**HUMBLE.**
On the ironically braggadocious track "HUMBLE.", Kendrick Lamar challenges his competition. It was released a week after the first promotional single "The Heart Part 04", with a music video directed by Dave Meyers and The Little Homies. It features religious imagery mixed with urban life, such as Kendrick in priest robes and a moving reenactment of Leonardo Da Vinci's painting The Last Supper---juxtaposing this with the concept of humility in the chorus.
On a religious note, the song could also be a reference to the verse James 4:7:
"So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
---Thus linking to April 7th, the date Kendrick told the industry to have their shit together.
Mike WiLL-Made-It produced the beat. It features a deep piano riff and a banging 808 bass line. This style of production is a departure from the sound of Kendrick's previous jazz-influenced project, "To Pimp A Butterfly". It seems to reference Deebo's theme song from the popular comedy movie "Friday (1995)". Kendrick is also shown riding through the neighbourhood on a bicycle in the music video, similar to Deebo in "Friday".
The song debuted as No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 22, 2017, making it not only the highest charting song for Kendrick, but also one of the highest debuting hip-hop singles since "Love The Way You Lie" by Eminem. The song later hit No. 1 on the chart on June 5, 2017 making it Lamar's first solo No. 1 song and second No. 1 song overall on the charts.
Citation:
Kendrick Lamar-HUMBLE. [Track No. 8 on DAMN.]
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