Kendrick Lamar's 'The Blacker the Berry' is a sign that real hip-hop is back

Okay, so “real” hip-hop never went anywhere — music that prizes beats, lyrical skill, and content is actually easier to find than ever, thanks to the internet and social media. But after a few wasteland years on mainstream levels, 2015 might represent yet another shift in what’s hitting the mainstream.

Case in point: Kendrick Lamar’s new song “The Blacker the Berry,” five and a half minutes of searing, boom-bap beats with unapologetically racially conscious, charged lyrics:

“Came from the bottom of mankind / My hair is nappy, my dick is big, my nose is round and wide / You hate me don’t you? / You hate my people, your plan is to terminate my culture.”

It’s the hungriest vocal delivery from Kendrick of late, his breath control never slipping as he snarls in deserved indignation. And the whole thing just goes hard in a way that updates the old-school — in a nod to the music’s roots, there’s even a looping sample of KRS-One’s “You Must Learn.” (It’s really just a stuttering repetition of the word “you,” but for hip-hop heads, it’s there and it’s significant.)