Kendrick Lamar Gets Dragged For Praising Natural Hair+ Stretch Marks in New Video

I’m going to preface this post by making it known that I’m not all that familiar with Kendrick Lamar or his music. I mean I know who he is and that he is often lauded as being one of the best lyricists out right now, but do I know his music? Not really. Still, when I read that he was being dragged on twitter for expressing his disdain for photoshop and smoothed out blemishes on women I was intrigued.

The song/video in question is titled, Humble. Watch for yourself (fast forward to around 1:40 to watch the portion this article explores):

According to an article in  Atlanta Black Star, when the single/video dropped yesterday, there were  tweets blasting Lamar’s references to women’s stretch marks and photoshopped skin. I spent about 5 minutes looking for these negative tweets and came up empty, y’all. Folks really love this video.  Sidebar: I feel like I’m too old for Twitter. It is the single most uncomplicated, yet complicated platform ever. Anyhoo, I couldn’t find the tweets, so here are a few reported from the ABS article.

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First of all, the stretch marks and natural hair aside, the visuals in this album are pretty dope. As for the matter at hand, I think labeling this video as an example of misogyny is a bit of a stretch. Misguided? Yes. Misogyny? Eh… I just need black men to leave black women’s bodies alone. Kendrick’s intentions were well-meaning, as were Usher’s in this video HERE, but am I ready to hand out a round of applause? Not quite. It’s nice that he likes us with natural hair and stretch marks, great, but we aren’t here to please you, bruh. We’re doing us. Maybe we don’t like our stretch marks or acne marks, and maybe we cover them up for ourselves. Fancy that!  All this video does is reinforce the idea that a woman’s body/physical appearance is ultimately about men, and that ain’t how we roll, fellas. Some women do, but most of us are covering are faces in glitter and paint because we like that shyt. We’re girls!  We ain’t thinking about you and what you like.

Also, the girl in the video looked like she was on some Alicia Keys no makeup makeup bullshyt, and we all know how I felt about that. Did he deserve to be dragged? Eh…it ain’t that deep for me, but let’s be wary of these dudes who fancy themselves pro-women when they out here reducing us to nothing more than our hair and our asses.  In short? Leave us alone. The rest of the song, tho? Fiyahhhh

Sound off below!

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13 Comments

  1. One of the best lyricists out there right now? Hhmm…appreciate his appreciation for natural sisters and stretchmarks, but, yeah, I’m officially “old” because I don’t understand how there were “NO” problems with the rest of the lyrics in the song.

    1. i wrote that he is often lauded as one of the best lyricists out right now…which he is. I, however, don’t even know him like that. What else did you take issue with in this song? I do

  2. ShawnTe Pierce says:

    Kendrick Lamar is actually the only modern rapper that I really listen to. I still roll with the ones who came out in the 80s and 90s mainly. I saw the video and what he said went along with the title of the song. He also did a frame with himself in that split screen with one half photoshopped and the other half not.

    Seriously, men are always going to voice their opinions about us because they feel entitled to do so then get mad when we do the same to them in the same manner. They even have their “manosphere” YouTube channels with code words like “red pill” in their titles. We as women just need to correct them when they step over that line trying to police (opinions don’t count) us on our looks. Also it doesn’t hurt to remind men that their bashing our looks or sexualizing them makes us feel the way they feel when we say their asses are shiftless, irresponsible, and are man-children.

  3. As a woman who advocates for solidarity between black men and women in ALL of my work on ALL platforms, I realize there’s a segment of sistas who will find fault in any and everything a black man does or says. Had Sam Smith or Macklemore said it it’d be all good. It’s a reflection on your perception, not his work. Kendrick has been applauding black women since the beginning (like before the fame and in all of his music)….but, as the scripture says – “to him that is pure all things are pure. To him that is defiled, all things are defiled.”… Work toward inner healing queens. Our brothas love us more than we realize.

  4. Denise harris says:

    What the man was saying in that verse was not to put anyone down. He saying he tired of women only being viewed one way, that all he see is women with fake boo, butt, hair lips,. Nothing is real anymore. He don’t want a woman with all of that, he is missing what women use to be….real, if you have a blemish so what. Your bottom real and you got stretch marks, Thats fine too. Someone said he act like there two spectrums of women, but what he saying is only one has been mainly pushed . and Thats fair skenned blacks with weave and implants. That its more out there. Rap music they can say something and people interpret it so different.

  5. Well said!! We are truly our worst enemy to ourselves and to each other.

  6. I saw this video, heard the lyrics, and loved it. I really did not see a problem with him toching on natural hair and stretch marks. Let’s get real here…in the world that he is in, which is the same world that is always being presented to us through magazines, music videos, movies, etc, stretch marks are photoshopped out all of the time to make it seem like it’s non existent. I remember growing up, being 14, looking at the girls and woman in photos, and videos, etc, and not seeing one stretch mark and automatically thinking that I or my body wasn’t normal because I had stretch marks while grown women were presented to us as if they had perfect, unblemished skin. As far as natural hair goes, women (black and brown girls) are still being shamed for wearing our natural hair by other races as well as by some of our own black and brown men so hearing a black man talk about wanting to see our natural hair says to me that he sees the beauty in our real features while others shame us for it. We also have to take into account the fact that he touched on women’s features for a brief moment in this song and video and the whole track was hard in masculine energy. Now if the whole song was just getting on women then I could see the drag being relevant but because of the songs energy and the fact that he only said something about women showing their natural selves, the drag wasn’t called for.

  7. I lo e the video and don’t see why people are gripping! He is just telling black women love how you look flaws and all…your still beautiful. To me the message to black women is love yourself and dont allow society to define the what beauty is! I love everything about me.. stretch marks.. muffin top.. flabby arms…i just love me and will not let anyone in society tell me im not. Everybody is not meant to have flawless skin or no stomach or be a sizec 4. Its not people not liking their bodies..its society telling them whats beautiful and filling our black women heads up about a false beauy. Love yourself regardless?

  8. This is how I perceived it as well. Those tweets we’re ridiculous and made an issue where there was none. I don’t think his lyrics had ANYTHING to do with what men want to see, but about embracing your own beauty and not striving for physical perfection like most misguided women do.

  9. The whole concept of the song and video was misunderstood. He is speaking on the unfiltered and all natural state of a women should not be covered or altered. We where made this way not to be shamed or looked down on for having flaws. Is this not what makes us human and all humans are imperfect. Concept is humble yourself and god will exhaust you know and accept your flaws physically and mentally so that you can learn and grow from them beauty radiants from within no matter what you look like.

  10. I think people are missing the point. It doesn’t make sense to drag this man for saying he likes natural. I am natural I have stretch marks and I love my body and my self. At no point in this video did I feel offended. We are helping the people on the other side create a case against black men and helping make black women self conscious about our bodies. We have to stop making everything an issue. We recieved praise for being beautiful black women with in perfections and all. Take the love for a change and find another soap box. It could have been worse and we have all seen it. I love the song and the video!

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