Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Hey everyone, just a heads up that after today's episode, we will be taking a mid-season break from our Mr. Morale episodes. However, I will have some other content to share every Tuesday during the break, including an epic two-part Super Bowl halftime show analysis and a special episode on GNX. Thank you for your understanding, and I hope you enjoy today's episode.
For the Ringer Podcast Network, this is Dissect, long-form musical analysis broken into short digestible episodes. This is episode 9 of our season-long analysis of Kendrick Lamar's Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers. I'm your host, Cole Kushner.
Last time on Dissect, we examined Mr. Morales' eighth track, We Cry Together. It was there we experienced an exchange of toxic verbal assaults that we interpreted as a dramatization of a pain body episode. According to Eckhart Tolle, the pain body is composed of all the unconfronted trauma we've experienced in our life. In order to survive, the pain body requires a renewal of pain that it seeks out in the form of drama, most commonly with intimate partners or close family members.
This drama typically occurs in a state of complete unconsciousness, when the ego and pain body unite, taking full control of your behavior. This is what we heard play out on We Cry Together, two people completely overtaken by their pain bodies and looking to inflict as much pain on each other as possible. Once fed, the pain body goes dormant again, which allows the couple in We Cry Together to use sex as a mask to offset the abuse they just experienced.
While by the end of the song it seemed clear the couple did love each other, their pain bodies, i.e. their unconfronted trauma, keeps them trapped in a toxic cycle of abuse. And until that trauma is confronted, the cycle will continue. Hence Whitney's demand at the end of the song. Stop tap dancing around the conversation.
Whitney's command puts an end to the charade. The sex is merely an intoxicant used to avoid the collective trauma of the pain body. If Kendrick is going to escape the cycle, he's going to have to confront his pain body, and he's going to have to do it sober. This sets the stage for Mr. Morales' next track, the subject of our episode today, Purple Hearts. Purple Hearts
Purple Hearts was produced by Soundwave, DJ Khalil, Beach Noise, and Jay Pounds. While there's no credited sample source, the song's beat sounds very similar to 1984's Weekend Girl by the SOS band. While Purple Hearts resembles SOS band's Weekend Girl, Weekend Girl itself resembles the Isley Brothers' Here We Go Again, which was written four years earlier in 1980.
While neither The Weeknd Girl nor Here We Go Again are sampled directly in Purple Hearts, the similarities are strong enough to at least consider them as possible inspiration points. We know for sure that Kendrick has a strong affinity for the Isley brothers. His mother was a huge fan and played them in his house growing up.
Kendrick even traveled to meet with Ronald Isley in order to get an Isley Brothers sample cleared for his song "I" which also spawned Isley's appearance on How Much a Dollar Cost. Now if Purple Heart's instrumental was meant to evoke "Here We Go Again", it would be a perfect thematic fit, as the song is all about a couple who clearly love each other but are stuck in an on-again off-again cycle, much like we heard play out on We Cry Together.
Some of the song's lyrics include, What do you do when you love somebody and everything is going wrong? And after all we've been through, I keep coming back to you now. Out of all the women in the world, I keep coming back to you. When you love somebody and everything's going wrong.
This is the perfect conceptual subtext for this point in Mr. Morales' narrative, because after the blowout fight of "We Cry Together", Purple Hearts is going to express the pure, divine love Kendrick feels for Whitney, the thing that keeps him coming back to her despite everything they've been through together. Indeed, this notion of having gone to war with each other is implied in the song title "Purple Hearts", which on one level is a reference to the military award given to honor veterans wounded in action.
The implication seems to be that Kendrick, Whitney, and perhaps Kendrick's community writ large are war veterans who have endured trauma, who have
who have been wounded and bravely lived to fight another day. In the same way we empathize with war veterans who suffer from PTSD, we should perhaps reserve that same kind of empathy for those who have endured traumatic life circumstances, particularly at a young age. As we discussed this season, the representative Big Steppers Kendrick and Kodak Black both experienced extreme violence in their youth. Kendrick witnessed his first murder at the age of five, and Kodak rapped about witnessing an armed robbery at the age of nine.
These experiences are traumatizing and very often lead to mental health issues like PTSD, depression, and anxiety, and can contribute to behavioral problems and substance abuse. This kind of emotional damage adds a secondary layer to the idea of purple hearts, as purple is the color of bruises.
Implying Kendrick's community of Big Steppers have wounded hearts in need of healing. At the same time, Kendrick honors his community by symbolically awarding them the Purple Hearts. Acknowledging the wounds they experienced and the courage it takes to live with the burden of these injuries.
Tid be torn and I'ma walk it, yeah Rollin' sevens, I ain't ready for no coffee I know y'all love it when the drugs talkin', but Shut the fuck up when you hear love talkin' Shut the fuck up when you hear love talkin' If God be the source, then I am the plug talkin' Yeah, baby, yeah, baby
Kendrick begins the chorus tippy-toeing and a mudwalking. With its evocation of dancing, this line plays directly off the notion of tap dancing around the conversation that ended We Cry Together. Like tap dancing, tiptoeing is idiomatically used to describe avoiding or tiptoeing around an issue. Meanwhile, mudwalking is slang for clumsily walking while high on lean. The phrase was popularized by Draco the Ruler, the extremely influential rapper from South Central LA who was murdered in 2021.
Kendrick's use of mudwalking begins a chorus-long drug motif, which he uses to convey a larger idea about living and feeling things soberly, without intoxicants of not just drugs and alcohol, but any vice that's used to mask your underlying trauma and results in you tap dancing, tiptoeing, or mudwalking around your issues.
The reference to lean also adds yet another layer to the Purple Heart song title, as lean is the color purple. In this context, the idea of a purple heart is one coded in lean, a self-medication that eases the burden of a trauma bruised heart. We then get the next line, rolling sevens ain't bread for no coffin. The drug motif is present in the word rolling, which might reference rolling weed or rolling on molly. Coffin is also a homophone for coughing, as in cough syrup, the drug used to make lean.
Of course, Kendrick is also flipping the motifs. He's not rolling blunts, he's rolling sevens.
Seven here is being used two ways. Seven is a divine number used throughout the Bible to denote completion and perfection, and is also considered to be lucky. At the same time, in craps, rolling a seven means the game is over. And because of this, rolled a seven has become a phrase that refers to someone's death, which motivically aligns with Kendrick's reference to a coffin. When taken all together, the primary reading of the line is something like, Kendrick feels lucky to be alive, he's in touch with God,
and he's trying to improve and extend his life as much as possible. However, the drug and death motifs also present in the line relates the opposite end of this spectrum, how drugs and vices set you on a path toward death. Kendrick continues by formally calling attention to the drug motif, rapping, I know y'all love it when the drug's talking.
I think there's a couple ways we can read this line. He could be referring to music, specifically calling out a certain brand of hip-hop that centers drug use and sells a lifestyle of partying. This brand of music is often very popular because, like drugs themselves, it offers escapism. Hence why Kendrick says, "I know y'all love it." At the same time, personifying drugs as a thing that is talking once again calls attention to the ways vices are used as a mask.
They become the primary source of expression and block access to the deeper parts of ourselves where trauma resides. However, those deeper parts of ourselves are also where our most meaningful human qualities are accessed. It's where truth resides. It's where real love resides. Thus we get the central phrase of the entire chorus: "Shut the fuck up when you hear love talking." The line is especially potent coming off "We Cry Together," a drama in which the couple talked and talked and talked, but never actually communicated.
Ironically, the two actually told each other to shut the fuck up on several occasions during their fight, and now Kendrick flips the phrase into a genuine call for meaningful silence, which in this context feels like a call for listening, for presence, for vulnerability, for fully receiving with an open heart.
Importantly, Kendrick immediately connects this love received in silence to the spiritual dimension, rapping "If God be the source, then I am the plug talking." The line motivically pays off on all the drug references, as a plug is a local drug dealer while the source is where the plug receives his drug supply. Of course, Kendrick flips the references to praise God as the ultimate source and that Kendrick's music is the plug or dealer of God's message to the modern world.
Thus, the overall message of the chorus seems to be that God and God's limitless love is much more powerful than drugs. While drugs can medicate, God can heal. Love can heal. Now, given the album's incorporation of Eckhart Tolle's teachings, it's not a coincidence that Kendrick pairs silence and God together here on the hook.
We've talked a lot this season about Tolle's belief that all of our worldly problems can be attributed to the ego, how we live through the ego and its constant search for validation and superiority. We believe that the ego is our entire identity. We believe that our interests, our personal history, our physical bodies, and our thoughts are what define us. If someone were to ask, who are you? You'd likely reply with your name, or you might say your profession, or you might list some of your personality traits or passions. And
And while these things are entirely insignificant, in Tolle's view, they will never define who you are on a deeper level, on a level beyond the world of form. In a more evolved humanity, the emphasis of form identity as a person reaches adulthood, a little bit after, is replaced, at the moment this is not what's happening, but can be replaced by something more genuine and deeper.
and that is finding your essence identity that's underneath your form identity. And that is spiritual dimension.
This deeper spiritual dimension is the other half of Tolle's teachings, something we'll talk a lot more about in the second half of this season. But as it relates to the coupling of silence and God and Purple Heart's hook, according to Tolle, this spiritual dimension is accessed through stillness, through silent, present moment awareness. It is the consciousness that is aware of the form identity. It is the consciousness that can be aware of the ego, that can be the silent observer of your own thoughts.
thoughts. It is the consciousness that is but a reflection of the universal consciousness that is the essence of all life, or as some call it, God. In the moment of noticing, you are not thinking, because you cannot notice a silent space and think at the same time. There needs to be something in you that corresponds to that silent space, and that is the inner space of awareness.
Amazingly, that is also a way of realizing who you are at the most essential, the most fundamental level. Because you are essentially that silent presence, that awareness, that consciousness. That is the essence of who you are.
Understanding Tolle's teachings about presence and the formless consciousness, it's not a coincidence that Kendrick presents love, God, and silence as an interconnected spiritual trifecta. These same teachings were also present in the promotional video that accompanied the launch of Kendrick's creative company PG Lang in March of 2020. The entire video is heavily influenced by Tolle's teachings, and Tolle himself even makes a cameo about Midway Through.
Toward the end of the piece, a black screen appears with the title card, Still, as in stillness, presence, silence. We then see Kendrick peacefully laying on top of a streetlight in silence. Only ambient noise and his breathing can be heard. The shot continues by revealing singer Georgia Smith standing beneath the streetlight, where she eventually says this about Kendrick. I wonder what he's thinking about up there, or if he's even thinking at all.
Smith essentially answers her own question here. Kendrick isn't thinking at all. Practicing Tolley's idea of the power of now, he is in a present moment meditative state in which the incessant stream of thought and egoic form identity has been silenced. And through this silence, this stillness, he is in harmony with the formless transcendent dimension within all of us. He is in harmony with God. Shut the fuck up when you hear love talking.
God be the source, then I am the plug talk Yeah, baby, yeah, baby, yeah, baby This my undisputed truth, uh-huh My life is like forbidden fruit My bitch know better than I do A woman's worth, I barely went to church I'd rather fast with you than fuck it up Fuckin' with skirts, cause I'm rational A nigga still gon' be a nigga Emoji heart, my family pictures Two-steppin' away from rappers I don't trust that your intentions I'm not in the mood
Kendrick begins the verse, this my undisputed truth. It seems like a reference to the Mr. Morale album itself, Kendrick's most vulnerable, truth-bearing project to date. This opening line also calls back to the album's opening moment, when Whitney prodded Kendrick to tell them the truth during the intro of United in Grief. Tell them the truth.
Whitney's call for truth at the start of disc one creates a full circle moment here at the end of disc one. Kendrick is bearing his truth, and his use of undisputed implies that it is unfabricated. Whether you agree or disagree with his thoughts or feelings, this is his truth laid bare. There's also a possibility that Kendrick here is referencing the title of Mike Tyson's 2013 autobiography, Undisputed Truth.
Tyson's story certainly aligns with the themes of Mr. Morale and the long-term effects of childhood trauma. Tyson grew up in poverty without a father. He was sexually abused by a stranger when he was 7. He was arrested 38 times by the time he was 13. His mother was an alcoholic and sex worker who died when he was 16. And he carried the trauma of his childhood into adulthood. He struggled with addiction, was convicted of rape in 1992, and has expressed remorse about his past behavior and killer mentality.
While it's unclear whether Kendrick was purposefully nodding to Tyson with undisputed truth, he certainly fits the profile of a purple-hearted big stepper, someone whose early life circumstances could be likened to a trauma-inducing war zone. Kendrick then continues, My life is like forbidden fruit. My bitch no better than I do. A woman's worth.
This is of course a reference to the biblical story of Adam and Eve, who ate the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the original sin that led to the fall of man. Saying, my bitch know better than I do, seems like a play on the fact that it was Eve who took a bite of forbidden fruit before Adam, thus gaining the knowledge first.
And if it's Kendrick's life that is like the forbidden fruit, then it's Whitney that knows his life better than Kendrick himself. This would align with Whitney's role in the album as the divine presence guiding Kendrick on his journey, pushing him to tell the truth and stop tap dancing around the real conversation. Of course, the analogy takes liberties with the biblical story, thus he admits, I barely went to church, which in this context feels like an admission of his lack of spiritual understanding, hence needing Whitney's assistance.
It's Whitney who knows a woman's worth, and she's been the guiding force behind Kendrick's evolving view of women. Where he once saw them as sex objects that supply his addiction, he is learning to value their true worth as divine beings, the givers of life, the source of love, the much-needed feminine yin to the masculine yang in the spiritual equilibrium of the universe. Kendrick then raps, I'd rather fast with you than fuck it up fucking with skirts, cause I'm rational.
This is a callback to Rich Spirit and Kendrick's spiritual practice of fasting from women and achieving sobriety from his sex addiction. Obviously, this was putting his relationship with the mother of his children at risk, and he knows this because he's rational. He understood his actions were problematic, yet he was unable to resist temptation a la Adam in the garden. The phrasing of fucking with skirts is another callback to United in Grief, this time to Kendrick's opening line, what is a bitch in a miniskirt? A man in his feelings with bitter nerve.
Recall we interpreted this line as representing an objectifying view of women as seen through the eyes of a damaged man. That damaged man, of course, was Kendrick, who is now evolving beyond his objectifying view of skirts and seeing women as divine beings to be loved and cherished and protected. Kendrick then continues, an n-word is still going to be an n-word, emoji heart my family pictures, two stepping away from rappers, I don't trust their true intentions.
First, we acknowledge now a fourth meaning in the song title Purple Hearts, this time referring to the purple heart emoji character. Fittingly, a purple heart emoji is itself a dualistic symbol. It's often used to signify horniness, but it also can be used to express genuine love and affection.
Thus, this one symbol captures Kendrick's evolving view of women perfectly as he moves away from objectification to genuine love. He then quickly pivots to someone liking one of his family photos with a heart online before suddenly speaking about avoiding other rappers because he distrusts them. This seems to imply that it was a rapper who was commenting on his family pictures with an emoji heart.
Across this entire album, Kendrick has made clear that he finds a lot of online interaction disingenuous, as there is always an inherent element of theater in public social media communication. In this example, the rapper would be publicly commenting in order to make it seem like he and Kendrick were friends, or that this rapper was a good guy because he was showing love to Kendrick's family.
Kendrick understands how interactions like this are often mistaken for a reflection of their actual relationship. So the rapper could easily be commenting to shape a public narrative when in actuality the two aren't close at all. Obviously, the biggest suspect here is Drake, as Kendrick called out Drake's manipulative, narrative-shaping online antics during their recent battle. In any case, it's these kinds of disingenuous interactions and fake public friendships that have Kendrick distancing himself from the industry.
Kendrick continues, I'm not in the music business. I've been in the human business.
Evident in his discography always prioritizing message and artistry over popular appeal, Kendrick claims he's not interested in the politics of the music industry. His music, his art, is for humanity first.
This was something he spoke on specifically around the Mr. Morale album, as he told W Magazine in 2022, quote, I've had rewards for my other albums in different ways, whether it was accolades, whether it was the Pulitzer, whether it was the Grammys. Mr. Morale is the reward for humanity for me, unquote.
Kendrick then continues, "Whole life been social distant. Hoes like when you not trippin. I ducked the party, who said they saw me?" Obviously Kendrick here is playing on the social distancing rules of the COVID pandemic to claim he's been isolating himself socially his entire life. He's not one to attend music industry parties or play the game of disingenuous social networking. Industry hosts think Kendrick is always tripping or there's something wrong, likely because they don't understand his introversion and disinterest in typical party antics.
He then wraps "Crown on Bob Marley, wrist on Yo Gotti." It's a classic Kendrick Lamar self-portrait, painting himself as a dichotomy, a contradiction. Bob Marley famously wore a rasta cap or tam, which Kendrick calls his crown, a symbol of his kingship as an influential artist whose art relayed important messages to his community, just like Kendrick. And not totally unlike Kendrick, Bob Marley was also known for his many extramarital affairs.
Meanwhile, Yo Gotti is a Memphis rapper known for his extravagant watch collection, so much so that Forbes did an entire piece on it. Similar to comparing himself to both Kodak Black and Eckhart Tolle, Kendrick is portraying himself as containing pieces of both Bob Marley and Yo Gotti.
He then raps, It's yet another direct assault on the vapid nature of social media, where the theater of public opinion dictates so much of the discourse. Importantly, Kendrick says the word judge here, as the theme of judgment has been central in Mr. Morale, something we discussed in multiple episodes.
This line points to the fact that our judgment of each other may not even be real. Rather, we judge and publicly criticize the lives of others merely to present ourselves as being morally superior. But do these people really care? Or are they simply using so-called moral judgment to validate their own identity and their ego's endless search for superiority through comparison?
Kendrick ends his verse with an anaphora, beginning each line with the phrase, I bless it, evoking divine favor and the virtues he wishes humanity to manifest, himself included. Can
Considering the album's influence of the gospel according to Matthew, which you've probably noticed keeps coming up in almost every song, it's possible this passage is intended to evoke the Beatitudes, the famous series of blessings Jesus gave during the Sermon on the Mount. The Beatitudes are also delivered anaphorically, as each line begins with the same phrase, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth, and so on.
Kendrick's first two blessings are, I bless it that you have an open heart. I bless that you forgive. Uncoincidentally, a pure open heart and forgiveness are also paired together in the Beatitudes. As Jesus declared, Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Biblically speaking, an open heart is used to describe receptivity, vulnerability, and the readiness to receive God's love. Qualities that are all thematically aligned with Kendrick's call for silence when love or God is talking. An open heart is a call to position oneself for receiving.
for listening. And biblically speaking, an open heart is required for forgiveness, both to receive God's forgiveness and to forgive others. Likewise, those with an unforgiving attitude, those who hold on to resentment and bitterness, those who closely identify with their ego as Eckhart Tolle would put it,
Their closed hearts suggest that they aren't yet positioned to receive God's love and forgiveness. Kendrick continues his anaphora, I bless that you can learn from a loss. I bless it that you heal. This feels like a direct confrontation of father time, where Kendrick expressed his struggle with competition and not taking loss as well.
both of which are manifestations of the brand of masculinity he was taught as a child. Rather than becoming bitter over a loss, which Tolle would attribute to a wounded ego, those with an open heart would accept it as an opportunity to grow and learn. They would forgive themselves for falling short instead of resenting themselves or projecting their failure onto others. At the same time, Kendrick could also be referring to loss as in diminishment, losing something that you strongly identify with, be it your possessions, your job,
your relationship, or even the loss of a loved one. This is a major part of Eckhart Tolle's teachings, who very often talks about every loss presenting an opportunity for spiritual transcendence. We experience diminishment in some form. Of course, the ego says, or the egoic self says, that's terrible. I don't want any diminishment. Diminishment meaning loss of something that had become part of your life.
sense of self. It could be loss of possessions, could be loss of a relationship, loss of a loved one. So diminishment comes sooner or later. How do you meet it? Recognize it when it comes, not as a monster or the work of some malevolent deity or demon that wants to sabotage your life.
but as an opportunity also. Now you may not be able to be grateful for it in the moment of it happening. That would be perhaps too much to ask, but you will find that later, a year may pass, two years depending on what it is,
suddenly realize that it has taken you deeper into the essence of who you are because something was removed from you that you thought you were, but it was a fiction ultimately. Kendrick points to this idea of learning from loss and failure in the final lines of his verse, saying, I bless one day that you attract somebody with your mind exact, a patient life, flaws, bless them twice, and they'll bless you back.
First, Kendrick hopes that everyone finds true compatibility in this lifetime, a partnership based on mind and emotion rather than mere physical attraction. He then blesses flaws twice, giving them extra attention, claiming that when you do this, they offer you blessings in return. This to me relates to Tully's ideas about growth through loss, suffering, and ego death. While we can spend our entire life mudwalking, masking, or tap dancing around our issues with any number of vices and distractions,
Kendrick claims there's actually unmatched rewards to be earned when we truly confront our flaws and imperfections. Indeed, it seems no mistake that Kendrick's final line on Disc 1's final song expresses one of the bigger lessons he learned through the process of making Mr. Morale.
As I've mentioned throughout the season, Kendrick did very little press for this album. However, in the few times he did speak about it, he almost always brought up the idea of imperfection. In his Instagram story a few months after its release, he wrote, Mr. Morale, the catalyst to my self-expression. I'll never forget the process of falling in love with imperfection." After performing his Mr. Morale set at Rolling Loud in 2022, Kendrick said this about his legacy,
It's really just the impact to inspire people, you know, and always showing them that the duality of life is not such a bad thing. You know, we go through so many volatile situations where we don't really know how to connect or, you know, communicate how we feel. So through my music, I want to make sure that's the legacy, showing people how to communicate. And it's okay, you know, if you're not perfect. You know, it's about accepting the beauty of imperfection.
Finally, when accepting the Grammy Award for Mr. Morale, Kendrick ended his speech by once again praising Imperfection. That's special to me. All we ever wanted was to be the biggest underground artist of all time, and I finally found Imperfection with this album, so I appreciate y'all. I love y'all.
Again, it seems no mistake that Kendrick's final line on disc one points to this central message of the album: the idea that our imperfections or flaws contain blessings. They can be catalysts for spiritual growth if we only give them our attention and do our best to correct them. This sets the stage for the album's second half, where Kendrick finally goes to therapy, finally stops tap dancing around the conversation, and confronts his imperfections.
It's also no coincidence the idea of imperfection was addressed by Jesus during the Sermon on the Mount and the Gospel according to Matthew. It's here Jesus teaches to love both the righteous and the unrighteous, just as God loves all humans no matter how imperfect. He then declares, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
Now, perfect here does not mean flawless, nor was Jesus expecting his followers to live an unattainable standard of perfection. Rather, Jesus was calling his followers to strive for perfection, to do their best to live according to God's standard of love and compassion, to have an open heart, to forgive yourself and others, understanding that we are all imperfect, we all contain flaws, and that it is only God that is perfect.
But shut the fuck up when you hear love talking. Shut the fuck up when you hear love talking. Be the first and I give the blood talking.
On the second performance of "The Hook," Kendrick is joined by Summer Walker, an R&B singer-songwriter from Atlanta, Georgia, who rose to prominence in the late 2010s. Her presence on the song makes it the second track in a row to feature a female perspective. More evidence that "Purple Hearts" is the mirrored opposite of "We Cry Together." Indeed, as we'll see in her feature verse, Summer gives voice to the women who are forced to deal with the consequences of emotionally immature men.
I hate it here. Baby daddy still on my phone. I hate it here. Asking if I hate it here.
Summer begins her verse, How's Love, when it's haunting your soul. The phrase haunt your soul means to persistently distress someone's mind or spirit, leaving a lasting and unsettling emotional impact. Having been burned by love too many times, Summer is questioning the value of love itself, because it perpetually leaves her in emotional disarray.
The reasons for this become clear as she continues, but my n-word left his ass on the road, gossiping about some shit you don't know. I hate it here. Baby daddy's still on my phone. I hate it here. Asking if I've been on the pole.
It appears that the father of Summer's child abandoned them, yet he's still badgering her about her life choices. Being "on the pole" is a reference to stripping, but might also double as a reference to being involved with other men, implying her baby daddy is jealous. This sentiment continues "I hate it here, if you keep lurking on the low, if you a fan just let me know." Her baby daddy is stalking her online like an obsessive Stan, yet he's not willing or is emotionally unable to actually be a part of her life, sending her mixed signals.
I cannot conform.
I cannot conform.
Summer continues her verse, now if it's love, I deserve to get some head on the balcony sometimes. And if I feel where your heart can be, you'd still be a part of me. Oral sex here is used as an example of a selfless act. Something done in service without an expectation of receiving something in return. If she felt this kind of selfless love from this person, she claims she'd reserve a part of herself for him too.
However, it doesn't appear that that's the current state of things, as she continues, I love my, love my, summer in the storm, I cannot conform. I just might love you still, just think I love me more. These words of self-affirmation are empowering her to move on with her life. She does have love for him, but she understands her worth and knows this man isn't loving her in the way she deserves. She then sings, no, it ain't love if you gonna judge me for my past.
Once again the idea of judgment is raised, as Summer juxtaposes love and judgment as two opposing forces that cannot coexist.
This aligns with Kendrick's critiques of judgment we've heard throughout the album, something that through Eckhart Tolle's lens can always be chalked up to the ego's endless search for validation through comparison. Just as an open heart is required to receive love and forgiveness, it is also required to give love and forgiveness. Rather than judge your lover for past transgressions, you forgive them and accept who they are in the present moment.
Summer then continues with a more extreme example of selfless oral sex before closing out her verse, "It ain't love if you just only tie me down because you seen me in my bag. That's why I'm anti everyone before this mask." This final line reflects Kendrick's previous statement, "My whole life been social distant," as Summer claims to have been closed off to most people before the masks and isolation of the COVID pandemic. The mask has also been a main motif of the album's first half.
A play on both theatrical masks and the pandemic-era medical masks, Kendrick has been exposing the various masks of the ego we all wear. Indeed, the entirety of Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers can be viewed as the grueling emotional and psychological process of unmasking yourself and confronting the ugliness and trauma beneath.
So it's fitting that here at the end of the album's first disc, we get a clear reference to the mask's symbolism in the final, punctuating statement of Summer's verse. Like Kendrick's final line about imperfection, the mention of the mask sets up the unmasking process of disc 2, where Kendrick faces his imperfections head on. Now, it's unclear to me whether Summer's feature is meant to be anything other than a female perspective. In many ways, her verse encapsulates the way women bear the burden of emotionally immature men,
as Summer is forced to leave a man she loves because she understands her love deserves better. And so if Summer's feature was intended to contribute to the album's narrative, it's possible that she is voicing Whitney's feelings at this point in the story, just as Taylor Page seemed to voice Whitney's side of the fight in We Cry Together.
Near the end of the album on Mother I Sober, Kendrick will reveal that Whitney did in fact leave him at some point. And while Whitney has been a guiding presence throughout the album's first half, she actually disappears from the majority of the second half, replaced by Eckhart Tolle playing the role of Kendrick's therapist.
So there's definitely a possibility that Summer's verse and her decision to leave a man she loves loosely represents Whitney's decision to leave Kendrick, prompting him to finally go to therapy and answer Whitney's call to stop tap dancing around his issues. Now after another repetition of the hook, Purple Hearts continues with a feature verse from rapper Ghostface Killa from the legendary Wu-Tang Clan.
His verse is one of the more important moments on Mr. Morale, as he delivers a prophetic message that in many ways guides and propels Kendrick into the journey of Disc 2. The importance of this moment is signaled in the music too, as the song opens up into a beautiful trio of piano, strings, and choir vocals. As you listen, be aware of how this majestic musical setting intentionally creates a feeling of divinity that perfectly accentuates Ghostface Killa's divine message.
Yo, yo, telekinesis, I'm purifying these deep speeches. While I'm crying, I clean the feet of the sweet Jesus. Dreams, visions get blurry, yeah, the Elohim is light. It's known to tear retinas in a single gleam. Shut the fuck up.
Now before dissecting Ghostface lyrics, I want to spend a little time trying to understand why Kendrick chose him to play a saint-like role on the album. Like Kendrick and Kodak Black, Ghostface grew up in poverty and lived in housing projects as a child. Like Kodak, Ghostface grew up without a father. Like Kodak and Kendrick, Ghostface got involved in street activities at a young age. His
His first arrest occurred at age 15 and regarding his teenage years, Ghostface said, "I was on the streets. I was doing bad, robbing and selling drugs, smoking dust, doing everything." At some point in the early 90s, he narrowly escaped death after being shot in the neck.
Ghostface credits hip-hop for saving his life, and in 2004, he converted to Islam and became someone deeply concerned with morality. Here he is on The Tore Show talking about his continual attempts to right his past wrongs through good deeds and faith in God. My purpose here is to correct a lot of things that I done did in my past, because I did a lot of foul shit. You know what I mean? So I don't want to go back to the essence with that over me. You have to do things with...
The most high ones. Make them smile. Do whatever. Like, if you know that makes them happy. If I steal a book of matches from you, I'm going to feel fucked up. You see what I'm saying? Why do I got that feeling over me? And this is totally different than the way you looked at the world. Back then? Yeah. Okay then. We're men now. Like, we really got to really start thinking of. Listen, let me tell you. You'll be dead more longer than you are alive. Of course. Okay then.
That means to show you that this time that we live in is short. Yes. It's not even the length of a fingernail compared to eternity. Yes. This is half, not even half of a nail. So you're preparing for eternity. You have to. That's why, or else what the fuck is you doing still living here? I
As someone who grew up in a harsh environment, transcended his circumstances, and as he matured, strived to live a morally and spiritually righteous life, Ghostface slots perfectly into the military theme of Purple Heart's title, which as a reminder is an award given to those wounded in action.
Ghostface is literally a wounded veteran of the game. He's survived a lot, and he's here to share his experienced wisdom and divine guidance as Kendrick himself strives to live a moral life and right his past wrongs. Ghostface begins his verse, "Telekinesis" on purifying these D speeches. Telekinesis is the ability to move objects with the power of the mind alone. He seems to be using the concept to show the power of one's mind.
which can be used as a weapon to defeat the conflicts we encounter in life. This is how he purifies these D speeches, which I think is short for Devil's speeches. In other words, Ghostface uses the strength of his mind to overcome the Devil's temptations or influences.
The idea of purification leads to the following line, While I'm crying, I clean the feet of the sweet Jesus. This is a direct reference to Luke 7, 36-50, which tells the story of a woman who is described only as a sinner in the city, which many interpret as meaning a woman who is sexually promiscuous. This sinner visits Jesus and without speaking, weeps at his feet, wipes the tears into his feet with her hair, and anoints him with a perfumed oil. Jesus then tells a parable about two people in debt.
One owed a very large sum and the other a very small sum. Remarkably, the moneylender forgave them both. And Jesus asked which debtor would be more grateful to the lender.
The implication is that the one with the large debt would be more grateful, since they were forgiven for a much larger sum. Jesus then announces that the gracious woman at his feet was forgiven of her many sins because of her great love for him. She is not forgiven for her deeds, but rather Jesus says, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace." Thus, the general understanding of this biblical passage is that sinners can find forgiveness through faith in Jesus. There is no one who is too far gone, too sinful, too corrupt.
All it takes is to go to Jesus with an open heart. Of course, Ghostface himself was once a sinner in the streets, so evoking the image of cleaning the feet of Jesus with his tears is meant to portray his own love for God and his transformative, purifying power to forgive. The biblical passage also finds parallels with Kendrick's own story, because like the woman, Kendrick has also been sexually promiscuous, habitually cheating on Whitney.
Ghostface's evocation of God's divine power leads him to his next lines: "Dreams, visions get blurry of the Elohim, its light. It's known to tear retinas in a single gleam." The imagery here is in line with biblical descriptions of God as blinding light, implying that his power and glory is beyond human comprehension.
The Elohim is a Hebrew word that translates to spiritual beings and can apply to a wide variety of beings such as angels, demons, and even ghosts. In the Bible, the Elohim is almost always used to refer to the singular God of Israel, the Most High, the one God above all. Thus, in both its singular and plural form, Elohim is a reminder that there are many spiritual forces that influence human lives, but there is one God who is above them all.
According to Ghostface, including Elohim was a direct request from Kendrick himself. He told Billboard, "When Kendrick texted me, he said, 'Throw the Elohim in your rap.' I said, 'Well, the Elohim is the Most High.' And Kendrick was like, 'Exactly.' I heard him say in the hook, 'Shut the fuck up when you hear love talking. The Most High is love.'" "A choice to choose, dick. Which gang you gonna go to? I'm gonna go to the God gang."
Because love always overcomes hate any day and God is love Shut the fuck up when you hear his love talking to the - God's cipher divided a small portion Faded pictures this global madness the intervention this world's in the Twilight Zone. This is the fifth dimension God, please go to wish we need an intermission my good deeds
Ghostface reiterates the central refrain of the chorus: "Shut the fuck up when you hear his love talking." While we already connected love to God in the chorus, Ghostface confirms the connection by formally adding the capital H "His" in front of love. He then continues: "To the mind, it's God ciphered divine in a small portion.
Here, Ghost makes use of the supreme alphabet of the 5% nation, which assigns meaning to each letter of the alphabet. G is God, O is Cypher, and D is Divine. Thus, God's Cypher Divine spells God. The small portion that the mind is able to comprehend is just a fraction of God's boundless love. He then continues, "Faded pictures, this global madness need intervention. This world's in the twilight zone, this is the fifth dimension."
Contrasting the beauty and light of God's love, he paints the modern state of the world as dire, colorless, and chaotic.
He compares it to the classic black and white TV show Twilight Zone that portrayed odd supernatural settings and phenomena, implying that how we are living today is some twisted fictional dimension that belongs in a sci-fi show. This portrayal of the physical world is consistent with Ghostface views, as he often describes this life as an illusion, and if we're not careful, we can mistake illusion for reality. My message to the youth, man, is like, yo, look inside yourself, man.
Everything you see is not always real man. Everything you see is not real. You know what I mean? It's you know, a lot of us is living by the illusion and getting caught up. You know what I mean? Even in rap music. It's like it's not all real. It's not real B. This is something that we do to feed our families. You know what I mean? Some people do it because they think they the shit and the hard rock. It's like man, motherfuckers ain't hard. All the hard rocks is dead and in jail.
or on their way in. You know what I mean? To go to either or. You know what I mean? And a lot of these cases, it's like they glorifying it. And at the same time, we don't really have nothing to look up to and stuff like that, but it's like everybody's not a gangster, man.
Anybody's not a gangster." Ghostface's comments about getting caught up in illusions align perfectly with Kendrick's many critiques of the fake, mask-wearing theatrics of modern life throughout Mr. Morale. And the way our wise veteran Ghostface sees it, a lot of the chaos and confusion of the modern world can be boiled down to the absence of God, which is why he asks God for an intervention. "Now there's no spiritual guidance. It's like, you know, like they don't know God.
If you knew God straight up and you had a personal relationship You'll be scared to death because you know what your penalty is gonna be see we got realized on earth This is just a trial. It's a trial. You know, I mean that we're going through this You know me like you can't let your scale your bag out where you're good because for everything we do here We're gonna get judged for it. We're gonna get judged for it. I
Good or bad. You got to remember there's two angels on your shoulders at all times, writing everything down. Even what you think, you know what I mean? It's getting written. You know what I mean? So, but these people, these babies, they don't believe in the higher being like that. Understanding Ghostface's views about the lack of spiritual guidance in modern life, it's not surprising that he makes a direct call on God as he continues his verse, rapping, God, please blow the whistle. We need an intermission.
Now we're going to talk about this line as it pertains to the structure of Mr. Morale at the end of the episode. But here Ghostface is asking for a little divine relief. A break from the unconscious, egoic madness he sees in the world today.
Mac Devin held it to that nigga Cabbage. No, we killin' greed, we killin' homelessness. And now I don't give a fuck about this land. I want ownership. Bow your head for just God's sake. Listen what the stars say. What I say is God's way.
Still addressing God directly, Ghostface says, It's a picture of Ghostface in the afterlife standing at God's door awaiting his judgment. An image that is also used a number of times in the New Testament to depict one's final judgment.
Ghostface carries both his good deeds and his sins, as well as the trauma he experienced in his life. This includes his brother's ashes, a reference to the fact that both of his younger brothers died from muscular dystrophy. As we heard in his interview clips, Ghostface very much believes that our actions on Earth will be judged before God and determine our placement in the afterlife. You know what I mean? I worry about even when I leave, when I leave this planet, like, did I do enough?
You know what I mean? I know that I'm accumulating my credit that's gonna show on judgment day for where I need to go. You know what I mean? I believe when we hear, that's all we're doing, whether it's good credit or bad credit. If you a fucked up nigga, there's a place for you. You wanna fight to go to Jenna. You wanna live your life to try to make it to Jenna, which is heaven. You know what I mean? - And you're on the path? - I don't know. Shit, I did a lot of foul shit.
You know what I mean? It's like, you better hope. You got to look at your life right now and basically just try to do good deeds.
Like Kendrick's verse, Ghostface seems to end his verse by nodding to the Beatitudes, rapping, "'Love, we kill in greed, we kill in homelessness, and I don't give a fuck about this land, I want ownership. Bow your head just for God's sake, listen to what the stars say when I say it's God's way.'" This seems to point to the third Beatitude, "'Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.'"
The contemporary understanding of the word meek is often associated with weakness. However, in the Bible, meekness is a virtue that has origins in the Greek word praos, which means strength under control. In ancient Greece, warhorses were trained to be meek, strong and powerful, yet tame and willing to submit. In the Bible, the meek are those who submit to God's will, those who have been placed in a position of weakness but trust in God rather than relying on their own power or seeking revenge.
Ghostface displays meekness throughout this passage. He trusts that God's love will eliminate greed and poverty. He bows his head as a sign of humility in God's presence. He listens to the divine wisdom embedded in the stars, a map symbolizing God's light and divine guidance. Rather than greedily focusing on conquering the land, ruling it temporarily, Ghostface in his meekness strives to inherit the earth. Or as he says, he wants ownership.
He wants the permanence of God's inheritance and blessings. Conclusions
Purple Hearts brings us to the end of Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers' first disc, representing a pivotal juncture in the album's narrative arc. Recall at the very start of the season, I discussed how the album's two discs are mirror images of each other. There are nine songs on each disc, and the nine songs on each disc reflect each other. Something we'll track throughout the second half of this season. The conclusion of Purple Hearts puts us in the dead center of the album. Purple Hearts is quite literally the heart of Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers.
And what do we find here at the reflection point, here at the center, the heart?
we find God. Like the heart being our most vital organ, God is represented as the vital source behind all life. As Kendrick said in the chorus, we are but the plugs, the manifestations of this divine, eternal source. And so just as the mirrored two-disc structure of the album reflects one of its central symbols, a mirror, the placement of Purple Hearts in the center reflects Kendrick's belief that God is the center of all human experience, all
all life, all consciousness. Here Kendrick is in 2024, two years after Morales release, speaking about this very belief. You go have hardships, you go have tribulations just as you had coming up here. But guess what? You got somebody special behind your corner and all around you and that's God. Every step of the way. When you fall and you have your shortcomings, he's right there. When you have your victories, he's right there.
Give yourself grace. Give yourself time to grow and appreciate it because he's growing with you. Every individual out here is experiencing a human life, a human experience, and God is experiencing it with you. So when you go through things, he's going with it.
Understanding the significance of God during Kendrick's most challenging times, it's no surprise that God is presented here at a critical juncture in Mr. Morales' narrative. Indeed, if Summer Walker's verse is meant to portray Whitney leaving Kendrick after the blowout fight of We Cry Together, we ought to reiterate the importance of Ghostface Killah's feature being the final verse of the album's first half.
especially knowing that Kendrick gave him direction to center God and include spiritual references like the Elohim. Playing something like the mentor archetype in the Hero's Journey story structure, Ghostface is the older, purple-hearted veteran or OG who offers Kendrick some game, some guidance or direction to set him on the correct path. And what is Saint Killa's final message to Kendrick? "Bow your head just for God's sake. Listen what the stars say when I say it's God's way."
In other words, humble yourself and follow God. Shut the fuck up and listen to His voice. Whatever you believe in, you can believe in this God or that God or that God is just one. He's one, you know what I mean? And He has many names, 99 names, you know what I mean, of God. You know what I mean? So it's like, yo man, just find yourself.
Find yourself man, and that's the jewel that I would just give to the people right you know me don't give up though because sometimes you might get discouraged and you know cuz God put you through something so devious you might lose your mother and
You might lose your girl. You know what I mean? But you know what? He's bringing you through that to make you come out a better person. You know what I mean? Every disappointment is a blessing. But sometimes we be thinking like we got bad luck and this and that and the third. Yo, yo, yo. And we bring a lot of that shit onto ourselves because you're not moving right. You know what I mean? But sometimes God will test you. And he tests the believers more than he tests the non-believers.
You know what I mean? We struggle more. All the prophets struggled more because they believed so much. But since you believe so much, I'm going to hit you with that burden and that burden and that burden. Let me see what you're going to do after that. But if you're still there with him, man, and never turned your back on him, man, he good, man. God is beautiful, B.
Now fully understanding the importance of Ghostface's feature thematically, we also need to acknowledge the structural importance of his verse. Specifically the line "God please blow the whistle, we need an intermission." With Mr. Morale being presented as a theatrical play, a literal call for an intermission just before the transition between the album's two discs is most certainly intentional. Uncoincidentally, most musical plays are two acts divided by an intermission,
And the intermission is very often placed just after a dramatic or pivotal plot point, giving the audience something to ponder during the break. If this were indeed the intention behind Mr. Morales intermission, then this would offer more evidence that Whitney did in fact leave Kendrick after their blowout fight. And we are left wondering what's next for Kendrick? Where does he go from here? Well, he finally listens to Whitney. He stops tap dancing around the conversation and goes to therapy.
Which way to go on this dark road
Of course, this is Mr. Morales' next track, Count Me Out, the start of disc or act two, where Kendrick finally meets his therapist Eckhart Tolle, who helps him dive even deeper into his emotions, his past, and his trauma. That's next time on Dissect.
Thank you everyone for listening. Just another reminder that we will be taking a mid-season break from our Mr. Morale episodes. However, we will have some other content to share every Tuesday, including an epic two-part Super Bowl analysis and a special episode on GNX. Thanks everyone for your support this season so far. I'll talk to you next week.