Hip hop legend Kendrick Lamar dropped one of the most anticipated albums of the last few years last night in ‘Mr. Morale And The Big Steppers’. The album is the long-awaited follow-up to his critical and commercial success, ‘DAMN’, which came out in 2017.
Fans from all over the world have been praising Lamar’s album and the incredible songs he put out. And one song seems to reference two of the NBA’s most polarizing figures.
In his song ‘Savior’, which features Baby Keem and Sam Dew, Kendrick Lamar references Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James in the opening lines, saying that James’ incredible play has forced fans to give him his flowers now. Later in the song (1:35 onwards), when elucidating his thoughts on the COVID-19 vaccine, Lamar references Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving, who famously refused to get vaccinated to comply with the New York City vaccine mandate, and was banned from playing home games until the mandate was lifted.
‘Bron made you give his flowers, but he is not your savior
He is not your savior
Seen a Christian say the vaccine mark of the beast
Then he caught COVID and prayed to Pfizer for relief
Then I caught COVID and started to question Kyrie
Will I stay organic or hurt in this bed for two weeks? (You really wanna know?)
Kendrick seemingly hinted at questioning Kyrie’s decision to not take the vaccine, especially after he contracted COVID-19 and was feeling the effects of it. But there is no targeted comment that Lamar made aimed at Irving.
As for LeBron James, Kendrick is presumably showing his respect for LeBron James. Lamar, who grew up in Los Angeles, is a massive Laker fan.
LeBron is not the only prominent Laker that Kendrick Lamar referenced recently, as he featured Kobe Bryant in his video and on the cover for his song ‘The Heart Pt. 5’. Lamar ‘deepfaked’ Kobe’s face onto his own body while rapping. When it comes to LeBron James and Kyrie Irving though, it would be interesting to see if and how they choose to respond to the references from Kendrick Lamar.
