Part Two: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/grCkpZWprN7Qn6M.html TIMESTAMPS: Concept and Themes: 00:40 United in Grief: 06:00 N95: 07:30 Worldwide Steppers: 08:53 Die Hard: 11:12 Father Time: 11:48 Rich (Interlude): 14:50 Rich Spirit: 16:55 We Cry Together 17:47 Purple Hearts 20:55 follow me: instagram.com/omarabdelhmd @ me: twitter.com/omxru

If you are able to, please attend his tour. It is a masterpiece- literally an play, concert and opera performance all in one.

This is Kendrick’s most complex album and when you realize the message behind each song it’s like self reflection and realizing he is almost speaking directly to you this album is insane

This album is so deep … understanding it itself is a journey

Who’s here after drake dropped family matters and Kendrick dropped meet the grahams

Seeing the performances live were insane. Thoughtful and full of emotion. The storytelling was superb. Amazing experience, and would recommend to others.

I’m so glad you guys gave this album time to breathe instead of rushing to dissect this like these reviewers did. These guys are the reason why Andre 3k will never drop music.

I feel like Kendrick is gonna make a movie out of this album- and it’s going to change the world

This videos just about as beautiful as the album itself, props for such a breakdown, I’m seriously speechless

Do you know how many times I’ve cried listening to this album?? A lot. It’s so moving. And like some of you have said, listening to this feels like he’s talking to you specifically. It hits home. One of his best albums!!

I went to see his concert for this tour in NYC and it was hands down the best concert experience I ever had. The energy that was in that stadium was transcendent. Kendrick is 1of1 . And I’m glad I got to experience his message with this album. Truly beautiful

This album continues to show that Kendrick is the greatest rapper of all time

This album is amazing. Father Time is one of Kendrick’s best songs ever, that song just hits different for me.

This album is probably one of the most important things I’ve experienced in my life. 2 years ago I was a Kanye and Drake fan, I liked some stuff from Damn but I just found Kendrick’s music and lyricism overall to be really weird. And when Mr. Morale dropped, I felt the same way. It was weird. I didn’t like it. It challenged my ignorant view on life and politics and made me really think. And it doesnt help that I only halfway focused on the lyrics. I kinda misinterpreted his story. I was like “man this is woke garbage and the music sucks.” My family has always been far right so I just kinda followed suit. So I basically trashed on the album, didn’t really give the album a chance, and moved back to Drake, Kanye, Gunna, etc… but I came back to a song or 2 every now and then like N95 and Die Hard. But a few months ago, I decided to give the album a real chance. The more I learned about Kendrick, the more I realized that I really respected the guy. So I sat down with headphones and listened to the whole thing and heavily focused on all of the lyrics. This album is heavenly, the stories are deep, comes off extremely authentic, and has changed my view of the world. I feel like I’m more moderate now socially now and I’m not just a blind, ignorant, extremist now. I have always treated people with respect no matter their sexuality or race or whatever but I feel like my views on things have always been kinda messed up, and this album has really changed that.

This was without a doubt The best analyzation of any piece of art I think I’ve ever seen. I can’t even count how many times I’ve listened to this album and you have shed light, Recontextualizing many parts of the album for me in the best way. Thank you and you deserve way more recognition man.

this video is absolutely phenomenal…..amazing cinematography

This is such a well made and edited video, how tf does it not have a mil views bruh that’s crazy

This is crazy how u can break an album down like this 🔥🔥

We cry together alludes to Poetic Justice and Baby Boy. Poetic Justice was a starring role for Tupac and Baby Boy was written to star Tupac before his passing. That kinda brings things ''full circle'' as well. Poetic Justice was a hit on GKMC and that song was like a prologue to ''We Cry Together'', thematic...

This album changed my life

I am about to see Kendrick preform and this video makes me appreciate the greatness of his work that much more! Thanks!

I can’t believe I looked at the album entirely wrong. Thanks for opening my eyes.

Can't wait for part 2!!

Kodaks rich spirit is the most street spoken words .. powerful.

Thank you so much for this breakdown. It makes the listening experience that much more enjoyable. Kendricks Album hits differently when you're on your own journey to healing...

Thanks for all your time effort and tact !!great job!!

Only review I actually watched till the end. Mad props for the time taken to actually dissect the album and break it down for us, and also your edits really dope

I cant believe you broke down complex ideas like this...amazing job please keep it up

One of the best analytical videos I’ve seen on a Kendrick vid keep it up man!

Great analysis, gave me a better appreciation for this album

dude i loved those nujabes music playing in the background, loved your dissection on the album great work bro, thanks

I seen him when he was in Detroit 8/14/22 that was experience of a lifetime. Can’t wait till he comes back he said would be back. I’m holding him to that and I will be there too. Kendrick is something special and this cd took me being a fan to a different level.

This is a brilliant analysis! Thank you!

Man you're on a major come up soon. Love your vids man.

very eye opening, I never finished listening to the album despite feeling very connected to it, I never really understood why though, which is probably why I couldn't finish it, couldn't hear it for what it deeply was. Gonna finish this and then watch the next video haha, I don't usually comment these types of things, but truly, thank you for this video and the fact that it has helped understand the album more, it's opened a lot of ideas for my ongoing journey of self improvement

This breakdown was great! Hearing all the other music you sprinkled in here was amazing too

Love what you're doing man

great job boss! I love this. Can’t wait for PT 2

Can't believe this was called "trash" ..... naaah, dissing aside, this is a serious work of art on complexities. Big respect to everyone!

Thank you 🙏🏻 for this second part … it was worth the wait…bless you…I learned today… I gained some enlightenment today… life…

I NEEDED THIS! 🙏🏽🙏🏽

Been waiting on this and it was worth the wait amazing video. Just my only critque is to work on leveling the sound as your voice is louder at some parts and the music as well (which is probably intentional)

excited for this

My god......how incitefull. You are such a smart creator. My respect to you, man

Great video, I learned so much watching this! I love the way that your commentary on the songs from this album synchs up with themes from his past work, mirrored so to speak by the videos playing in the background of your commentary. For example, in the chapter on We Cry Together, your claim that "larger social problems within our culture are the product of toxic relationships between individuals" occurs while footage from the video to the song Poetic Justice is playing, which obviously references the movie starring Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur. This is in continuation with the idea of being a mouthpiece or prophet, in other words, a "medium" for God that 2Pac expresses in the interview at the end of TPAB: "It's cause spirits. We ain't really rapping, we just letting our dead homies tell stories for us." This thread runs clear through DAMN into the beginning of United In Grief when Kendrick admits to asking God to speak through him, and again on Rich Spirit: "Spirit medium, I don't rap brother." Admittedly, Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers is an album about coming to terms with how that vocation can take on shades of Messiah Complex in a way which harms Kendrick, while also acting as a roadblock to his healing and wellbeing in a kind of doubly self-imposed suffering, which is where Eckhart Tolle's concept of the pain body from The Power of Now comes in. However, given the references to Tolle's The New Earth, which is about how individual spirituality has the potential to usher in collective, social transformation, I don't think that Kendrick is giving up, in this album, on the idea that his music can lead to social change and a better world. He's simply gotten to a place - thanks to therapy, disconnecting from social media, various spiritual practices such as fasting (which could also be seen as abstaining from sex or other vices/addictions, as you've pointed out) or past life regressions, and a renewed commitment to spirit and "God" from a non-religious perspective, as we can see in his critique of intolerance in the song Auntie Diaries and in Mother I Sober, when he speaks about a kind of animist nature worship in which he finds God in the flowers and trees - where he no longer bears the responsibility of making the world a better place as a burden, because he's decided to focus his energies on himself and his family - things that he can actually affect. As he puts in on the song Savior: "Kendrick made you think about it, but he is not your savior" and again "Tupac's dead, gotta think for yourself". That means that just blindly following "King Kendrick" or any other leader will lead to compliance with the status quo rather than the real work that it takes to change yourself; rewrite your social conditioning, stop blaming others for the problems in your life and the world, and take responsibility for the ways in which YOU can be the best version of yourself. It's hard, but no one else CAN do it but ourselves. And so, it may seem harsh, but it's anything but the tough love mentality that he speaks of his father instilling in him on Father Time. It's a vision of healing that involves, first of all, not repressing our emotions and our vulnerable side, because these are the part that are going to need attention in therapy, the process of personal transformation, because they are the part that need to be healed. At the same time, it's also a vision that, while placing responsibility in the hands of the individual, has deep faith in the importance of the ties that bind us in family and community. I believe that Kendrick still thinks his music can make the world a better place. But it's not by saving us himself, it's by sacrificing his ego by presenting his process of therapy and healing in a way in which others can observe and learn by applying it to their own lives, which simultaneously allows him to grow into a bigger person and a more authentic leader. From the climax of Mother I Sober: So I set free myself from all the guilt that I thought I made So I set free my mother all the hurt that she titled shame So I set free my cousin, chaotic for my mother's pain I hope Hykeem made you proud, 'cause you ain't die in vain So I set free the power of Whitney, may she heal us all So I set free our children, may good karma keep them with God So I set free the hearts filled with hatred, keep our bodies sacred As I set free all you abusers, this is transformation I know that this video is just about the first half of the album, so my comment kind of goes beyond the scope of that, I just wanted to make a nod to the brilliant intertextuality of Kendrick's work, one example among countless is the Poetic Justice reference in We Cry Together, but got caught up in saying this thing I have to say about the album as a whole. I appreciate how your attention to detail is in alignment with the attention to detail that goes into everything Kendrick touches.

Thank you for this piece it's beautiful

watching shit like this and not appreciating what Kendrick does and knowing how impactful his music should be means you must be missing something inside you

This is a dope piece man🔥🔥 KENDRICK'S a GOAT fr... The album makes more sense everyday..💙

Incredibly well done explanation

Video on point my guy love it

Thank you for this analysis

saw him last night 🤩 his whole production was art

🔥🔥someone had to do it first!! can't wait for part 2

Man... You very good. I love your work

Great video on a great album, one thing I might critique: the snippets of other songs being used to segway from song to song are a little louder than the other parts and I frequently had to turn it down whenever it would transition. At a couple points the background music was a bit loud as well. Just audio balancing I don’t know much about it myself but good balance really does make all the difference

This is really good. Thank you.

Your videos are amazing

let’s go fire vid brotha 🔥

Needed this analysis !

Mixing yeat and Kendrick is CRAZY! great video nun the less

Amazing Video!

this was brilliant

Brillant breakdown

Thank you Omar

Amazing vid

Insanely detailed & thorough breakdown. Great Video Pearl. What’s the Yeat song at 8:52

you're doin a good job on these, I just wanna say Kendrick was never really preachy that's what made him different is he was just giving you his own observations of himself. this album isnt much different I think the duality is just to represent the way people viewed him & how it made him start to view himself but he never came off that way

Great conclusion! @17:50

Love the vid bro 🔥🔥watched it like 3 times where’s part 2 at

WELL DONE!!!

I related the last verse on Mother I Sober more to Kodak Black, hence featuring him in the first place! it’s crazy when Wayne appeared, I forgot he also had a rough past and childhood

Amazing video.

My G!, Aint noooo body gonna tell me you werent in the writers room when this album was being out together! 💯💯👏🏾👏🏾. As always this is dope!

Good breakdown

Perfect video

in we cray together; I love the way he chose to speak about internalized misogyny. he's so observant, so smart!

This is a great Breakdown 🙏🏽. Kindly asking if you can breakdown Lupe Fiasco Drill Music in Zion too.

Bruh... how do you even know all this? The analysis is crazy good.

Kendrick is amazing

wondering if there's any reason for the nujabes album playing in the background. Love your work bro! please keep it going :)

Just so yall know i cry every time I hear count me out

listening to this album was a different feeling. but seeing it live, allowed me to understand kendrick fully. it was phenomenal.

This is my favourite Kendrick album

Beautiful genius 👏 ❤️

Thank you 🙏🏽

Thank you very much 🔥🔥🔥

Video is amazing 😻 but just a suggestion: next time when you add music from the album. Try muting or lowering the background music 😅

“Kendrick was trying to convey the messages of thousands of years worth of divine intelligence by recording his vocal vibrations so we can absorb the information sonically”

Currently doing my dissertation for my Masters degree, and will be referencing this video in it.

the realizarions😍

Well done! Kendrick with the masterpiece of an album and your breakdown video as well! 👏 Awesome that it’s becoming normal for stuff like Eckhart Tolle’s work coming to something this mainstream so more people can heal their pain bodies and stop spreading the trauma cycle to others around them especially their kids!!! Time to heal and live to the frequency of Love on planet Earth! The problem is pop culture makes it seem cool to us as a society to be bad, negative, evil and hate! We’re afraid to be good and loving in fear of being “soft” etc. It is time for humanity to awaken to the truth of Love! Peace and blessings! -J 👣

If they make an actual play out of this album that ish will sell out so fast

I think it’s important to understand the ideologies of Edgar Tolle as shown in “The Power of Now”. It gives more context on Kendrick’s perspective, especially concerning EGO.

Damn this is good

I came to the internet looking for the evil meaning behind this but was hit with this tasteful piece here 🤔👏🏾

That Emm insert was kinda random but dope

All the nujabes/ champloo songs. Nice haha

Will be giving this album another chance. Didn't relate to it the first two listens.

He actually did the work

The first step to healing is getting off social media.