Kendrick Lamar's music video for his song "Element" from his album "DAMN." depicts his difficult struggle to rise from Compton, California as a famous rapper. The opening shot shows Lamar's hand rising from water, symbolizing his hard work to overcome Compton's gang culture. Throughout the video, the same child represents how Lamar's upbringing in Compton still influences him. Scenes show the child with his father learning to fight, alluding to the need to protect oneself in Compton from a young age. The video illustrates themes from Lamar's lyrics of overcoming challenges through his own efforts.

1. Music Video Analysis

2. Kendrick Lamar:
Element
• Element is a new song from Kendrick Lamar’s new
album ‘DAMN’. Kendrick Lamar is a world famous
rapper from the west coast, more specifically
Compton. Compton is a very large focal point in many
of Kendrick Lamar’s songs, where he discusses the
troubles of living there as well as being thankful for
being able to grow up in a period of Compton that had
many influential black people he could look up to, as
they told the world their experiences of being a
minority group. These influential people include other
rap artists such as N.W.A, Tupac and Snoop Dogg. This
is a feature of Goodwin’s theory of genre conventions.
A lot of rappers have spoken about where they have
come from in their music and how their music have
been shaped by what people listen to in their cities,
(examples include Chance the Rapper and Vic Mensa
talking about Chicago; Andre 3000, Lil’ Yachty and
Gucci Mane; and rappers such as Nas, J Cole and Jay Z
from the east coast.)

3. Kendrick Lamar:
Element
The establishing shot of the music video shows a hand rising out of
what seems to be the ocean or a river. Slow motion may have been
used to highlight Kendrick Lamar’s slow and difficult struggle to
become the world famous rapper he is today. By using a hand rising
out of water it suggests that all of Kendrick’s life he has had to work
for everything he has. The ocean could have been used to suggest that
it would have been easy for Kendrick to give up and ‘drown’ in the
chaotic life of Compton’s gang culture. This is another example of one
of Goodwin’s features, due to the illustrative relationship between the
lyrics and the music video. Furthermore there is an amplified
relationship between the music and the visuals, this is because for the
first 10 seconds of the song, there is only Lamar’s voice and some very
quiet backing vocals. This amplifies the music video by reflecting the
silence you would hear if you were submerged in water. By only
Kendrick’s voice being heard this amplifies the meaning behind the
song (Lamar recalling how he got to the place where he is today by
doing it himself).

4. Kendrick
Lamar: Element
• Further in the song Kendrick references
religion again “put my bible down and go eye to
eye for this shit” This is a part of Kendrick
Lamar’s iconography, who uses these cultural
references as well as expressing his devotion for
God in numerous songs (and has thanked his
grandma for teaching him about Christianity).
Most notably in the song “YAH” when he says
“I’m an Israelite, don’t call me black no mo”. By
saying he believes he is a Israelite could be a
reference to the black Hebrew Israelites who
believed they were descendants of Jacob (also
known as Israel). Another feature of this part of
the song, is a low angled medium shot of the
artist. This may be a demand of the record label
(TDE) as they want to include the stars image in
the video, to increase sales and also to reinforce
the fact that the story Lamar is telling is a
personal story and not fiction.

5. Kendrick Lamar: Element
• Throughout the video we see the same
child in contrasting scenarios. We first see
the child standing in a medium close up side
portrait, this shot is followed by a match cut
to Lamar in the same position. This could be
suggesting to the audience that everything
that Lamar saw as a child still haunts him,
which again highlights the struggle him and
his family have had. We see him again with
his presumed father learning to fight. This is
another Goodwin feature, that illustrates
the relationship between the lyrics and
video which shows Lamar standing up and
challenging anyone who threatens him. This
alludes to the audience that you need to
know how to protect yourself from young
age if you want to survive in Compton.