He uses Allusion of God and the Devil throughout the entire song.
In addition to using pathos, Kendrick Lamar also uses Allusion to promote his message of survival. Despite all of the oppression and struggles we come across, consequently we’ll be fine.
The last part of the pre-hook is stating that we sometimes have thoughts of suicide to escape oppression, however we seek help from the one God has chosen to relay his spirituality in order to stay strong and continue fighting. This song is relevant to the black lives matter movement hence he says that we hate the police due to the fact that they consistently deprive innocent African Americans of their lives without valid reasoning. When he says that we’re looking at the world like where do we go he gives insight on how we feel on a day to day basis, we seek to find our place in society because it seems as though we don’t fit in anywhere due to the hatred of the color of our skin. The pre-hook of the song is the most powerful part, it provides background of African Americans lives and how we felt, and how we are currently feeling, at those times saying, “Wouldn’t you know we been hurt, been down before nigga, when our pride was low lookin’ at the world like, ‘Where do we go?’” Nigga, and we hate po-po wanna kill us dead in the streets fo sho nigga, I’m at the preachers door my knees getting weak and my gun might blow but we gon’ be alright” Kendrick uses pathos throughout the pre-hook stating that we’ve been down before, referring to slavery and all of the other struggles and obstacles blacks have encountered. In the hook of the song Kendrick reassures his audience, African Americans, that, “We gon’ be alright” This quote is so powerful because us African Americans have gone through so much for so long that it feels good to hear someone be optimistic about it all and inform us that we will survive and prosper. This entire song can be looked at as an appeal to ones emotions due to the fact that it stands as a cry or plea for the police brutality against African Americans to cease. In order to promote the message of survival, Kendrick Lamar uses the rhetorical appeal of Pathos. Initially, I thought the song was catchy, I knew that it was a message to all African Americans, however, after a deeper analysis, I found that Kendrick Lamar uses pathos, personification, assonance, and allusion in order to convey his message that regardless of our current struggles, pain, and suffering in the end we will survive. This song also plays as a reminder that the Devil is always out get us and bring us down however, if we have faith in God, then the Devil will never win. This song plays as an affirmation to us African Americans, reminding us of all of our struggles that we have overcome and informing us that this too shall pass. There has been a numerous amount of innocent Black lives taken at the hands of the ones that are supposed to protect us the police. I would define our struggle as an ongoing battle between police officers and African Americans citizens, which African Americans consistently lose. I believe that he is reassuring us that the struggle that we are going through as of now will be alright, due to our faith in God. Officers should listen carefully to this song, because Kendrick is portraying the way African Americans feel about institutionalized racism within the criminal justice system through song lyrics.
This song, in my opinion, is a message to all African Americans and police officers. The text I have chosen to analyze is the catchy yet powerful song “Alright” by Kendrick Lamar.
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