In a very unlike me fashion, I am taking my time.
If you were here back in July, you might remember when Eminem dropped his much anticipated album, and my extremely strong (positive) reaction to that. There were a good few blog posts I wrote about it.
Well, on a random Friday afternoon a few days ago, with no announcement or buildup or anything, my guy Kendrick Lamar went ahead and dropped an album completely out of the blue. And oh boy did the world stop to listen.
I’ve made my way through half of the album so far, taking my time with each song and breaking down the lyrics and the sound components behind it, but most importantly the meaning.
And this is where I’ll talk about my favorite YouTuber for this purpose, Knox Hill.
His channel is specifically dedicated to breaking music down and stripping it away from the noise to tell you what the lyrics are actually saying, and the intended meaning behind it.
While I won’t use this post to talk about all the ways or whys I love Kendrick, and specifically what Not Like Us meant to me as a listener (a lot, it meant a lot), I will say that Kendrick has become an artist that flew through the ranks and has landed himself as probably my 3rd favorite artist…second to All Time Low and Eminem, respectively.
I haven’t gotten through the entire album yet, but the song stuck in my head, and more specifically the lyrics stuck in my head, come from a song called man at the garden.
I deserve it all.
The way he says it. The power behind it.
It makes me feel it too. Like, damn. Maybe I deserve it all too.
Maybe I deserve the good. Everything I’ve worked so hard for. And even more.
Lyrics mean a lot to me. Music gets me through the hardest parts of life.
And tonight I’m looking forward to getting through the rest of the album.
But if there’s one thing I’m taking away from it right now…
It’s that I deserve it all.
And I deserve to be happy.