Anderson .Paak was a music artist who I had recognized the name of, but never really sat down and listened to, that is, until he came on my friend’s playlist in the car. It was just one song, but my ears instantly perked up when I heard it: “Lockdown”. At first I was too focused on the amazing R&B instrumental and bobbing my head that I didn’t pay attention to the lyrics until I got back home and listened to the track on my phone.
Rap and hip hop can have superficial lyrics. Ones that aren’t very deep, referencing the same tropes we’ve seen for years: getting money, getting drugs, getting women. And there’s nothing inherently wrong with songs and artists that go this route. These tracks have their place and time, like at parties or when you just want to bump something in the car without thinking too much. However, I generally appreciate artists that delve deeper into politics and social issues with a more expert craft of writing and poeticism. So I was happy to slowly process .Paak’s lyrics and uncover the meaning, educating myself in the process.
“Lockdown” was released on Juneteenth of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and, obviously, subsequent lockdown, as a way to honor the liberation of slaves in America on June 19th, 1865. .Paak details his experience at the Black Lives Matter protests held in Los Angeles during this month, as depicted on both the track’s front and back cover. Many parallels between 1865 and 2020 are drawn in this song, with such lines as: “We just wanna break chains like slaves in the South, Started in the North End but we in the downtown”. Essentialy, .Paak is comparing 19th century slaves’ fight for freedom to the modern fight for freedom of Black and other people of color against systemic racism in America’s domestic policy and leadership.
The main irony that .Paak draws upon, repeated in the chorus, is how “We thought it was a lockdown”, that is, something to keep the people safe. But the term “lockdown” eventually came to symbolize the oppression of minorities, as “lockdown” is a double entendre for police locking up people of color in prison for rioting in the streets. .Paak is taking this lockdown as a challenge, a vehicle to call to action people to rise up. “Time heals all but you out of time now” is a direct statement to police, government officials, and those in power that people are done being bystanders. Paak states in a Genius video that “the consciousness was rising” during these protests.
.Paak also touches on how the media only focuses on condemning the rioting and looting while failing to realize the reasoning behind it, or rather, choosing not to. These government officials and politicians are quick to condemn these acts but “sleep so sound” and stay quiet when police brutality runs rampant in the streets, as they are not affected by this in any way.
However, .Paak also notes that there are many protestors that aren’t attached to the movement that just want to let off that “anarchy vibe”. These people are destructive to the movement, as they contributed to the destruction of locally-owned businesses of people of color. Also destructive to the movement were secret agent police plants who were present to gather information and entice the crowds to commit crimes, just to later pin the blame back on Black Lives Matter. Instead of people of color tearing down their own communities, .Paak believes the aggression should be directed towards richer affluent areas, symbolic of the dismantling of the wealth disparity between the upper and lower class; He says later on in the song that he and his cousin Marcus are going to loot Rodeo Drive, one of the most luxurious shopping locations in the world, because they have the funds and resources to repair the damage immediately like nothing happened.
In conclusion, .Paak recognizes and appreciates the growing power of these social movements and believes we are headed in the right direction, but that we should direct our attention towards those that are holding us down, and not each other.
Sources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgItkJCm09c
https://genius.com/20180822?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOY3EG4sdk0
https://americansongwriter.com/anderson-paak-keeps-moving-on-past-lockdown/
https://www.euphoriazine.com/blog/2020/06/music/tracks-anderson-paak-lockdown/
MCY141-01 (Spring 2022) 