Kendrick Lamar: God Amongst Men?

Traditionally, religious groups have been some of the most conservative when it comes to rap music, especially Christian groups in the US. Kendrick Lamar issues a challenge from the very get-go to these groups and to their perception of rappers in his hit song “Humble.” It’s a very inflammatory song where Kendrick casts himself in a religious, nearly Jesus-like figure, declaring his ascent to the ranks of the rap gods like Eminem, Dre, etc. The music video itself is laden with stunning visuals interweaving religious imagery with a strong gangster persona. It takes advantage of angled shots and strong religious motifs to keep the audience on their toes and jamming with the lyrics while interlacing a strong juxtaposition between religion and rap music.

The very first shot features a low-angle shot of Kendrick as light drifts in from a high window. The architecture strongly suggests a church, and is the location of the majority of the shots in the video. This shot, and location reappear with growing frequency throughout the video, remaining static for the majority of the time. Here the low-angle shot combined with the high-angle light source send a very clear visual to the watcher: Kendrick Lamar is above you. This shot conveys a strong sense of power to the audience that Kendrick is in control of all of the events to come in the video and those around him are all really beneath him.

Beyond that, it provides the audience context for the lyrics, making it clear that this song is all about Kendrick’s claim to being one of the greatest of all time, and to silencing those that would say otherwise. This message is further reinforced in a later scene featuring Kendrick in a sea of bald African-American men. Meant to insinuate that there are a thousand guys just like him, the high angle of this shot instead allows the watcher not only to distinguish him from the rest, but to see that he is really the focus of the entire scene and completely separate from the other stand-ins.

The most powerful tool they use in constructing this video however, is allusions to well-known religious material. Returning again to the initial scene, it’s clear that Kendrick is cast in the robes of a priest, or perhaps even Jesus himself. He even appears to be in prayer as the track begins playing, further solidifying his religious role.

For a long time, rap has been considered at odds with religion often preaching things considered to be vices or sins by the church. Kendrick is clearly attempting to play on this dichotomy to assert his own holiness in the rap industry. Under his priest’s robes he’s wearing chains, he’s tattooed, yet he’s praying. It’s an obvious contradiction, and clearly he’s trying to assert that he’s a godly figure.

Yet, the religious factor goes deeper. At the same time that he’s poking fun at the idea of holiness and claiming his own status as a rap god, he’s drawing parallels between the rap lifestyle and the life of Jesus. His lyrics are his scripture, he’s preaching humility whether it’s his or yours. He even presents a scene of the last supper with a rapper twist, where his posse are his apostles and we are his followers. This makes sense too since Kendrick has a very itinerant and loyal fanbase. In a sense they are his followers and his disciples.

“Humble” is a complex song to say the least. But, it two things are clear from the cinematography. The use of angled shots to create a sense of power and individuality feed the meaning of they lyrics just as the lyrics feed the created sense of power. Furthermore, religion is clearly a major motif in the video and in the lyrics. Juxtaposing rap and religion together, Kendrick not only draws on their similarities in the decadent feasts and god-like stature that people hope to achieve, but also in the contrasts between the peaceful prayer and sinful behavior that he embodies in his twist on traditional religious and rap viewpoints.