EXORDIUM.
A rhetorical situation can take many forms, song being one such form. Kendrick Lamar’s entire discography proves this, since his music manifests rhetorical situations in which he encourages his audience down certain life paths. Up until his Pulitzer-prize-winning album DAMN., his audience appeared to be the rest of the black community. However, it’s clear that his audience on DAMN. has shifted to encompass all of America. No song on the album embodies this as well as “XXX. FT. U2.” “XXX.” implores our nation to take a careful look at ourselves as a people and see how our uniquely American way of thinking has also led to uniquely American problems in our society. The exordium of “XXX.” leads off this argument perfectly, in the attention-grabbing style that Lamar is known for in his musical rhetoric.
The introduction of “XXX.” stands out at first in purely sonic fashion. The lead-off of the song is soft and gentle – we hear slow synths, soon accompanied by a chorus of voices, auto-tuned to be much deeper than they are. The effect of voice distortions is too often monstrous, but the editing in this case serves to emphasize the soothing quality of the singing. With these voices purring to us and backed by such spare instrumentation, we as an audience are lulled into serenity. Having found this serenity in the music, we are convinced that listening to the rest of the song is worthwhile. The rest will likely follow this pattern of being pleasing to the ear and calming to the soul… right?
We believe this feeling will be maintained because the lyrics of the introduction also serve to underline the sense of tranquility. The lyrics are:
America, God bless you if it’s good to you
America, please take my hand
Can you help me underst-
There is a reason for the last word being cut off in the middle, but we’ll get to that in a moment. For now, it’s simply clear to see that the lyrics preserve the tender energy of the introduction (alongside the music itself). Lamar is addressing America directly in these lyrics, saying “God bless you”, and “please take my hand”. Both of these are kind, compassionate phrases. Even “Can you help me underst- “, while signifying a certain disconnect between the singers and America, still is attempting to good-naturedly reach out to America as an audience. “…if it’s good to you” adds somewhat of a backhanded element to the words “God bless you”, and is our first sign of what the rest of the song truly holds. But on a first listen, we aren’t likely to catch such subtle word choice.
Finally, the last word of this introduction – “understand” – is cut off by the sound of a gunshot. This transitions us into the rest of the song, and finally reveals its true nature in a violent fashion. This ending is crucial to the rest of the introduction’s strength. If the introduction were to calmly trail off into Lamar’s rapping, the effect wouldn’t be the same. In using a gunshot to end the introduction abruptly, Lamar takes advantage of our mental states, which up until now, have been lulled into false comfort by the pleasant rest of the introduction. This speaks to the rest of the song and his argument as a whole – that America has been lulled into a false sense of security and needs to be woken up, on a much grander scale than just a song.
