Video will appear as you scroll through the story
Kendrick Lamar · S4 E7
Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst
Twelve minutes. Three perspectives. The emotional core of the album and maybe his entire career
Twelve minutes. Kendrick steps into the voices of three people who will not survive long enough to tell their own stories, and records the most emotionally devastating track of his career.
2Pac, Changes (official music video, 1998). Released two years after Tupac's murder, "Changes" asks whether Black communities will ever escape the cycle of violence and poverty. Fourteen years later, Kendrick asks the same question on "Sing About Me," but from the ground level.
Two Songs in One
"Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst" is two songs stitched into a single twelve-minute epic. The first half contains three verses from different narrators: a murdered friend's brother, a girl trapped in sex work, and Kendrick himself asking if his music will outlive him. The second half is the spiritual reckoning that follows, ending with a prayer that transforms the entire album.
Changes, 2Pac (1998)
Released posthumously, "Changes" samples Bruce Hornsby's "The Way It Is" and transforms a folk-pop melody into a meditation on systemic racism and violence. Tupac's delivery is conversational, almost tired, like a man who has said these things so many times he no longer expects anyone to listen. This is the direct ancestor of "Sing About Me": where Tupac asks whether society will change, Kendrick asks whether anyone will remember the individuals caught in the crossfire.
“That song is the most honest I've ever been. I wasn't rapping. I was channeling people I know, people I grew up with, people who don't have a microphone. If I don't tell their stories, nobody will.”
— Kendrick Lamar, interview with Complex, 2012
TAP TO REVEAL: Who performs the prayer at the end of "I'm Dying of Thirst"?
What earlier Kendrick song is directly connected to one of the narrators in "Sing About Me"?
Keisha's Song (Her Pain), Kendrick Lamar
"Keisha's Song" from Section.80 tells the story of a teenage girl caught in sex trafficking in Compton, with storytelling so vivid it feels like a short film. On "Sing About Me," one of the three narrators directly responds to this song, confronting Kendrick for putting Keisha's story on a record without her permission. Listen to this before "Sing About Me" and the second verse hits completely differently.
The prayer ends and the album is finished. On October 22, 2012, good kid, m.A.A.d city debuts at number two on the Billboard 200, loses the Grammy for Best Rap Album to Macklemore, and wins everything else that matters.
0 XP earned this session