--- title: Kendrick Lamar: The Blacker the Berry Annotated by Michael Chabon description: The Pulitzer Prize-winning author takes on Lamar’s "The Blacker the Berry." canonical: https://time.com/3704782/michael-chabon-kendrick-lamar-blacker-the-berry/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-11T20:52:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:16:45.180Z og:title: A Pulitzer Prize Winner Just Annotated Kendrick Lamar's New Song on Genius og:description: The Pulitzer Prize-winning author takes on Lamar’s "The Blacker the Berry." og:url: https://time.com/3704782/michael-chabon-kendrick-lamar-blacker-the-berry/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c40dd98b28040d3/69877e9dcd1bba62256f5253/469633519.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2741 og:image:height: 1542 og:image:alt: State Farm All-Star Saturday Night - NBA All-Star Weekend 2014 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Pulitzer Prize Winner Just Annotated Kendrick Lamar's New Song on Genius twitter:description: The Pulitzer Prize-winning author takes on Lamar’s "The Blacker the Berry." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c40dd98b28040d3/69877e9dcd1bba62256f5253/469633519.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Pulitzer Prize Winner Just Annotated Kendrick Lamar's New Song on Genius > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Feb 11, 2015 8:52 PM UTC  Musician Kendrick Lamar performs onstage at the State Farm All-Star Saturday Night during the NBA All-Star Weekend 2014 at The Smoothie King Center on February 15, 2014 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Musician Kendrick Lamar performs onstage at the State Farm All-Star Saturday Night during the NBA All-Star Weekend 2014 at The Smoothie King Center on February 15, 2014 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Kevin Mazur—WireImage by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Feb 11, 2015 8:52 PM UTC Kendrick Lamar’s new song “The Blacker the Berry” is a politically charged rap anthem race that touches on the murder of Trayvon Martin and the young rapper’s feelings about gang violence in the United States. It’s a powerful piece of rhetoric that shows off the impressive lyrical skill that has earned Lamar some big name fans, including Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon. The author of _The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay_ and _Telegraph Avenue_ [took to Genius](http://genius.com/4869068/Kendrick-lamar-the-blacker-the-berry/So-why-did-i-weep-when-trayvon-martin-was-in-the-street-when-gang-banging-make-me-kill-a-nigga-blacker-than-me-hypocrite) — the annotation site that recently received [millions](http://fortune.com/2014/07/11/rap-genius-name-funding-embeddable/) in investment money — to comment on the song’s forceful final stanza. In his annotation, Chabon connects Lamar’s lyrical twist to Common’s in “I Used to Love H.E.R.” and calls the “rhetorical move” he uses “devastating.” He [writes](http://genius.com/4869068/Kendrick-lamar-the-blacker-the-berry/So-why-did-i-weep-when-trayvon-martin-was-in-the-street-when-gang-banging-make-me-kill-a-nigga-blacker-than-me-hypocrite), “Common’s ‘her’ is not a woman but hip hop itself; Lamar’s ‘I’ is not (or not only) Kendrick Lamar but his community as a whole. This revelation forces the listener to a deeper and broader understanding of the song’s ‘you’.” “The Blacker the Berry” is expected to appear on Lamar’s highly anticipated follow-up to 2012’s _good kid, m.A.A.d. city_. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3704782/michael-chabon-kendrick-lamar-blacker-the-berry/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3704782/michael-chabon-kendrick-lamar-blacker-the-berry/"},"headline":"A Pulitzer Prize Winner Just Annotated Kendrick Lamar's New Song on Genius","datePublished":"2015-02-11T20:52:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:16:45.180Z","description":"The Pulitzer Prize-winning author takes on Lamar’s \"The Blacker the Berry.\"","url":"https://time.com/3704782/michael-chabon-kendrick-lamar-blacker-the-berry/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Music","rap","Kendrick Lamar"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c40dd98b28040d3/69877e9dcd1bba62256f5253/469633519.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c40dd98b28040d3/69877e9dcd1bba62256f5253/469633519.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"State Farm All-Star Saturday Night - NBA All-Star Weekend 2014","caption":"State Farm All-Star Saturday Night - NBA All-Star Weekend 2014","creditText":"Kevin Mazur—WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3704782/michael-chabon-kendrick-lamar-blacker-the-berry/","name":"A Pulitzer Prize Winner Just Annotated Kendrick Lamar's New Song on Genius"}}]}] ```