S13E11 - Dissecting "Crown" & "Silent Hill" by Kendrick Lamar
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From the Ringer Podcast Network, this is Dissect, long-form musical analysis broken into short, digestible episodes. This is episode 11 of our season-long analysis of Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers. I'm your host, Cole Kushner. ♪

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Last time on Dissect, we examined Count Meow, the first song on the Mr. Morale half of the album. It was there we heard a powerful outpouring of emotion, as if we were flies on the wall at Kendrick's first therapy session. It set the confessional tone of Mr. Morale's second act, where we'll witness Kendrick Lamar Duckworth with his mask off, revealing his most honest, most vulnerable, most uncomfortable truths. This intimate confessional setting becomes even more apparent as Act 2 continues into its next track,

The subject of the first half of our episode today: Crown. Crown was produced solely by Duvall Timothy, the pianist that's featured throughout Mr. Morale. The instrumental is essentially a remake of Timothy's 2016 piece titled "Through the Night."

The piece's intimate meditative quality has a lot to do with the piano's left hand, which simply oscillates back and forth between an F# and a C#. This is what's known as an open or an empty fifth because of the interval's distinct hollow quality. It's not bright like a major chord or melancholic like a minor chord. It's tonally neutral, and the way it's used in Crown as a repeating anchor, it takes on this kind of contemplative, pensive quality, almost like time is suspended.

Of all the songs on Mr. Morale, Crown most blatantly showcases the confessional role the piano plays on the album. According to Kendrick's longtime producer Soundwave, quote, "A lot of what you hear lyrically from Kendrick was all done from pianos. It's just literally a feeling you get when you hear pianos. That's why when you listen to this album, 98% of the song is going to have a piano in there. Literally, the piano plays a very important part of the sonics of this."

It has its own meaning to this album, and strings too. I had the task of creating a world that this artist is living in. And this world, for me at least, was a person stripped down of everything, locked into a white room with just their thoughts and a piano. You walk around like everything is in control Favor come with favors and you can't say no Go out the way to make the coin available That's what I call love

Kendrick matches the contemplative atmosphere of the piano with his own hypnotic vocal tone. Each of the song's three verses center around Kendrick's conception of love. In verse 1, he describes helping his friends and family with favors and financial support. Notably, he begins the verse admitting that he walks around like everything's in control, which implies that everything is not under control. It's just that he's been wearing a mask.

Verse 2 develops this motif as Kendrick sings, Similar to Kendrick being unable to say no when a loved one asks for a favor, he admits he's unable to say he needs a break, some time to himself, even when the stakes feel like life or death. The

There's a chance Kendrick here is referring to his work schedule, which was at this time intertwined with some of his closest friends at TDE Records. As we discussed at the top of this season, Kendrick's work ethic was relentless, a non-stop schedule of album making, photo shoots, world tours, press stops, features, and more. Meanwhile, several of his friends in Compton were killed, his friend Kobe Bryant died, Nipsey Hussle was murdered, and his grandmother passed.

Still, as the biggest source of income for TDE in the midst of his commercial prime, Kendrick prioritized work over his own mental health. A compromise, he says, was done out of love. Verse 3 relates a similar dynamic as he sings, Obviously, this describes the relationship between Kendrick and his fans.

There's a shared love there, but just as he revealed in verse 2 as well as the previous track Count Me Out, that love has come with a cost. Thus, each verse in Crown is juxtaposed with its pre-chorus, which challenges Kendrick's conception and expressions of love.

Kendrick reveals the harsh reality of each verse's conception of love. In verse 1, Kendrick expressed love through favors and money. However, if he says no, there's animosity. So how real was that love to begin with? In verse 2, Kendrick expressed love through compromising his personal life and mental health in order to keep working.

But if he were to take a break, or if he were to leave his record label like he did, would there still be love? Or were those relationships really based on self-interest and business all along? Finally, in verse 3, Kendrick expressed love between his music and his fans.

But if he stops making music, or his music declines in quality or takes a different direction, would there still be the same love? Or is this love conditional too? At the heart of each verse and corresponding pre-chorus is Kendrick questioning the authenticity of love, a word and concept we all assume to understand but rarely scrutinize. He seems to be asking, is there any relationship in which love is not conditional? Romantic love is volatile and couples once in love divorce all the time.

Familial love inherently offers a chance at a longer lifespan, but estranged family members are commonplace too. And so is love by nature fleeting or circumstantial? Does it really change with the seasons?

And if the love Kendrick has personally shown others is conditional, then was that really love or some other thing? Was his so-called expressions of love really just his nature as a people pleaser? And if so, was that love or was that fear? Fear of not being loved, not being worthy of love. And if that's the case, where does that fear come from? Was he not loved enough as a child?

Or maybe it's the ego and its constant need for validation. Is love just another mask we wear? Is there really such a thing as unconditional love? These questions are the embedded subtext of Kendrick's verses and pre-chorus, and clearly they are questions rooted in therapy. As we're sinking into the therapy-guided journey of Act 2, we're witnessing Kendrick's attempts to uncover the root causes of his behavior, his relationships, and his worldview.

And as it pertains to his scrutiny of love, Kendrick told W Magazine that it was his children that taught him the true meaning of unconditional love. He said, quote,

That allows me to understand the unconditional love on my end. Will I allow them to be themselves? That's love to me. And when I look at that, I try to apply it with how I express myself, how I look at my career, and how I meet other individuals. Am I allowing them to be themselves without any judgment? My children have taught me that. ♪ And I can't please everybody ♪ ♪ No, I can't please everybody ♪ ♪ Wait, you can't please everybody ♪

No, I can't please everybody

Crown's chorus isn't really a chorus. It's a mantra. It's a man in therapy attempting to break old thought patterns through meditative repetition. It's an admission to himself that he was living a life largely aimed at pleasing everyone around him. His friends and family in Compton, his record label, his fans. And this innate tendency to please, maybe it was Kendrick's attempt to prove to himself and others that fame didn't change him. But that's just pride. That's just ego. And it was killing him. So

So what we're hearing Kendrick implement on the chorus is boundary setting, a cornerstone of therapy. While obviously I'm not a licensed therapist, according to my research, boundary setting often comes up early in the therapy process, especially for people who quote, struggle with relationships, people pleasing, burnout, or unresolved trauma, unquote. Of course, these are all struggles we've heard Kendrick express throughout Mr. Morale.

therapists help people-pleasing patients develop clear boundaries as a fundamental tool used to reclaim their agency, build healthier relationships, and create lives that feel more aligned and sustainable. And that's what I hear in Kendrick's mantric refrain, I can't please everybody. As someone who has reflected on their life and relationships, recognized and articulated a behavior pattern that needs adjustment, and is now working to implement that correction.

He's learning that saying no isn't inherently an infraction on love, just as saying yes isn't necessarily always an expression of love.

Uncoincidentally, boundary setting is a topic addressed in the teachings of Eckhart Tolle, who is of course playing the role of Kendrick's therapist on Mr. Morale. Tolle often speaks about the difference between a high and a low quality no. A low quality no arises from the ego and makes an enemy of the asker, while a high quality no arises from consciousness and does not contain resentment. And at some point, I'm sorry, I can't do it anymore.

But without any negativity, a simple statement, it is not a reactive statement. You don't make her into a bad person. You want to take advantage of me. I'm not doing it anymore. That is a low quality no.

Even if perhaps she did try to, perhaps she was trying to take advantage of you, but that is not, that may be then a dysfunction in her egoic self. Many humans do that. The world is full of people who perhaps are trying to take advantage of you. That's what the egos do. And so, or it is not who she truly is, but you speak to, you do not speak to the ego in her. You simply say,

I love your children, they're just wonderful and I enjoyed my time but I can't do it anymore. I'm sorry about that.

Crowns Bridge is based on a line from Shakespeare's play Henry IV, which reads, Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. It's an enduring idiom because it so concisely articulates the burden of leadership, particularly a leader who truly cares about the people they're responsible for. Kendrick very smartly makes a critical alteration to the traditional phrase by including the word chose. Heavy is the head that chose to wear the crown.

It applies that on some level Kendrick anointed himself as a leader of his community, a responsibility that's much different than being a famous musician. This self-appointed role tracks with Kendrick's interviews at the time of "To Bip a Butterfly" when he was asked point blank whether he saw himself working to be the next Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King Jr. It takes years and it takes wisdom to do the work that they've done. Mandela, Martin Luther King. But for the generation at the time being, I hold myself responsibility to that.

for this generation, yes. Understanding how ambitious Kendrick's aspirations were, we can get a sense of the immense amount of pressure he must have felt living up to them. That's the crushing weight of the crown. At the same time, the critical addition of choosing to wear the crown is also a recognition of agency. Meaning, if Kendrick chose to wear the crown, he can choose to take it off. That feels like another therapy influence revelation.

Indeed, on a song in which Kendrick's accepting the need to say no, he's learning that he also needs to say no to himself, that priorities can change, that it's okay to restructure your life to adapt to new circumstances. Like, for instance, having children and realizing that your unconfronted trauma is now threatening your entire family lineage.

Crown's central mantra here is interjected with a critical line, love gonna get you killed. For fans of Kendrick Lamar, this line should sound familiar, a callback to his song Pride off his previous album Damn.

Gonna get your kid. But pride's gonna be the death of you and you and me.

Now we'll talk about the meaning of this line in a moment, but we have to take a quick sidebar to acknowledge the connection between Crown and Pride as being a continuation of a five-linked chain of connections that spans Kendrick's entire discography. Because just as Pride is quoted in Crown, Pride quotes These Walls from Tipimba Butterfly. I know the walls, they can listen, I wish they could talk back. If these walls could talk back.

Continuing the album chain, These Walls quotes Sing About Me from Good Kid, Mad City.

Finally, Sing About Me references Keisha's song from Section 80.

This five album chain of connections exemplifies the intention with which Kendrick crafts his projects and speaks to the interrelated themes he confronts across his discography. And to this point, the introduction of Pride helps to inform why Kendrick returns to the idea that love will get you killed here on Crown. Throughout Mr. Morale, Kendrick has alluded to Eckhart Tolle's belief that pride and ego are the source of all human conflict, which relates to the idea that pride's going to be the death of you and me.

If humanity ever kills itself, it will almost certainly be on behalf of our pride. Love, on the other hand, seems to denote individual suffering. In Crown, Kendrick details how his attempts to please those he loves were killing him. We also understand how romantic love can cause immense suffering, as exemplified by Whitney and Kendrick's relationship on the album.

Our love of family and friends causes grief when they pass. And if we think about Jesus Christ, who Kendrick evokes with the crown of thorns on Morales' cover art, it was his love for humanity that killed him in the ultimate symbol of self-sacrifice in his crucifixion. In Crown, we hear Kendrick parsing through and raising questions about the various degrees of love, like:

Where is the line between healthy self-care and prideful selfishness? In terms of how it dictates our behavior, what's the correct balance between love of self and love of others? Is it possible to love without suffering? And if not, how do we manage that? How do we find a sustainable balance? How do we love others without killing ourselves?

For Kendrick, it appears that what he needed was a break. He needed some time as he said in verse 2. Thus, the album continues with Kendrick taking just that, as we find him riding his beach cruiser bike on a hill of silence.

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Produced by Beach Noise, Boy Wanda, Jahein Sweet, and Soundwave, Silent Hill begins with Kendrick singing acapella, Why You Keep Fucking With Me. You gon' make me jump out my skin, believe me. Who or what is fucking with Kendrick? It's the craving of his addiction, the hose making the dark road difficult, as it was described at the start of Count Me Out.

It's also all the fakes and snakes he'll rap about on Silent Hill's chorus, the inauthentic vultures looking to exploit him, who are not concerned with him as a human being, but rather what value they can extract out of him. Finally, as we'll see later in the track, it's also Kendrick's own compulsive, anxious thoughts, which disturbs his silence, his peace of mind. The phrase jump out of my skin usually refers to being frightened suddenly, like a scary movie scene.

Kendrick's use of the phrase points to one of the meanings behind the song's title Silent Hill, which is the name of a horror video game franchise. The game is centered around an ordinary person being drawn into the supernatural town of Silent Hill, where they encounter manifestations of their own guilt, trauma, and fears in the form of terrifying monsters.

In this way, the town of Silent Hill becomes a mirror of the main character, where they essentially battle their own demons, regrets, and suppressed memories. In Silent Hill 2, the mirror is actually a central symbol, reflecting this mirrored aspect of the town.

Uncoincidentally, the central symbol of Mr. Morale is also a mirror, where Kendrick's therapy-guided journey is presented in a similar way, a battle with his demons, his trauma. It reflects what Kendrick said on Count Me Out, Look myself in the mirror, Amityville ain't seen nothing scarier. This adds depth to Silent Hill's opening acapella, where Kendrick says he's going to jump out of his skin. Yes, it applies to the hoes, the fakes, and the snakes. But like all things Mr. Morale, the line is equally aimed at him.

at himself. The demons he sees in the mirror, the trauma that haunts him are also making him jump out of his skin. Of course, there's also a more literal meaning to Silent Hill, which reflects the isolation of Kendrick's life during the creation of Mr. Morale. In the open letter penned months before its release, Kendrick wrote, quote, I spend most of my days with fleeting thoughts, writing, listening, and collecting old beach cruisers. The morning rides keep me on a hill of silence.

Push these niggas off me like, huh Push these bitches off me like, huh Push these niggas off me like, huh Pushin' the snakes, I'm pushin' the fakes I'm pushin' em all off me like, huh Pushin' em all off me like, huh

Silent Hill's moody, understated, ambient instrumental reflects the feeling of Kendrick's contemplative bike rides in silence. He depicts himself pushing away toxic and parasitic people by playing with the grunting sound one makes when literally pushing something heavy. Also, you'll notice there's a sound of a gunshot with a silencer used as a percussive element

in the beat. And while there's no way to confirm it for sure, it sounds very much like it was sampled from the iconic GoldenEye 007 video game from 1997. Here's the sound of the silenced PP7 from that game, which will directly compare to the sound in Silent Hill.

If this sample source is correct, it would slot perfectly into the themes of Silent Hill, as the silencer gun evokes the silent in Silent Hill. It also ties into the video game motif of the song title, and it represents the sound of Kendrick sniping the snakes from his life. Now, with a general understanding of the song's premise and instrumental, we have to call out Silent Hill's similarities to a previous song on the album, Rich Spirit.

Like Silent Hill, Rich Spirit has a moody, atmospheric instrumental. Like Silent Hill, Rich Spirit is about Kendrick isolating himself and eliminating the bad influences in his life. Rich Spirit also presented Kendrick's battle with his spiritual ego, as will Silent Hill in verse 1.

And like Silent Hill, Rich Spirit is tied to rapper Kodak Black, as Kodak is featured on the Rich Interlude that's attached to Rich Spirit proper. These similarities between the two songs is one of the more overt examples of the reflective quality of the two discs of Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers.

As I've mentioned a few times throughout the season, the two 9-song discs are intended to mirror each other. Disc 1, Worldwide Steppers, centers humanity, while Disc 2, Mr. Morale, centers the individual. The mirrored relationship between the two discs symbolizes the connection between the individual and the collective, the human and humanity, Mr. Morale and the Worldwide Steppers.

However, the symbolic mirroring of the discs not only works on a macro level, it also works on a micro level. When you reverse the track order of disc 2, as if the individual or Mr. Morale was looking into a mirror, it becomes very clear that each song on disc 1 has a corresponding song on disc 2. If you're just listening right now, take a peek at your screen if you can, and you'll see very clearly how Rich Interlude and Savior Interlude align with each other.

how Rich Spirit and Silent Hill align, and how Worldwide Steppers and Mr. Morale align. These are the more obvious reflections, however every paired song can be interpreted as relating to each other in some way. Something we'll cover more when we reach the end of the album. We'll also see that within these reflective song pairings, there are sometimes individual lyrics that will connect to each other. I'll be pointing out these connections as we get deeper into disc two, something I'm going to dub "reflection points".

And one of the bigger reflection points occurs toward the end of Silent Hill, so stay tuned for that.

Kendrick begins his verse, I'd be immune to shit, tucking the broom in shit, they want to assume in shit. The idea of being immune plays nicely into the pandemic era in which Mr. Morale was conceived.

But being immune to shit also means being immune to the bullshit that snakes and fakes are concerned with. Those who assume in shit or think they know things about Kendrick and his life. Tucking the broom references keeping a gun tucked in his pants, playing into the gunshots of the instrumental, and Kendrick staying ready to shoot any snake that threatens his peace. It's also an allusion to the album cover, where we see Kendrick with the broom tucked into the back of his pants while wearing a crown of thorns.

He then continues, know you a choke, my ancestors close, I howl at the moon and shit. Kendrick takes aim at one specific snake, calling them a choke or someone who fails at a critical moment. It's also wordplay with the broom or gun he tucks, as a choke refers to the taper of a shotgun barrel. This also relates to the Almarth work, where Kendrick is seen exhausted under the weight of

the crown, a shotgun within arm's reach next to him. The idea of being close to his ancestors, followed by claiming to howl at the moon like a wolf, seems to nod to Native American tribes who consider wolves reincarnated ancestors that act as spirit guides for the living. Kendrick seems to be implying his music is a spiritual medium amplified by his ancestors, creating a reflection point with Rich Spirit when he said, Spirit medium, I don't rap brother.

This play on a supernatural-like power also gives him the ability to foresee the future. As he raps, know the results, the ballad is in, I'm about to boom again. It appears Kendrick sees himself blowing up or making a big commercial splash in the future. A premonition that was realized with his defeat over Drake in the biggest rap battle in history, as well as his next album GNX, Super Bowl halftime show, and stadium tour. Uncoincidentally, the next line in the verse seems to be aimed at Drake.

Kendrick continues the verse, you funny dog, peekaboo, can't hide behind your money dog. This shot joins Kendrick's previous insult of calling someone a choke. And while we can't know for sure, all evidence points to these shots being aimed at Drake.

Specifically, there's been speculation that this line alludes to XXXTentacion, the Florida rapper who was murdered in 2018 when he was just 20 years old. Now, I'm not really comfortable going into detail about the speculation, but there's plenty of resources out there if you're interested in going down the rabbit hole.

In any case, the likely shot at Drake creates yet another reflection point with Rich Spirit, a song we also suspected had shots for Drake. Kendrick finishes his verse on Silent Hill, rapping, A week or two, I meditate on running lost. Swerve, swerve, swerve, shake the currents off.

The idea of having a running tab of loss continues the motif of grief that permeates the album, and swerving to shake the currents off describes his attempts to shake off the turmoil of that continued loss. Fittingly, his reference to meditation here is further developed in the song's post-chorus.

Here we find Kendrick describing the physical posture of meditation. Head up, chest out. He calls for silence, saying he's stressed out, then shushes himself and says, be quiet. This is an accurate portrait of someone new to meditation, where you attempt to silence the voice in your head, the one that relays all your anxious and stressful thoughts.

For anyone who's attempted meditation, the initial experience magnifies how our mind is literally a mind of its own. Because if our thoughts are something we control, then we ought to be able to stop them, right? Obviously, that's not the case. And for some, this can be a revelation, as it changes the way we identify with our own compulsive thoughts. This relationship we have with our own thoughts is a fundamental aspect of the teachings of Eckhart Tolle. Thinking is addictive for most humans.

almost every human except those that have started to disidentify from thinking are addicts. And the greatest addiction is the addiction to thinking, not to fruitful thinking, not to creative thinking, not to thinking that actually solves problems, but to thinking that is futile, that is destructive,

that instead of solving problems, creates problems, thinking that creates anxiety, that creates fear, that creates grievances, that creates regrets, that creates all kinds of dysfunctional states, that creates enemies because it's ego, egoic thinking. That is what needs to come to an end. And when that comes to an end, then real thinking, constructive thinking,

Fruitful, creative thinking can happen. Thinking is an amazing thing.

The compulsive nature of Kendrick's own mind is readdressed in the song's second verse, where he begins describing a sweet moment with his daughter that is quickly juxtaposed with the compulsive thoughts on his head.

Kendrick begins the verse, pick my daughter up, she need all the love. I need all the love. I mean, all of us. It's a really interesting sequence of lines, as Kendrick succinctly relates how his intuition to love his daughter transforms into the realization that he also needs that same kind of love, which then transforms into the realization that actually every human being needs it. It's a microcosm of the album's central theme, that connection between the individual and the whole, the human and humanity.

It's also not a coincidence that this statement about the universal need for love comes just moments before Kodak Black enters the song, implying that Kodak's not exempt from that need, even if his upbringing and behavior makes him more difficult to love. Finally, we have to acknowledge that the phrase, all of us, is a sly reference to his morale era moniker, OK Lama, and the OK Lama quote that's seen before the Heart Part 5 video, where a title card reads, I am all of us.

As we've discussed on previous episodes, this quote points to that same relationship between the individual and the whole, and the mirror that sits between them. And to this same idea, we must recognize this moment as another one of the album's more blatant reflection points, because it was on Rich Spirit that Kendrick rapped about taking his daughter to school, and now on Silent Hill, he's picking her up.

Taking my baby to school, then I pray for it Cause you bitches ain't never been cool writing testaments Hit my daughter up, she need all her love I need all her love, I mean all of us It's like 6 o'clock, bitch you talk too much You making it awkward love, I mean it's hard enough

Kendrick ends his brief verse, it's like six o'clock bitch you talk too much. You making it awkward love. I mean, it's hard enough. Assuming Kendrick isn't talking to his daughter this way, it seems like he's addressing his own mind that talks too much, that runs on its own accord.

The fact that he genders it female most likely calls back to misregrets from Count Me Out, those plaguing thoughts that take him out of the present moment with his daughter and invoke the shame and guilt of his past behaviors. I ran my whole Montgomery, I was just mapping shit out in the cubicle. Suicide, coup, it's a funeral.

Kendrick's second verse is cut off by the entrance of Kodak Black, who performs an extended feature verse. Now, we're not going to dissect Kodak's verse line by line, as thematically it very much reflects the same sentiments Kodak expressed on Rich Interlude. He speaks on growing up fatherless in poverty, how he's astonished by the success he's found, and how he still has a hood mentality despite having made it out physically and financially.

One of the more potent moments of Kodak's verse is its ending, when he raps about seeing his children. He says: "Every Thursday, girl's day, spending time with my daughter, make me go harder. Every Sunday, son's day, teach my boy to be a man, I ain't have no father. Fell in love with the block, I ain't have no pop, just a sawed-off shotgun." Here Kodak shows his efforts to be there for his children in a way his father never was.

However, we also understand he's starting from scratch, that his environmental conditioning and lack of male role models is a very real factor in his ability to father his children, despite him seemingly wanting to be there for them. This makes his final line of the verse extremely powerful.

Kodak ends the verse beating the block up till we spot him. I don't want your ice boy, I want your life. But fuck it, I still might rob him. Kodak describes driving around his neighborhood until he sees someone to rob.

However, he reveals that while he takes their jewelry, what he really wants is the more fortunate circumstances of their life, because his life circumstances have been so dire.

It's a heartbreaking line that relays the complexity of the motivations that influence human behavior. And as the punctuating line on the final verse of Silent Hill, it acts as the perfect thematic bridge into what we hear next on the album. If you derive your sense of identity from being a victim, let's say bad things were done to you when you were a child, and you develop a sense of self that is based on the bad things that happened to you.

Here on Mr. Morales' next track, "Save Your Interlude," the album's therapist Eckhart Tolle gives his first major insight, pointing to the way some people who've experienced a lot of trauma at a young age can end up forming their entire identity from those horrors. Narratively, Tolle is speaking to Kendrick in his therapy session, but clearly the insight applies not only to Kodak Black, who appears just before the passage, but also to Baby Keem, who appears directly after it. "It is based on the bad things that happen to you."

Uncoincidentally, Baby Keem begins his extended feature detailing the unfortunate circumstances of his childhood. Thus, we realize that not only is Kodak's rich interlude the mirrored reflection of Keem's savior interlude,

Kendrick has also created an additional reflection point by placing Keem just after Kodak on Silent Hill. And in between them is Eckhart Tolle's wisdom that functions like a mirror as the insides reflect both men. And so Kendrick is being pretty direct about the fact that Kodak Black and Baby Keem are mirror images of each other.

But why exactly is that the case? Why did Kendrick choose to mirror them in this way? And how does that mirroring contribute to the central message of Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers? Well, spoiler alert, it's really important to our understanding of the entire album, and we'll break it all down note by note, line by line, next time on Dissect.

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