" Okay " is American rapper Kendrick Lamar, taken from her third album To Pimp a Butterfly (2015). The lively song lyrics about hope, it features uncredited vocals from co-producer Pharrell Williams songs during the choir. "Okay" was released to radio stations as the album's fourth single on June 30, 2015. Most of the music publications considered it among the best songs and videos of the year, highlighting their message in the current social context. "Okay" received four nominations at the 58th Grammy Awards: Song of the Year, Best Music Video, Best Rap Performance, and Best Rap Song, winning the last two songs.
The song was associated with Black Lives Matter after several youths led the protest sounding singing chorus, with some publications calling "Okay" the "unifying soundtrack" movement.
Video Alright (Kendrick Lamar song)
Inspiration and composition
Initially, Pharrell Williams created a knock and just six months later, Williams came up with a hook that inspired Lamar to find the right lyrics. Hook, "We'll be fine!" allowing Lamar to use the inherent symbolism to spur the rest of the song lyrics that eventually resonate with the rest of the movement. In an interview with MTV News, Lamar said that he was inspired by his trip to South Africa, witnessing the problems of others in the country: "Their struggles are ten times more difficult." The track opens with a line from Alice Walker The Color Purple , "All my life, I have to fight". Lamar introduced the character "Lucy", who played a key role in the rest of the album. According to the lyrics, when Lamar gets bigger, Lucy: "not big enough to feed you". At the end of the trajectory, Lamar talks about suicidal thoughts in the hotel room "I do not want to spoil myself... Lucy's crime is all around me." For music critics, "the celebration of life", Lamar describes "Alright" as a message of hope. The song begins as a treatise of words before it explodes into a shifting American portrait that carries a jazz horn, a thunderous drum beats and a fragile Lemas rap as he struggles with problems and temptations. Musically, features marching band propulsion and a jovial reed jazz band. For his production credit, Pharrell Williams, who made the song with Digi Phonics member Sounwave, sang a hook.
Maps Alright (Kendrick Lamar song)
Critical reception
Ranking number one on Pitchfork ' s "100 Best Song 2015", the editor praised the chorus "We'll be fine," and describes it as "simple and easy five-tribe said refrain, firmly asserting the future of delivery to a better, more peaceful place. In more than one instance, the chorus of the song was sung in the Black Lives Matter protest.This has sounded a movement. It was largely because of its holistic sentiment as a siren fighting countless injustices, but that's the same as the fact that it's a great hook on a very interesting song. "
For The New York Times, writer Nate Chinen placed the song on the list of "The Best Songs of 2015", adding "the verses harbor (more) internal struggles - and some of Kendrick Lamar's most inspired showrooms as rapper. "
Music video
Release and synopsis
Lamar is seen recording the song's music video on Treasure Island in San Francisco, California and above a traffic pole in Los Angeles, California. It was released on Vevo Lamar's page on June 30, 2015. The seven-minute clip, directed by Colin Tilley and The Little Homies, was filmed entirely in black and white.
The music video begins by showing photos of life in the neighborhood. A young African-American man is seen lying on the ground and Lamar starts talking. Police and destruction flooded the scene as the music began, and Lamar began tapping on the new verse along with his Black Hippy cohorts (ScHoolboy Q, Ab-Soul and Jay Rock), in a car carried by four police officers (this video part is very similar to intro Busta Rhymes music video for "Woo-Hah! Got You All In Check.") During the video, Lamar flies through California, while her crew throws money for everyone and the dancers perform on the streets. At the end of the music video, Lamar stood on a lamp post and a policeman shot him. The rapper falls to the ground completing his monologue from the beginning of the video, but ends the clip with a smile.
Reception
Pitchfork rated it as the best music video of 2015, highlighting "Lamar's own flight over the streets of L.A., Icarus inside her city provides one of the most exciting images - and set this year free." Consequence of Sound made the list of videos at number one on "Top 5 Music Videos of 2015", concluding "This video serves as a microcosm of the sad and wretched state of many cities: crooked police, burnt cars, buildings abandoned, and grim background of urban sprawl, very strong, horrible, gloomy and hopeful all at once. " Spin also includes a clip above it" 25 Best Music Videos 2015 ".
Eric Ducker for Rolling Stone writes "Lamar appears as a charismatic super hero but vulnerable, flies through the city and does donuts in the parking lot as the children happily sit on a rifle," and also praised the director's work Colin Tilley, "He created a sharper experience that fits with one of the most ambitious albums by a great artist in recent history.Tilley climbed to the challenge of matching Lamar's beautifully complex and contradictory vision." The editor listed him at number six on his best music video in article 2015. Slant Magazine Staff named it the 4th best video of the year. The music video received four nominations at the MTV Video Music Awards 2015, including Video of the Year, Best Male Video and Best Direction, finally winning the last. Subsequently, he received a nomination for a Grammy Award for Best Music Video.
Live show and controversy
Lamar performed the song for the first time at the 15th BET Awards on June 28, 2015. The show featured Lamar standing in a police car with graffiti streaks flanked by American flags. Geraldo Rivera of Fox News called the show "disgusting", and criticized Lamar, stating that "Hip Hop has done more damage to African-Americans than racism in recent years". Lamar, then, responds to a comment with a short video that questions Rivera's claim, stating, "How can you receive a message of hope and turn it into hatred?" Lamar then uses Rivera's commentary audio in his song "DNA."
"Fine" is featured on the Kunta Groove Session tour. Lamar and Pharrell Williams performed the song together at Cali's annual concert in California.
Lamar performed a medley of "The Blacker the Berry" and "Alright" at the 58th Grammy Awards. It was ranked by Rolling Stone and Billboard as the best performance and the best moment of the evening, with the last writing "It was easily one of the best live TV shows in history."
Lamar has done "All right" at every show on the Damn tour.
Impact
By 2015, some youth led protests against police brutality across the country hearing chorus singing for "All right". Rolling Stone Editor ', Grate Tate commented: "Lamar's' Alright' has been mentioned by many friends in today's cadres of student activists as' We Shall Overcome '". In addition, some contemporary progressive news outlets, including BET, have raised the idea of ââ"Okay" into a modern Black Black Song. Lamar appeared on Ebony Power 100, an annual list that acknowledged many African-American community leaders, emphasized "how the choir song" Okay "became a song for Black Lives Matter thinkers. Producer Sounwave stated "I do not expect" Okay "to be a protest song but I know it will do something because the time we occupy makes it the perfect song." The protesters at the Chicago rally for Donald Trump chanted song choruses in March 2016.
Usage in media
Kendrick Lamar made a cameo in a promo ad for the ABC Black-ish sitcom. A one-minute clip was released featuring Lamar's song in a Johnson-made music video to become "an overnight viral sensation". The rest of the promo ads moved to a music video setting where Black-ish threw the rap to "Okay" while Lamar sat on the family sofa chewing on a snack. On January 25, 2016, Grammy released a promotional video in which Compton residents broke into "Okay" before Lamar joined them at the end.
Accolades
Diagram
Certification
References
External links
- "Okay" on YouTube
- Lyrics of this song in MetroLyrics
Source of the article : Wikipedia