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In the second verse, Lamar discusses the moment in which he reflects on his anger with the homeless man. Here immediately we can see how Lamar is connecting his own neglect of his community to his neglect of the homeless man who is the surface message of the song. things not generally understood as moral in his community) and is something that Lamar has tried to overcome by including them in music videos, album covers, and other promotional material. This is also a nod to the growing separation between Lamar and his friends and family, as evidenced by the notion of “what men’ll do,” (i.e.
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In turn, Lamar points out the irony of it, that he amassed wealth as a musician: “Now I can lend all my ear or two how to stack these residuals / Tenfold, the liberal concept of what men’ll do.” This forms the basis of the song’s story: he immediately recognizes that his ears are open primarily on how to “stack residuals,” or increase his wealth. He begins the song by reflecting on a memory, twenty years old, that he still can’t forget: “20 on pump 6, dirty Marcellus called me Dumbo / 20 years ago, can’t forget.” Marcellus, a childhood friend who has been referenced in other songs, made fun of the size of Lamar’s ears when he was a child. But an examination of the lyrics reveals that it is much more than that, in part due to a rich corpus of signifyin’ and references. Lamar and a homeless man engage in a verbal conflict when the man asks for, and then demands, money from Lamar. “How Much a Dollar Cost” in particular has these characteristics: on its face, it’s a story about an incident from Lamar’s recent trip to South Africa.
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Though I’ve listened to it quite a bit since it came out earlier this year, it’s still full of surprises for me, revealing something new every time I listen. Our discussion of African-American vernacular English and signifyin’ coincided with an album I’ve been thinking a lot about these past few weeks, Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly.