@americana something wrong with the both of y'all

I tend to think musicians are just not that useful for inspiring social change or deep insight after a listener is over the age of like 25 but they can be really important for young people. When musicians get cynical about their ability to change society my one question to them is, “what did you think a song was gonna do, G?” All you have to do is inspire people to look more into something, make them aware of some new topic, etc. I remember in high school I would find a lot of the lyrical content of guys like Kendrick and Bob Dylan really insightful, but then I went to college and was assigned readings in philosophy, politics, economics, etc, and any insightful information I could get from a rapper was better transmuted in these formats. That’s not to minimize the role of a conscious musician trying to inspire social change- but ultimately I just think they’re important for getting young people otherwise not entrenched in topics and ways of thinking’s to like, go check it out or something.
I thought your point about that great man theory was interesting- I’m not even entirely cynical of the great man theory like most people are, just don’t think it would ever be likely for a rapper to be that figure.

You itt hating on a beautiful sunny morning because you lack the will to read words fam

Go take a walk

Everybody's responses itt giving me faith

Ngl i didn't expect it tbh

I got my notepad out. Still dissecting these raw thoughts

to be fair he shouldn’t have been posturing on with this savior complex if he was gonna cop out to it as lazily as he did

Ktt critic bait?

Bro just said insert random ktt music sxn phrase here

He definitely wasn’t lazy with the cop out

Lol f***in around brodie

I don’t think it was a lazy cop out lol and there’s plenty of songs on TPAB and DAMN that had a self deprecating nature, which is why Mirror didn’t end up surprising me at all

I was listening to FEAR on release night and I was really curious to see where he is after the past five years of just random narratives being thrown around about him

He’s talking about only now coming to terms with his own deeper family issues and generational trauma, very unfair to call it a lazy cop out when that’s why he left that complex behind

"If he didn't want to be our Savior he shouldn't have said xxx 10 years ago! He shouldn't have released xxx 7 years ago!"

5 years is a long time man. The things you may have thought you were or even wanted to be for other people can drastically change.

Idk why it’s such a big deal to focus on your family lmfao

no one's saying it's a bad thing, it's just an observation about the changes in an artists' ideas over the course of their career because of their experiences

If that's what you takeaway from it idk what to tell u

i think its possible for him to still be concerned but at the same time admit what little energy he has left at this point is going to be invested in himself and his family instead of anyone else.

i mean
even the biggest artist on the earth mj himself
made they dont care about us and what really even changed ?
its so hard to have a real social impact w music

he didnt cop out lmao

both damn and this album are about his disillusion with the current state of affairs and he feels the way he does

can't disagree on that one

To be fair they were already slandering his name by that point with the “Wacko Jacko” headlines

also i def think kendrick regrets this saviour aspect that he was in-part responsible for bestowing on himself.

as he gets older and sees that he wasnt able to have the impact he thought he could - coupling this with the fact he has more personal responsibilities now than he did back then - he probably just feels more and more disillusioned with the platform he has.

@Scratchin_Bandit @krishna_bound this talk about the “hero’s journey” is interesting and not even trying to troll or sound ignorant when I say this but it kind of reminded me of when Folks on here was talking about Malcolm leaving the NOI after becoming disillusioned with Elijah Muhammad and what not lol

It’s like no matter the context narratively we ever someone reaches the top they get jaded or have some realization or something