Kendrick Lamar on the LA Riots

Kendrick Lamar: County Building Blues

(Nigga you remember the smoke and the burning buildings and shit?)
Couple stolen T.V.'s and a seat belt for my safety
Played the passenger I think it’s five years after eighty
Seven, do the math, ‘92, don’t you be lazy
Looking out the window, notice all the essentials
Of a block party that stop for a second, then it rekindle
Like a flame from a trick candle, everybody got dental
Insurance ‘cause we ‘bout to floss, you get that couch I sent you?
I heard that from a block away, probably had credentials
Of a scholar but, shit, not today, them Dayton Spokes was his to take
Refrigerators, barbecue pits, and Jordan kicks
They did invasions while helicopters recorded it
Hello Mi-Mister Miyagi, I want them Kenwood woofers
Say that you got me, if not, I’ll dig in your drawer for it
The swap meet was the bulls' eye like Tauruses
Murder was the melody you should know what the chorus is
"Papa, you really telling me we can just get some more of it
If we run out?" He said, "Lil' nigga, today the poor is rich
Don’t tell your mom that you seen a Molotov bomb
If she ask just know you have to lie and son don’t forget
Bitches ain’t shit, hoes ain’t neither
Niggas gon' snitch, watch the company you keeping
And one day you’ll put money in the ghetto when you got it
Rather than having to hustle off these Rodney King riots"
(That’s right the mothafuckin’ Rodney King...
You was with your daddy on Bullis Road)

This is the second verse in Kendrick Lamar's song County Building Blues is a throwback to the mindset and situations of the LA riots. Kendrick describes the way he saw the city as a five-year-old. The TV appliances being stolen was how people began to take advantage of the chaos and attempt to reclaim some of the loss their community had suffered at the hands of the government. He describes the events as a block party, at his age he likely did not grasp the gravity of the situation. The only hints to what is going on are a huge gathering of people, and that is the typical event that would cause that. He mentions the flames dying and starting back up like trick candles that would relight after you blew them out. He says "hello mister miyagi" a stereotypical name used to highlight the fact that most store owners there had been Korean-Americans. Kendrick masterfully weaves an accurate account of the multifaceted nature of the riots while maintaining rhythm and beat. This allows for the tale reach the people that don't keep up with current events. 

-Valentin Vassilevski