From one of my favorite songs this year, talented and lyrical rapper, Kendrick Lamar, released The Heart Part 5 on May 8th, 2022. Kendrick raps about sensitive topics, such as killings in a “gangster” type of life. He raps about the dangerous lifestyle, and how it has been normalized in today’s society. Kendrick described the deaths of many young black men as “culture”. He says in the first few lines of the song “I come from a generation of pain, where murder is minor.”, which basically gives a good summary of what the song is about.
Though it may seem weird to choose a rap song for my doppelgänger related blog, the song actually has a lot to do with the topic after looking at the music video. Watching it on Youtube when it first came out, it was very strange. What seemed like Kendrick Lamar, slowly started to change to other faces of influential black men in media. After reading the comments, I found out that the production used CGI to change his face. What seemed like a weird concept, turned out to have lots of meaning behind it. Kendrick uses the faces of men like Kobe Bryant, Will Smith, Kanye West, and OJ Simpson.
Kanye West’s face was used during the lyric “Friends bipolar, grab you by your pockets”, basically talking about Kanye’s bipolar personality, and how many people were after him for his wealth. When Kendrick takes on the face of Will Smith he says, “In a land where hurt people hurt more people.” This is a reference to when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars, after a joke made about his “wife” who had cheated on him previously. Kanye’s most used face is Nipsey Hussle’s face, where he raps a lot about death and killings, which can be seen as a tribute to his death in 2019 when he was shot.
(1795) Kendrick Lamar – The Heart Part 5 – YouTube
Now the main question is “what does this have to do with doppelgängers and Doubles?”. I believe Kendrick used CGI to take over the identities of these famous and impactful men to speak on their point of views. He in a way, took over their bodies, to rap meaningful words about their ideas on what “culture” has become. Even in the beginning of the music video, the first image displayed to the viewer is a black screen with the quote “I am. All of us.” From my perspective, I see this single screen to be the entire meaning for the music video. Kendrick wanted to explain what “gang” lifestyle has become and how media has made people insensitive to violence and drama. And he does this effectively by taking the identity of these men and explaining their perspective on these conflicts.