Kendrick Lamar raised ire in a few Fox News pundits earlier this week over an allegedly inflammatory and violence-inciting performance of To Pimp a Butterfly's "Alright" on the BET Awards that found him standing atop a vandalized police car. The rapper has now taken down the critique from network hosts like Geraldo Rivera, claiming they missed the point entirely.
"How can you take a song that's about hope and turn it into hatred?" the rapper told TMZ.
One of Rivera's beefs was with "Alright" lyrics like "wanna kill us dead in the street fo sho," a reference to police brutality. Between the vandalized set piece and the lyrics, the Fox News figure reported on talk show The Five, "This is why I say that hip-hop has done more damage to young African Americans than racism in recent years."
Lamar has rebutted Rivera's claims, noting: "The message, the overall message, is we gonna be all right. It's not the message of 'I wanna kill people.'"
He added: "I think his attempt is really diluting the real problem, which is the senseless acts of killings of these young boys out here. I think, for the most part, it's avoiding the truth. This is reality. This is my world, this is what I talk about in my music. You can't dilute that. Me being on the cop car, that's a performance piece after these senseless acts."
You'll find the full video below, as well as the recent music video for "Alright."
"How can you take a song that's about hope and turn it into hatred?" the rapper told TMZ.
One of Rivera's beefs was with "Alright" lyrics like "wanna kill us dead in the street fo sho," a reference to police brutality. Between the vandalized set piece and the lyrics, the Fox News figure reported on talk show The Five, "This is why I say that hip-hop has done more damage to young African Americans than racism in recent years."
Lamar has rebutted Rivera's claims, noting: "The message, the overall message, is we gonna be all right. It's not the message of 'I wanna kill people.'"
He added: "I think his attempt is really diluting the real problem, which is the senseless acts of killings of these young boys out here. I think, for the most part, it's avoiding the truth. This is reality. This is my world, this is what I talk about in my music. You can't dilute that. Me being on the cop car, that's a performance piece after these senseless acts."
You'll find the full video below, as well as the recent music video for "Alright."
