He was just a kid with potential, but still in an institutionalized mentality. Kendrick explains that Snoop’s verse is actually his grandmother’s advice to him and reveals more on it. People look up to these guys and in the meanwhile, they lose themselves. Kendrick doesn’t understand why rappers would make it big and just spend it all out.
Snoop calls back to when Kendrick was just a kid and his conversation with a friend at a show they went to. Change in an individual’s life comes with proper intention and action. And success, whether in becoming wealthy or accomplishing one’s dreams, can change the people around them, but it can’t change the core of who they are unless they let it. Life can eat you up, but you’ll always get something good for the bad events that occur to you, however, this won’t happen unless you’re making an effort to get better or become the best of yourself. He would help his mother live better, his old friends too, and just get high in the White House if he ever was president. People can get “institutionalized” or being put into a certain mindset that essentially traps you like how Kendrick had the ghetto in him. Your environments help mold you into the type of person you’ll become. Kendrick struggles with not being able to leave his past behind, although sometimes he’s happy he hasn’t forgotten where he came from, even if he’s not proud to admit it. “I remembered you was conflicted, misusing your influence.” The song ends with the beginning of Kendrick’s poem. He’d rather be a bum than let greed take priority in his life. “The yam (money) is the power that be.” Money runs the world. Yam yields were used in the society from this novel to determine the value of the men populating it. Rap genius helped me connect his mention of yams to Things Fall Apart (wow, haven’t read that since high school). These butterflies have to watch out of these kinds of people. Those who fall into the traps of the commercialization of hip hop are “pimped out” and sometimes get ghost writers, ultimately quieting their voice for artistic creation. People in the industry are also trying to "pimp him out", but he sees right through their deceit. He’s upset because there are others who claim his crown in the hip/hop industry, but it’s his with this album (I agree). "Kunta Kinte was an 18th century slave in Virginia whose story is the basis of the novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family.” King Kunta seems like a reference to Kendrick’s past and now he’s on top of it all, rising from the “belly of beast from a peasant to a prince to a motherfuckin’ king.” (Thanks rap genius) Notice how the title is an oxymoron. Her uncle is America and Kendrick compares the relationship to blacks and this country. You ain’t no king.” The girl is the temptation of living like a king. She replies with “I’mma get my Uncle Sam to fuck you up. He’s got value in himself and he’s not selling out any time soon. THIS DICK AIN’T FREE! This girl’s going off on Kendrick because he hasn’t been the “baller ass nigga” she wants. Kendrick is especially referencing jazz poetry from the 1920’s Harlem Renaissance and the beat generation in the 1950’s through his jazz influenced instrumentation and poems. Griots were storytellers/musicians who lived and still live West Africa, dating back to the 14th century.
Something new I realized was that these particular parts of songs where Kendrick speaks over music is calling back straight to the roots of hip hop (going back home right?). He hasn’t let his greed best him and is being careful to not lose everything. They are telling him he can get it all and live a lavish life, but he’s stayed true to himself. Those who signed Kendrick could give him so much money. However, although he got huge in seemingly an instant, it can also disappear just as fast. No college and he’s gotten rich, just like that. He even wants to buy some M-16’s and pass them out in his neighborhood to take over the White House as seen from the album cover. He tells his character’s perspective from how he’ll be when he gets signed onto a major label, going out to clubs and “treatin’ yo self” with lots of material wealth. In March of 2012 Kendrick was signed onto Interscope Records and Aftermath Entertainment. The hook takes off with Kendrick describing his love for fame and making it big at first, eventually turning into lust and then being destroyed. They begin in their cocoons as butterflies, slipping out onto a journey of self-realization and fighting against losing yourself to those who "pimp" you. “Every nigga is a star." Anyone can be successful, to accomplish great things.