For Free? (Interlude)
| "For Free?" | |
|---|---|
| Song |
"For Free? (Interlude)" is a song by American rapper Kendrick Lamar. It is the second track on his third studio album To Pimp a Butterfly, released on March 15, 2015.[1] A music video for the song was uploaded to Vevo and YouTube on July 31, 2015.
Historical Context
Today’s financial climate is fixed to benefit white Americans and hold African Americans back through generational debt, predatory lending tactics, and modern day slavery.[2] In For Free, Kendrick Lamar uses the dialogue of a couple fighting as a metaphor for how America has profited off of African Americans, even in a post-slavery era. He demands that his sexual anatomy is not for free consumption by the corporate, white America. When Lamar raps, “I need forty acres and a mule / Not a forty ounce and a pit bull,” he alludes to the attempted promise of forty acres and a mule to slaves in the Reconstruction era. The bill was shot down by Andrew Johnson after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, and reparations for slavery were never paid.[3] He uses the second line of the lyric to critique certain of the aspects of African American culture that he believes are a distraction from how disenfranchised his people are. By concluding the song with the Darlene Tibbs telling Lamar, “Imma get Uncle Sam to fuck you up, you ain’t no king,” he is showing how the American Dream and government doesn’t want his community to succeed. Lamar’s album, being released in 2015, uses these historical events to remind his community that equality has not been achieved and to rally them to not be taken advantage of anymore.
Music video
The song's accompanying music video premiered on July 31, 2015 on Lamar's Vevo account. It starts with a woman voicing the introductory spoken word section, a long list of complaints about her "unfortunate" boyfriend, played by Lamar. He appears, face pressed to a window, and proceeds to chase her around the house while rapping and yelling, “This dick ain’t free!” Then, Lamar appears again from behind a window with a live band and pops his head into the bathroom.[4] In the Joe Weil & The Little Homies-directed clip, Lamar takes a number of forms terrorizing his wife, who despite living in a mansion, isn't content. The visual metaphors aligns with those of the song's lyrics, both asserting his own self worth to a woman and to the marginalizing temptations of "success" in America.[5]
Charts
| Chart (2015) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[6] | 133 |
| UK R&B (Official Charts Company)[7] | 24 |
| US Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles (Billboard)[8] | 24 |
| US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (Billboard)[9] | 44 |
References
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- ↑ "Archive Chart: 2015-03-22" UK Singles Chart. Retrieved March 27, 2015.
- ↑ "Archive Chart: 2015-03-22" UK R&B Chart. Retrieved March 27, 2015.
- ↑ "Kendrick Lamar – Chart history" Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 for Kendrick Lamar.
- ↑ "Kendrick Lamar – Chart history" Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs for Kendrick Lamar. Retrieved March 27, 2015.
