alright because of the idea of the fist.

The single fingers have power as individual digits. But once their individualism is not subdued but combined with the other digits, a mighty fist is formed.

“Alright” celebrates with a bluesy and a steady beat. The power of the words and the instrumental marry and produce a child of knowledge about taking life seriously. Yet, you can dance to the track, jump around with profound joy, or cheer through tears for the fallen.

In the streets, I see the tear gas and bullets, and shields, and torn up sidewalks. Banners display like advertisements for the spirit. They show that there is a realization that changes must still be made in this country and the world.

By being rebellious and fending off passivity, these people take to the streets.

But I don’t. I reject the destruction and disruption of private property and live in the true idealism of “Alright.” This song promotes the individual to improve him or herself. I know that it has improved my situation. By listening to this song, it strings together the sparkling acoustics of rejecting overwhelming police brutality.

The song is a hymn to the strength of street knowledge. Lamar carries the torch of understanding and a sound that conveys a sense that the world will get better.

His push to create a revolution through illuminating the combat for rights to be fully respected started from this personal gem about lifting up one self. Once the idea of exalting the self is established, Lamar takes the notion of demonstrations to not be the goal. “Alright” is about making the self be whole, worthy, and acknowledged equally, in a political way.

An ideological tune, “Alright” says that “All my life I had to fight,” a clear reference to Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple (1982). This is an internal battle within the self to conquer the forces of depravity and devastation.

It is with “Alright” that I find individualism. It is the song that continues to encapsulate everything that this year has thrown at virtually every human being on the planet.

The COVID-19 pandemic has diverted the normalcy of the day to take on the routines seeing changes. The deaths of Breonna Taylor, Rashard Brooks, among others stirred up a cause that the rational, individual life must be cherished.

“Alright” is unique in being sandwiched between a multiplicity of vicious acts taken by law enforcement. But when I hear the song, I don’t think of defunding or dismantling the police. It supports a philosophy of surrounding the self with enough strength to recognize the police forces for their good and punishing those who commit evil.

While organizations like Black Lives Matter (BLM) have adopted the track for their movement, this is actually a rejection of the ideal of “Alright.” BLM goes against the individualistic tone of the message by foisting collectivist ideals on the mind. Kendrick Lamar’s song represents the condition of the self to the only thought amongst the messiness of rocks thrown and barricades propping up all over cities globally.

“Alright” is a groove that permits the body to rock with the mind functioning on a higher level. With masks covering our faces and beaches, bars, schools, and businesses closing, and slowly reopening and then closing again, the individual must find ways to fight for what is right in this world.

The amount of energy is like an electric charge coursing through the song. Lamar is given the liberty in the song to portray a man of color living in America as not defeated. He is not laying down and taking what comes to him in “Alright.” He is challenging the conditions of his own life and taking responsibility for his own actions.

The jazzy, reedy track pulses with an uptempo sensibility. It is like a cool salve applied to a burn. I dance around my room enraptured by the bass and percussion. 2020 marks a year of trials and troubles but the might of the individual is the only power that could battle against the darkness of irrationalism and tribalism.

I continue throughout my day with the song on repeat playing through my headphones like an audible vaccine to fight the virus of evil that I encounter daily.

Lamar talks in the song about not self-destructing. His war with himself exemplifies my own conflicted state of mind. He felt depressed. I was depressed. I imbibed these words like a wine that was expensive and top shelf but had bitter notes. The knowledge of his low consciousness matched with his heightened awareness permitted me the opportunity to analyze my own condition. I knew that I would be alright despite the ugliness of what would occur a half decade after Lamar wrote the song.

“Uh, and when I wake up,” is the first thing that you hear when he starts the verse after the introduction and chorus. He is waking up to a world of confusion and pain much like the world that came to be five years after he penned the song. I wake up to the track and as the sun is beginning to crack through the sky, I take in the thinking that went into “Alright.” It lets me know that everything in fact will be something that I can face with my mind right and my feet moving and my face trained on the rising sun.