The Many Faces Of The Heart Part 5 (Article)
After five long years, Kendrick Lamar finally dropped “The Heart Part 5” last night and naturally it took the internet by storm. Look what he done for us. Like all of Kendrick’s work, everybody is dissecting the song and the many meanings behind it. There’s been a lot of talk of how even using the specific sample of Marvin Gaye’s “I Want You” relates back to the complicated relationship American culture has with Black men. Specifically, Kendrick himself sings “I want you to want me too” in the song’s chorus and uses deepfake technology to replace his face with six extremely influential Black men who’ve both been praised and stoned by the media, pop culture, and Black culture. I figured I’d take it upon myself to dive into why I perceive these men were chosen and the specific messaging behind choosing them. So let’s get right into it.
OJ Simpson
The first face we see Kendrick morph into is famed running back and potential murderer OJ Simpson. Over the years since his heyday, he’s only become more of a low hanging fruit for commentary on race in America. As a football player, and a damn good one at that, he was pretty quickly accepted into American culture. He was one of the few Black faces at white parties and truly believed he’d become to popular that he had transcended race. That was of course until the country believed he murdered his white wife. As The Heart deals with the cannibalistic nature of American culture, OJ makes a perfect fit to be the first face we see after Kendrick’s. He was one of the earliest instances of our country tearing down a Black man and his reputation, despite the fact that this man was a hero to so many children who typically would spend their childhood without one. It’s interesting that Kendrick’s first bar in the record is “I come from a generation of pain where murder is minor”, since the 1995 verdict of OJ’s landmark murder divided the country not just racially but culturally. So as Kendrick quotes Jay Z with OJ’s face on, OJ quite literally did this for our culture. As we hadn’t had many heroes, we were very much willing to forgive OJ (murder happens every day where we come from) and were pretty much unanimously going crazy over the fact that he was found innocent. White people were not so quick to forgive, and of course, jokes have been flying to this day. But the crown jewel was of course OJ’s own denial of his race in a plea for the nation to still love him. He’s not Black, he’s OJ.
Kanye West
Kendrick brought out the big guns quick, as his face morphs from OJ to Kanye West almost instantly. Does Kanye West really need an introduction? As one of the greatest artists of our time, the man has only gone on to become more and more polarizing. First it was the “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people” moment. Then of course there was the Swiftgate controversy born out of him storming the stage at the 2009 VMA’s (which gave us My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy as an apology album, he later revealed). Years later, he would go on to not only support then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, but also turn up on TMZ with his infamous “slavery was a choice” rant. Most recently, we have his co-parenting escapades and issues with Ske… Pete Davidson, his ex-wife’s new boyfriend. The list of times the public consciousness has pretty much collectively turned its back on Ye is too long to even read. Through it all, Kanye never denied his race, although he wanted to make it clear he (like OJ) could not be placed in the box of just being Black. Kanye West has never wanted to be placed in any box, and has always been his unapologetic self. Many people will point to the passing of his mother as the moment he really began to go off of the rails, which could hint at an underlying desire to feel that love again much like Kendrick says in the hook. But unlike OJ, Kanye has always firmly planted himself on the opposite side if a popular concensus. He is a leader of free thinking and we know how America treats people like that - never mind when they are Black. An interesting anecdote is that Kendrick adopts Kanye’s face right as he raps about friends being bipolar, as Kanye has openly admitted to being. Kanye’s mental health issues have hardly garnered him any sympathy though, and he remains an easy target for SNL writers, Fox News, and everyone in between.
Jussie Smollett
Admittedly, I don’t know much about Jussie and his accompanying case. All I know is that he was a star on Empire and staged a fake hate crime, filed a false police report, and many people were onto him all along. As an openly gay man, many members of the LGBTQ+ community were quick to support him as he cited he was attacked and verbally abused with racist and homophobic slurs. A large portion of the country rallied behind Jussie at first, although many others were skeptical. He was on his way to becoming a symbol for advocation against LGBTQ+ targeting hate crimes and bigotry at large. “The streets got me f***** up, y’all can miss me. I wanna represent for us,” Kendrick claims with Jussie’s face on. This was of course until it was found out that he had faked the whole thing. Of course, the entire country turned on him quicker than they had supported him in the first place. While not as nuanced to me as some of the other men K Dot deepfaked, the message is still clear. The country will turn on you quick as hell is you do something wrong - and you better not be Black while doing it.
Will Smith
The most recent addition to the list of highly influential Black men the country has decided to hate, Will Smith also likely needs no introduction. But just in case you’ve forgotten about who he was pre-smear campaign, this is one of the biggest movie stars of all time. Starting off as the family-friendly Fresh Prince (both on the television screen, and on wax), Will Smith dropped the stage name and went on to star in blockbusters such as Bad Boys, Men In Black, Independence Day, and what feels like 1,000 rom-coms throughout the 2000’s eventually dropping music and television altogether. Then he slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars and all that got swept under the rug. What makes Will Smith interesting, is because he didn’t really blow up off of Black art after the 90’s. He was typically one of the few Black faces in most of his films once he really became “Will Smith”. He was always typecast as himself, you could expect the smooth snarky sense of humor, with a bit of corniness to charm mainstream America. He had what many viewed as a seat at the table. Over the past few years, his image has been tarnished between his marital issues, his own Red Table Talk episode, pretty much everything his wife has told the world, and now this. “Hurt people hurt people” Will said in his Oscar acceptance speech right after he had slapped Chris Rock. Kendrick said the same in this verse. Immediately following the slap heard around the world, the public was split. We pretty much all agreed the slap was over much more than just Rock’s jab at Jada. It appeared to many to be the culmination of all of the pent up anger and aggression Will had kept inside him over these past few years as the tabloids had its way with his family, and due to such many believed it to be justifiable, or at least understandable. As the dust has settled, Will has been losing endorsements left and right and painted as a danger to free speech. Dave Chappelle was just attacked on stage this past weekend and people were quick to put the blame on Will Smith (partially due to Chris Rock jokingly asking “was that Will Smith?” as he walked with Dave back to center stage. Lord only knows if America will ever forgive Will Smith. But in Black America, n***** get slapped every day, b.
Kobe Bryant
First and foremost, rest in peace to Kobe Bryant. It pains me to have to explain how the country turned against him, because it didn’t end when his life did. We all know Kobe Bryant as one of the greatest basketball players to ever exist. Early in his prime, he was hit with a sexual assault charge that has smeared his legacy ever since. While it was ultimately dismissed and Kobe actually was largely forgiven by the media, in the aftermath of his death, Gayle King publicly condemned the late Laker because of these allegations. While many viewed this to be distasteful, plenty acted like the allegations were never dismissed. While true allegations are dismissed all the time, the grieving of his loss was still so fresh that many actually turned against King rather than Kobe. Kobe was the lone wolf who was a rising star on the Laker’s next to Shaq. His “Mamba mentality” was an inspiration to little Black kids everywhere, even if it did make him a few enemies on the court. But this case in its prime quickly turned the country against one of the greatest heroes Kendrick’s hometown of Los Angeles had ever known. Another Black man targeted, yes, but I believe Kendrick picked this face specifically as part of a 2-pack (no pun intended) with another LA hero, whom I found to be the most chilling part of the entire video.
Nipsey Hussle
LA lost two of its greatest Black heroes ever in back to back years with Kobe and Nipsey. Nipsey was kind of like the anti-Kobe in that he had the country against him from the start, and only went on to gain more and more acceptance, love, respect, cultural relevance, etc. as time went on. The Nipsey deepfake is really interesting because Kendrick actually raps this verse from the perspective of Nipsey, reflecting on his life and saying what he believed Nipsey wuld say if he were able to speak to us after his untimely demise in 2019. He let’s us know he’s in heaven and speaks directly to Nipsey’s brother Blacc Sam, and Nipsey’s hood (calling it the neighborhood as Neighborhood Nip often did). Even more inspiring is that Kendrick adopted Nipsey’s mannerisms, flow, cadence, content, and more on this verse. It’s hard to believe Kendrick himself wasn’t possessed by Nipsey to relay this message to us. Only thing missing is a reference to The Marathon. From speaking of investments, to the gems dropped in his interviews, Kendrick is urging us to look at the whole of Nipsey’s story, rather than paint him as just another gangbanging rapper. Nipsey was allowed to grow past his intial “Me Vs. America” battle much like Kobe Bryant did, but Nipsey was murdered by one of us rather than one of them. It’s a powerful statement to be made and really ends the record in an incredibly chilling place.
To end the record, Kendrick name checks the Marvin Gaye sample and says “I want you”. Is Kendrick talking about wanting us to love him? Is this the beginning of Kendrick giving us directions such as “I want you to …” before being cut off due to running out of time life Nipsey and Kobe’s lives ending? I personally think it’s a statement about how this desire for Black men in America to be loved can lead us to do all type of crazy things, but in Nip’s case it led him to be all about his business and push forward. We could all use a little more compassion. We might not all be one and the same, but we are more alike than we are different. It’s so easy within American culture to reduce another human being to their demons, their sins, and who they are at their worst moments. But if we’re allowed to grow and prosper, to truly be loved… well, then there is hope for us all.
Because we are. All of us.