Music Video Investigation: HUMBLE. - Kendrick Lamar

On April 7th, critically acclaimed rapper Kendrick Lamar dropped a single off his new album DAMN. along with a music video to go with it.

After his last full length project To Pimp A Butterfly in 2015, and a B-Sides album untitled unmastered. in 2016. Kendrick comes back now with a new project called DAMN. and had released HUMBLE. as the first and only single off his album which had dropped on April 14th and already has been praised as Kendrick is now being considered to be one of the best to spit on the mic.


HUMBLE. as a song itself is pretty self explanatory by the title. On the track, Kendrick preaches about being humble, being modest, and how certain people (speculated to be rappers Drake and Big Sean) need to sit down and be humble, to take a step back because Kendrick might be trying to say that they aren't as good compared to him to be so prideful and think so highly of themselves. Kendrick's first couple of songs before DAMN. had been him taking shots and sending warnings to rappers, letting them know that they need to up their game for their popularity or to even compare to him as rappers and lyricists. But in the song, Kendrick also covers being humble in general, also commenting on the use of photoshop in the media and natural beauty, as well as him referring to himself as "the realest after all" while chanting the chorus that preaches and demands people to sit down and be humble.

The music video starts off with the same shot of Kendrick that is on the cover of the single, it's him standing in front of the door and windows of a church with a ray of sunlight shining in on
him, dressed up as a pope, which I honestly think is intended irony considering the song is about being humble, maybe this is also part of Kendrick saying that he's the best out of all current rappers in the game and that they should sit down and not too think so highly of themselves when they aren't the best or near best, continuing the competition the has been a part of Hip-Hop for a long time. He then starts chanting and then begins rapping starting off the video and leading us into the next scene and shot. In this shot Kendrick is shown laying on a table full of money in a birds eye view shot as he shoots money out of a cash money gun and into the camera then a scene of him in what looks to be a hair salon under a blowdrying machine and a sequence of the current and older scenes from before switching between eachother. Then a shot of him riding a bike in a 360 panoramic view, afterwards a shot of him golfing on top of a car in the LA River which pans away from him with what i'm guessing is a crane that was used for this shot. The next shot is Kendrick amongst rows of bald men with their head down as he raps to the camera, but then when the chorus comes in some start rapping along with him. More religious symbolism comes in the next shot when a recreation of The Last Supper with Kendrick sitting in Jesus' spot with his disciples, there's an effect in this part of the video which I really like whien the camera starts moving back and forth for a shake effect.

Overall I really like how this Music video was shot and edited, I usually don't like music videos that are overdone or over edited to be taken too seriously, but when it's done right like this video, it works perfectly.