00:00So sick and tired of the Photoshop, show me something natural like Everol with your pride,
00:09show me something natural like ass with some stretch marks, still it'll take you down right
00:14on your mama. Kendrick Lamar's new song Humble has everyone buzzing, but some believe the video
00:19and lyrics are problematic, mainly because he criticizes the use of Photoshop and says he
00:24likes, quote, ass with some stretch marks. So today's viewer poll is this. What offends
00:30you about Kendrick's video? A, the video, B, the lyrics, or C, not a damn thing. I know
00:37how I'm voting. Use hashtag Essence Live to vote and we'll read the results later in the
00:41show. Here to talk about all the backlash to Kendrick's Humble are Amber J. Phillips of
00:48the Black Joy Mixtape, Christina Brown of Love Me Some Brown Sugar, and I love that Dove
00:54commercial. Thank you. I use that. I use that. I'm not proud of it. And via Skype is SSLive
00:59viewer, Sojourner Ellaby. Hey, Sojourner. Hello. How are you guys doing? Good. Welcome to
01:05the show, ladies. All right. So let's get started with these initial reactions. Sojourner, I'm
01:10going to talk to you first. What did you think of Kendrick's song and video for Humble?
01:14Well, my answer is C, not a damn thing. I love me some Kendrick. I thought the visuals
01:19were amazing. That particular lyric section, I didn't see anything wrong with it. So I
01:25was very surprised to hear a lot of the backlash she was receiving.
01:29Yeah, I know. Were you guys surprised?
01:31I was totally surprised. When I first saw the video, I loved it. I thought it was so great
01:38for him to bring up a topic that we don't talk about a lot and something that's a relevant
01:43conversation to have. That's what you're supposed to do with your art. So I loved it. And I think,
01:49it's great that he has opened up this kind of conversation about women embracing who they
01:55are naturally and not feeling like they have to put on a mask in order to feel beautiful.
02:00That's what my platform is about. So I loved it.
02:03Okay, cool. And what were your initial thoughts?
02:05I thought the video was great, but I also understood the backlash. I think it wasn't a surprise to
02:11me because Kendrick Lamar has been pushed around how he talks about black women, how he represents
02:17them in his videos since ever. And I think there's another moment where black women saw an opportunity
02:23of, like, Kendrick, you're there when it comes to supporting black men and telling the story
02:28of black men from Compton and giving us anthems. However, you could do a lot more when it comes
02:32to your gender analysis and your videos as well.
02:36Okay. Christina, a lot of people said they thought Kendrick was trying to police
02:40women's beauty with the comments about wanting a natural woman. So what are your thoughts on that?
02:45I don't think he was trying to police anything. I think he was speaking his mind. You know, I have
02:51been in relationships, for example, where the men would tell me that they like how I look without
02:55my makeup and with my natural hair, without all that stuff. So I know there are a lot of men out
03:00there that feel that way. And so I think he was just speaking his mind. And I have to appreciate
03:05that because it takes a lot of the stress away from us who feel like we have to get up every
03:11single day and put on all this stuff and Photoshop and be perfect in every social media photo. So
03:17I appreciated it. That line about the booty and the stretch marks, because TMI has a stretch mark
03:23for booty. Stretch marks are great and booties are great. Yes. So I was like, oh, Kendrick's gonna like
03:29take my booties away. If it ever happened, you know, you know. So let's talk about colorism.
03:35We spotted this tweet from at Sarah. I can't believe Kendrick wrote that whole tip ass song
03:41about a woman and put a girl in a wet and wavy rig in the video. Hmm. Wait, I can't. Sojourner,
03:47did you think, did the selection of the light skinned girl in the video affect your views on
03:51it? Honestly, I don't because whether light skin or dark skin, at the end of the day, you're
03:57still a black woman, whether you have curly hair, whether you have kinky hair, straight hair, perm,
04:01relax, whatever you have, that still makes you a black woman. So I don't think that took away from
04:05the message at all, actually. No. Amber, as I mentioned, the video received a lot of backlash
04:11from feminists like yourself. Do you agree with some of the points or understand why they may have
04:16taken offense to the video? I absolutely do. I think Kendrick is talking about desirability,
04:21right? We're talking about who we're dating. And I think black women specifically coming from this
04:26feminist perspective of it's not, it's still not up to Kendrick Lamar to decide what's beautiful,
04:32that black women actually have been doing that for quite some time now. Specifically black women
04:37MCs have been talking about different types of bodies. We have Tokyo, Tokyo vanity. We have a lot of
04:43black women who push for what they want to see. And if he wants to push back against Photoshop,
04:49that actually means representing more varieties of women, not the type of woman who actually isn't,
04:54people are Photoshopped to look like her. Most women who are Photoshopped kind of look like
05:00or Gabourey Sidibe. Those are the women with the pressure to fit into society and to fit in to these
05:07beauty standards. And I think Kendrick Lamar tried, but he still made the conversation very narrow.
05:12What I liked was the social media aspect of it because, you know, when you're on Instagram late
05:17at night and you start seeing all these Insta models and all this stuff, it kind of starts messing with
05:21your head. But here he was, he was kind of like ripping a bandaid, if you will, off something that
05:26doesn't get to talk about, especially a celebrity or artist of his caliber to say that out there.
05:32So Amber, we're in a new period of activism as a feminist. How do you think social media is helping
05:38or hurting? I think social media, if artists like Kendrick Lamar listen, it's an opportunity for him
05:46to grow. What we know is even when Beyonce started to talk about feminism, she was pushed even further
05:51to talk about black feminism. And now we have Solange and now we have Lemonade in formation.
05:57So I think if Kendrick Lamar really wants to push this conversation around black women,
06:01I would love to hear him speak out and call out XXL around their freshman class, always being male
06:08emcees. If we want more representation of different types of black women in hip hop, we need more women
06:15emcees to be talking about breaking the modes around Photoshop and around what our bodies look like.
06:20So I call him to do that, to actually take a step back and make more room for women to talk about
06:25what they want to see. That's true. Sojourner, back to you. What are your friends saying about the video?
06:31You know, my friends, I seem to be the lone wolf. A lot of people seem to also have a lot of negative
06:36things to say, but I really just saw it as Kendrick giving his preference. And you know, a lot of times
06:42in today's media days and with social media, like you said scrolling on Instagram, we see so many images of
06:49women that are covered in makeup, have weave and plastic surgery. And there is absolutely nothing
06:54wrong with that. I don't think he condemned them, but I think it shows the message that says for young
06:59girls, like you said, I'll accept you with your afro. Tiger stripes, Drexmark, whatever you have,
07:05I love it and I'm here for it. So I saw it as an uplifting message. I didn't see him trying to tear down the
07:10women who do choose to wear weaves or, you know, wear makeup or whatever the case may be. I thought it was
07:15just a positive. Girl, I love you just the way you are. And I loved it. I loved it. My friends,
07:21maybe not so much, but we'll have plenty of conversations about that.
07:24Maybe he'll be sending his video directly to Tyrese. Okay.
07:27Hey, Kayla. And I hear you have a birthday. You had a birthday?
07:31Yes, I did yesterday. Happy birthday. Thank you.
07:35So what are they saying on social media? Very vocal. Lots of votes for C coming in. So we asked,
07:39what offends you about the Kendrick Lamar video? A, the video. B, the lyrics. C,
07:43not a damn thing. So lots of votes for C coming in. Sweetness Dixon says, not at all. He has the
07:47right to say what he wants. So I agree with the lyrics. Valerie McCullough says, no problem at all.
07:53It's art. Hashtag love. Riri says, I agree with what I just heard. We have to learn to love ourselves,
07:58just how God created us. Too often we are trying to conform to an image that society says is okay.
08:03Our children need to know that they should be comfortable with who they are.
08:06We are all beautiful. You know, people had jokes though. So Ariel Marie from Twitter says,
08:14he literally, literally had a sugar brown mama, a reference to the model in the video
08:18with the Brazilian body wave frontal on while he's talking about show me that kinky Afro girl
08:23laughing with tears emoji. So some people weren't here for it. Tina Curry also wasn't here for it. She
08:28said, tired of men saying what they're tired of. Leave women alone. If you as women wear makeup,
08:33fine. If not, great. Does it matter? Yes, ma'am. We asked what offends you most about Kendrick Lamar's
08:39Humble. And you said
08:42zero percent for A. B is two percent. Be humble. Sit down. I clearly need my glasses. And 98 percent for C.
08:53Nothing. I'm with y'all. 98 percent wins.
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