Kendrick Lamar Takes Aim at Police in “Alright” Video

Kendrick Lamar's dense, ambitious sophomore album, To Pimp a Butterfly, can be difficult to digest. Influences--G-funk, P-funk, jazz, soul--swirl, political diatribes intersect with one another, poems and interviews with dead rappers cloud your field of vision. But to this point, the singles have painted a much clearer picture. "i" was the celebration, "The Blacker the Berry" the gauntlet, "King Kunta" the intermission for those who haven't dusted off their DJ Quik cassettes. But "Alright," the one song from the new set that Lamar has consistently trotted out at live performances, is more representative of the bulk of Butterfly. Today (June 30), it receives the video treatment, a black-and-white tour through an absurdist Compton. Cops carry the car Kendrick and his friends are in; Timbs float over the pavement; money litters the ground. It's one of the best clips of Lamar's career--he perches on stoplights outside of Staples Center, teasing passersby with cars and clothes. But his reign doesn't last long. They never do.