Grammy-award-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar dropped his new album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers today and his new song "Auntie Diaries" is raising eyebrows in the LGBTQ+ community.
Trigger warning: misgendering, deadnaming, and slur usage ahead.
The track details the story of Lamar's two transgender relatives. He opens the track with "My auntie is a man now," a phrase he repeats throughout the rap. He details the point of transition and reactions of his older family members.
"Asked my momma why my uncles don't like him that much/And at the parties why they always wanna fight him that much/She said, "Ain't no tellin'/Niggas always been jealous because he had more women."
Lamar then says he took pride in his uncle's identity because he was "The first person I seen write a rap/That's when my life had changed."
Later in the song, he transitions to a new focus, a cousin. "Demetrius is Mary Ann now," he raps.
"I mean he's really Mary-Ann, even took things further/Changed his gender before Bruce Jenner was certain/Living his truth even if it meant see a surgeon."
He continues on to call out Mary Ann's treatment by the local church who believed her to be an "abomination."
"The day I chose humanity over religion/The family got closer, it was all forgiven."
Lamar also comments on the usage of the f-slur "back when it was comedic relief," he raps, repeating the word several times throughout the song. "We ain't know no better." He ends the track with a realization. "To truly understand love, switch position/'Faggot, faggot, faggot,' we can say it together/But only if you let a white girl say 'Nigga'"
While the lyrics aren't exactly politically correct, Lamar seems well-intentioned and is advocating for an embracing of the transgender community, especially within Black families. "My auntie was a man now, we cool with it/The history had trickled down and made us ign'ant," he summarizes at one point.
Lamar and the track are certainly starting a conversation:
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