Kendrick Lamar Shares Heavy Message For Nipsey Hussle’s Killer On "The Heart Part 5"

Music

| LAST UPDATE 05/09/2022

By Mahlik Campbell
Kendrick Lamar
Kendrick Lamar via YouTube

With Kendrick Lamar's new album arriving this Friday, he's stirring up hype with "The Heart Part 5," his first solo single in four years. K.Dot even transforms into the late Nipsey Hussle and shares a message for his killer.

Kendrick and Nipsey are two of the greatest artists to ever represent Southern California. K.Dot grew up in Compton, which is about 30 minutes away from Nip's neighborhood of Crenshaw.

They grew close when they hit the road back in 2008 for an unpaid tour with Compton's The Game.

Years later, they made their respect for one another official with a monster collab called "Dedication." One highlight in Kendrick's verse that "inspired" Nip is when he rapped the below lyrics about chopping it up at the 2017 premiere for 'All Eyez on Me,' a movie about Tupac Shakur's life.

"I'm at the premiere politickin' with Top, Nip, and Snoop / Damn, Pac watchin' the way we grew, from dedication," he said.

Sadly, Nipsey was shot and killed outside of The Marathon Clothing Store – a brand he owned – in Crenshaw in 2019, shocking the hip-hop world. K.Dot breaks his silence on the matter for the first time in "The Heart Part 5" where he writes from the perspective of Nip from the afterlife.

"As I bleed through the speakers, feel my presence / To my brother, to my kids, I'm in Heaven / To my mother, to my sis, I'm in Heaven / To my father, to my wife, I am serious, this is Heaven," he raps.

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Notably, Kendrick addresses Nipsey's alleged killer named Eric Holder Jr., who's set to go to trial later this month for murder and other charges related to the shooting. In fact, K.Dot forgives him for the terrible act, alluding to the idea that he was motivated by a deep sense of pain.

"And to the killer that sped up my demise / I forgive you, just know your soul's in question / I seen the pain in your pupil when that trigger had squeezed."

Kendrick also tries to offer a sense of closure for Nipsey's family, friends and fans: "Though you did me gruesome, I was surely relieved / I completed my mission, wasn't ready to leave / But fulfilled my days, my Creator was pleased."

Just before his Nipsey tribute, K.Dot shows love to another fallen LA legend: Kobe Bryant.

Recall that Dot narrated a Nike-produced tribute to Kobe to celebrate what would've been his 42nd birthday in 2020. His message then was all about how Kobe taught people to be "better."

There are rumors that Kendrick's long-awaited fifth studio album 'Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers' might be a double album AND take the form of a book, as he recently shared the below photo.

Interestingly, he said in a 2017 interview with The Breakfast Club that he prefers to talk to people instead of reading books.