On first listen, 27-year-old Kendrick Lamar’s latest single “i” seems like the polar opposite of his 2012 breakout LP, good kid, m.A.A.d city. While that LP sprawled through Compton’s streets in a musical haze of smoke, this single coils itself around a classic Isley Brothers sample (from 1973’s “That Lady”). While that LP offered a glimpse of street life but demanded its listener construct his or her own message from the tale, this single’s rousing chorus of “I love myself” seems so obvious that Slate’s critic calls it “a sort of rap game ‘Happy’.” Despite this single’s unexpected brightness, however, “i” expands on a message we’ve heard from Lamar before.
In fact, buried beneath the optimism that a refrain of “I love myself” might conjure is the same idea we found in good kid, m.A.A.d city’s “Real” featuring Anna Wise. One of the revelatory points of the album, that song is an exploration the fact that the realness of knowing and loving yourself trumps money, status, and power (sample lyrics include “You love your ‘hood, might even love it to death / But what love got to do with it when you don’t love yourself?”). In “i” we hear Lamar offer the same message in a larger context, suggesting that self-awareness and love might be a way to combat the many ills of today’s world. Or in other words, while this song may sound too upbeat to contain the depth we’re used to from Lamar, it’s not. It’s just a hell of a lot more radio-friendly.