Kendrick Lamar raps about trans relatives in ‘barrier-breaking’ new song
Kendrick Lamar opened up about his journey fighting prejudice and accepting his trans family members in the song, “Auntie Diaries”. (Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
Fans have praised Kendrick Lamar for his new track, “Auntie Diaries”, in which he discusses his journey in accepting his trans family members.
Taken from his new album, Mr Morales and the Big Stepper, Kendrick Lamar’s “Auntie Diaries” sees that star rap candidly about homophobia and transphobia and how they affected his acceptance of his trans relatives.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper opens up about his own past prejudices, and how he’s “old enough to understand now”.
Lamar raps about his close relationship with his “auntie”, a trans man, who “cut my hair at the pad” and was the “first person I seen write a rap”.
Lamar raps about other family members rejecting his relative, but says he “took pride” in embracing him.
In the second-half of the track, Lamar raps about his “favourite cousin” who later came out as trans, and the church’s response to her.
In his lyrics, Lamar deadnames his cousin, as well as Caitlyn Jenner, and also mentions dropping “f bombs” before he knew any better.
Addressing his cousin, he adds: “The very second you challenge that s**t I was kicking,” referring back to a time he stopped a white fan from using the N word during a concert.
“You said Kendrick, ain’t no room for contradiction.”
Fans have praised Lamar for his open conversation about the nature of prejudice in “Auntie Diaries”.
While some criticised Lamar’s choices of language, others argued that he intentionally used misgendering, deadnaming and hateful slurs to illustrate how he wrestled with prejudice in his past to move towards acceptance.
Yo “Auntie Diaries” could be some REAL barrier-breaking stuff in hip-hop. Kendrick talking openly about his aunt and cousin transitioning and “choosing humanity over religion.”
— Khari Thompson (@kdthompson5) May 13, 2022
Auntie Diaries is the first song in major support of the trans community from a rap artist as big as Kendrick and I can't voice how happy I am for it— Agora (@sadboiinfinite) May 13, 2022
https://twitter.com/ndiiyaz/status/1524983538071834631
We are not about to "cancel" Kendrick over Auntie Diaries. The most powerful man in hip-hop wrote a whole song supporting trans rights and acknowledging the homophobia he participated in. In a genre that has a history of homophobia, this moves the convo in the right direction.— albert camus' cigarette (@albertcamusindc) May 13, 2022
https://twitter.com/BornHillsOnly/status/1524974010580275202
Auntie Diaries is a truly barrier-breaking song in hip-hop. Kendrick Lamar is talking openly about his aunt and cousin transitioning and how he “choose humanity over religion.” He is an ally to the #LGBTQ community it’s sad how people make judgements before listening to the song— Free and Paid OF (@JumpGirlBella) May 13, 2022
i think kendrick lamar acknowledging that “i don’t know the right way to say what i want to but i love the trans ppl in my life” is certainly better than the shit that a lot of other ppl say abt trans ppl
— trans masc john fetterman (@s0hfeeyuh) May 13, 2022
“Auntie Diaries” is part of Kendrick Lamar’s new album Mr Morale & The Big Steppers, which is his first LP after winning a Pulitzer Prize for 2017’s Damn.
The 14-time Grammy winner trailed the album with “The Heart Part 5”, the video for which sees Lamar use a series of deepfakes to transform into OJ Simpson, Kanye West, Nipsey Hussle and Kobe Bryant.
In the music video, Kendrick Lamar also transformed into ex-Empire star Jussie Smollett and rapped about playing the victim. He said: “That’s the culture, point the finger, promote ya.”
Smollett was convicted earlier this year for staging a racist, homophobic hate crime against himself. The actor was released from jail in March after serving just six days behind bars as he appeals his sentence.
Mr Morale & The Big Steppers is out now.
