Woman From Kendrick Lamar’s “HUMBLE” Video Talks Criticism
It’s been nearly two weeks (March 30) since Kendrick Lamar dropped his ineffable video for the first single from his forthcoming album, DAMN. Once everyone had the chance to screenshot and share their favorite visuals paired with a select choice of the slew of quotable bars that “HUMBLE.” had to offer, the Internet entered a frenzy over one specific lyric-visual pair. As K. Dot rhymed about how he’s “sick and tired of the Photoshop,” prompting a girl with “something natural like afro on Richard Pryor” to please stand up, a “sugar-brown mama with a Brazilian body-wave frontal” graced our screens.
WATCH: Chloe X Halle Put Their Own Spin On Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble”
CREDIT: Aftermath/Interscope
That “a** with the stretch marks girl” has a name and it’s Carter Kim. While some people will still try to protest against the truth that Kim provides, she let’s ELLE know that she is in fact black – along with French and Korean – and her hair is in fact her own.
Kim opens up and confesses that dealing with being denied because she’s “too multicultural” or “not black enough” is nothing new to her, it’s been a “journey.” That journey was put on display as we all put our Twitter fingers to use to criticize Lamar for casting someone who on the surface didn’t fulfill a picture we believed the Compton native to be painting. Some felt so uncomfortably moved by the representation that they had to fight the urge to “tell him about himself.”
READ: Kendrick Lamar Announces Album Title And Tracklist To Long Awaited Project
Kendrick has a rather patronizing, shallow way of looking at situations relating to women. I wish I could tell him about himself lol
— ? (@delafro_) March 31, 2017
While Kim admitted the most painful part was receiving so much criticism from fellow black women, she offers what the team’s thoughts were on her being the ideal woman for the role:
“They basically told me: ‘You are the natural girl that is represented in 2017 in the society that has a ton of imperfections, but still loves herself and still doesn’t care what anyone else thinks.’ And also: ‘You are the music video girl vixen. You are that very exotic pretty girl that the normal girl transforms into.”
With all things considered, the ideation behind it could be a flurry of possible alternatives from masked misogyny as some claim, or choosing a lyric that was relatably the most natural thing in the world that he could possibly think of as he landed on Pryor’s afro. Both sides arguing for Man-Man and against him are understandable. But, the truth is no one will ever know what Kendrick Lamar’s intent truly was, unless he decides to clear the air himself. Until then, back to the Twitter drafts and the visuals to debate the topic with this newfound information. What do you think?
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