"Being woke ALWAYS backfires in the end" — Internet divided over Kendrick Lamar allegedly using a slur against Indigenous people in GNX
Last Friday - on November 22 - Kendrick Lamar dropped his seventh studio album, GNX, as a surprise, and one of its tracks has garnered attraction on the internet for allegedly containing a racial slur against Indigenous people.
The track Wacced out murals contains the following lines:
"Whatever, though, call me crazy, everybody questionable/ Turn me to an eskimo, I drew the lines and decimals."
The use of "Eskimo" in the track is perceived as a racial slur against the Native American people by some netizens, who have taken to X to point out the same.
Some netizens criticized the Poetic Justice rapper for using the "colonizer language".
"Kendrick using a slur for Inuit and Yupik people during Native American Heritage Month in the US was not on my bingo card" - wrote an X user.
"Kendrick calling people colonizers, then uses the colonizer language and puts out a song calling Inuit people eskimos is so disrespectful" - commented another user.
"Dude I don’t want to be that guy by Kendrick saying Eskimo is racist. Why is it okay for someone of that level to say slanderous names like that? Really upsetting." - replied a user.
Meanwhile, other netizens sided with Kendrick Lamar, claiming that the term "Eskimo" isn't considered a slur.
"30 years down and I’m learning sumn new. I thought Eskimo was an Alaskan who lives in an igloo lol. I guarantee you nobody in AMERICA thought of that as an offensive term. Canadians maybe." - posted a user.
"What? I’m native and saying Eskimo is not a slur, he just means turned cold." - commented another one.
"Eskimo is a slur??? Damn why are we now being made aware of this" - replied another.
Kendrick Lamar's lines with "Eskimo" addressed the Superbowl Halftime controversy
While the internet remains divided over whether or not K-Dot's use of "Eskimo" was a racial slur, the lines the phrase was used in addressed the recent Superbowl Halftime controversy involving Lil Wayne.
The controversy first started back in September, when the NFL announced the details of its upcoming Superbowl Halftime LIX game. The game, scheduled for February 9, 2025, was going to be hosted in the Caesar's Superdome in New Orleans.
Kendrick Lamar is set to headline the show, which has upset many rappers who believe Lil Wayne should've been given the privilege since he is a New Orleans native.
The other lines of Wacced out murals that address the controversy include:
"I used to bump Tha Carter III, I held my Rollie chain proud/Irony, I think my hardwork let Lil Wayne down/ Got the Super Bowl and Nas the only one congratulate me, all these n***as agitated I’m just glad it’s on their faces."
Elsewhere in the track, the Money Trees rapper added another line which led to speculations that he was referring to the ongoing Diddy scandal. The line said:
"N***as cackling about [silence], while all of y'all is on trial."
Kendrick Lamar intentionally omitted the name of the person perceived to be on trial in his songs, which could've been suggestively directed at not only Diddy but also Lil Durk or Young Thug, all of whom are rappers currently in custody, awaiting their trial.
Lamar's reincarnated also gained a lot of attention for its Tupac influence
Another track from Kendrick Lamar's surprise album that has gained popularity for its heavy influences of Tupac and Eminem is reincarnated.
In the song, the LOYALTY rapper samples Tupac's 1996 track, Made N****z, paying homage to the late rapper with his aggressive flow.
True to the song's name, Lamar explores themes of rebirth in it, making historical references to his past lives, where he was also a musician but always troubled with something or the other. Towards the end of the song, he returns to his present life, where he fights his demons while trying to rewrite his story.
Kendrick Lamar's GNX is the shortest of all his full-length studio albums, containing 12 tracks.
