At the end of the track, Lamar talks about his suicidal thoughts once in a hotel room "I didn't wanna self-destruct. According to the lyrics, as Lamar gets bigger so does Lucy: "ain't a profit big enough to feed you". Lamar introduced the character "Lucy", who plays an essential role in the remainder of the album. In an interview with MTV News, Lamar said it was inspired by his trip to South Africa, witnessing other people's problems in the country: "their struggle was ten times harder." The track opens with lines from Alice Walker's The Color Purple, "Alls my life, I had to fight". The hook, "We gon' be alright!" allowed Lamar to use the symbolism inherent to spur the rest of the song's lyrics that eventually resonated with an entire movement. ( November 2020) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)Īfter creating the beat, Pharrell Williams came up with a hook six months later, which inspired Lamar to find the right lyrics. Please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links, and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view.
This article contains content that is written like an advertisement. It was performed by Lamar in the Super Bowl LVI halftime show on February 13, 2022. In 2019, it was named the best song of the 2010s by Pitchfork. The song was associated with Black Lives Matter after several youth-led protests were heard chanting the chorus, with some publications such as Rolling Stone, People, and Complex calling "Alright" the "unifying soundtrack" of the movement.
It was also nominated for a MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year. "Alright" received four nominations at the 58th Grammy Awards: Song of the Year, Best Music Video, Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song, winning the latter two. Most music publications considered it among the best songs and videos of the year, highlighting their message in the social context of the time. "Alright" was released to radio stations as the album's fourth single on June 30, 2015. Lyrically a festive song about hope amid personal struggles, it features uncredited vocals from the song's co-producer Pharrell Williams during the chorus. " Alright" is a song by American rapper Kendrick Lamar, taken from his third studio album, To Pimp a Butterfly (2015).