Say it Loud: Kendrick Lamar’s ‘TV Off’
Embodied improvisation… is actuated through repetition (Recollet 2016; Dillon 2012). The repetition in James Brown’s (songs) use algorithms that generate and disrupt rhythmic patterns, as mentioned in chapter 3. Rap group Public Enemy used this method when sampling “Cold Sweat” in “Welcome to the Terrordome,” which was later resampled in A Tribe Called Red’s “Stadium Pow Wow.” — Dr. Nettrice Gaskins
Seconds into first hearing Kendrick Lamar’s “TV Off” from the GNX album I knew it would be my favorite. “TV Off” emerged as one of the standout tracks on Lamar’s album, mainly due to its sonic resemblance to the Mustard-produced “Not Like Us”, released late last year. While the song is noted for Lamar yelling Mustard’s name as a transition between two parts, there are also other important aspects to make notes of. To get to these elements we have to first start with James Brown’s “Say It Loud — I’m Black and I’m Proud,” is a classic funk song.
‘Say It Loud’ was Brown’s call-to-action to the Black community in the late 1960s. In the song, Brown addresses racism against Black Americans, and the need for Black empowerment. He proclaims that “we demand a chance to do things for ourself” and that “we’re tired of beating our head against the wall and workin’ for someone else.” The song’s call-and-response chorus was performed by children, who responded to Brown’s command of “Say it loud” with “I’m black and I’m proud!” The song was recorded in a Los Angeles area suburb with dozens of young people from Watts and Compton, which is where rapper Kendrick Lamar was born and raised.
I always stand in the root of where I’m from. — Kendrick Lamar
Over 50 years later, Kendrick released a song that reminded me of the first time I heard “Say It Loud” when I was a kid. However, the first James Brown link can be found “King Kunta,” a song from the 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly. Describing the track, Lamar explained that it was, “the story of struggle and standing up for what you believe in. No matter how many barriers you gotta break down, no matter how many escape routes you gotta run to tell the truth. That’s what I think we all can relate to.”
Ain’t no other kings in this rap thing, they siblings
Nothing but my children, one shot they disappearing… — Notorious B.I.G./Kendrick Lamar
Another song referenced in “TV Off” is “Kick in the Door” by the late Notorious B.I.G., which a long-time favorite of mine. The song feels like a call-to-action, as well. It begins with a skit, a crash out from a fictional “mad rapper” who feels like he’s been disrespected and passed over by the music industry. Then, you hear this part of the spoken intro to the song:
I gots to talk
I gotta tell what I feel
I gotta talk about my life as I see it
The primary sample used in “Kick in the Door” is from Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put a Spell on You” (1956). Although the original is a blues song the way producer DJ Premiere sampled it using his signature ‘boom bap’ style made “Kick in the Door” sound more like a funk song. Also, Hawkins (and James Brown) were known for the improvisational ‘screams’ they added in their songs, which also happened with Kendrick Lamar in “TV Off,” which was produced by Los Angeles-based DJ Mustard. Midway through the song, Kendrick goes ‘super saiyan’ and screams “MUSTARD!” In the the Dragon Ball series of manga (cartoons), super saiyan refers to a powerful transformation that is unlocked through intense emotions.
The screams in these songs, as well as beats/tempos, evoke ideas about embodied improvisation. Improvisation is a practice of renewed perception; of sensing, feeling and acting anew. In psychology, it is typically conceived as a creative process without a script or anticipated preparation (Gueugnon et al., 2016a, b). Improvisation is one of three modes of techno-vernacular creativity, a term I coined to capture the creative engagements of historically marginalized groups in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics).
Note: PBS recently released a documentary on the history of funk music, during which different musicians describe improvisation.
Funk music is improvisational. The repetitive nature of the music is the foundation of rap/hip-hop. As mentioned in the top quote, embodied improvisation is actuated through repetition. In my book, I wrote:
Embodied improvisation is an aesthetic and epistemic act, a form of bodily poeticizing that encompasses knowledge that is “intuitive, somatic, affective, and cognitive” (Lockford and Pelias 2004, 431).
Scholars have noted the importance of improvisation through repetition in Black art, literature and culture. I applied the ideas of late scholar James A. Snead — set out in his 1984 essay “Repetition as a figure in black culture” — to funk music and technology. A producer’s aesthetic impulse to remix content through repetition includes an iterative process of returning to a previous series or sequence in a song before continuing the performance. Snead highlights the first funk song “Cold Sweat” by James Brown:
Once this groove is established, there is a sharp break, and a new tempo is set up with new horn and vocal patterns. Another cut occurs when we hear punchy horns and Brown’s delivery of the song title: ‘I break out’ — bemp, bemp, bemp, bemp — ‘in a cold sweat!’ — bemp, bemp, bemp, tonktonk, BREAAAH. And we then return to the initial groove. The song’s pattern is A-B-A-B-A, with cuts as the markers of transition.
You can hear ‘improvisation through repetition’ in “TV Off,” not just in the way Mustard composed the music but also in the way that Kendrick Lamar performs in the song. He repeats several phrases (ex. ‘it’s not enough’, ‘turn his TV off’, ‘but somebody gotta do it’) throughout the song and adds breaks (ex. ‘ayy’, ‘huh’, ‘Mustard’). As Kendrick said he is clearly a student of funk music and is constantly tapping into the energy that created it.
References
Gaskins, N. R. (2021). Techno-Vernacular Creativity and Innovation: Culturally Relevant Making Inside and Outside of the Classroom. The MIT Press.
Gueugnon, M., Salesse, R. N., Coste, A., Zhao, Z., Bardy, B. G., and Marin, L. (2016a). Postural coordination during socio-motor improvisation. Front. Psychol. 7:1168. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01168
Gueugnon, M., Salesse, R. N., Coste, A., Zhao, Z., Bardy, B. G., and Marin, L. (2016b). The acquisition of socio-motor improvisation in the mirror game. Hum. Mov. Sci. 46, 117–128. doi: 10.1016/j.humov.2015.12.005
Lockford, L, & Pelias, R. (2004). Bodily Poeticizing in Theatrical Improvisation: A Typology of Performative Knowledge. Theatre Topics 14:431–443.
Snead, J. A. (1984). Repetition as a Figure of Black Culture. In
Black Literature and Literary Theory, edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The MIT Press.