Under the shade of his money tree
How Kendrick Lamar found refuge from the streets of Compton
Kendrick Lamar first discovered he had an aptitude for writing poems and lyrics in the 7th grade. He had an assignment due for English class, so he quickly wrote down the first thing that popped into his head. On the paper, he described his dreams and aspirations, turned it in, then quickly forgot about it. After his class received a medley of C’s and D’s, Kendrick recalls getting an A+. “From that moment on I knew I had a gift to put words together and draw my own inspirations out on a piece of paper.”
Born and raised in Compton, the home of Dr. Dre and NWA, Kendrick Lamar Duckworth witnessed much of the gang culture, as well as hip-hop culture, of the city. Lamar describes life in Compton as “unpredictable — one day you could be popping wheelies with your homies and the next, gunfire. That’s just how it was.” Witnessing murders at the young age of 5 and 8, he was immersed in the violent nature of the streets.
While he was an amicable person at heart, being a teenager in Compton led Kendrick to get swept into part of the gang culture he witnessed as a child. A “good kid” in a “mad city,” Lamar began to see how his future would be in jeopardy if he continued to go down the road of gang violence.
Constantly dealing with the struggles of living in Compton, he found an escape from the hardships in poetry. He began writing lyrics in middle school, and by the time he was 15, he began recording his music in his friend’s garage. At the age of 16, with the release of his first mixtape right around the corner, Kendrick was still torn: “I knew I wanted to do music; I was good at it, but there was another pressure pulling me away.” Lamar knew that he had a special gift, he just had to find the strength to get out of Compton and actually pursue it.
Kendrick Lamar’s “Money Trees” takes place at the crossroads between money and morality.
The song’s producer, DJ Dahi draws much of his work from Christian religious music, the only thing he was allowed to listen to as a kid. For “Money Trees,” Dahi sampled a song from the band Beach House. The song “Silver Soul” has a very dreamy and laid-back vibe, but Dahi reversed it, giving an upbeat yet tense and eerie sound. (In the Christian tradition, reversed music was considered the devil’s music).
Kendrick begins the song by reliving his and his friend’s experiences with break-ins and burglaries. Lamar knows he can make easy money off of someone who was working for it.
“Home invasion was persuasive
From nine to five I know it’s vacant.”
This line is a reference to the crossroads Lamar was at. He wanted to be the one working an honest job and making money off of it, but he was still trapped in the streets, taking what the honest person worked for.
Next Kendrick raps about his escape from Compton’s chaos, his music — “the only thing we had to free our mind.” His mind immediately returns to break-ins, only this time they're going to go “at a reverend for the revenue” — putting all morality aside in order to get some money.
The second verse is a continuation of the themes introduced in the first: Lamar’s internal conflict. He also raps about his uncle Tony, one of his closest supporters, who took two bullets in the head. This death, however, is just “another causality at war.” The war of Compton’s gang violence.
“It go Halle Berry
or Hallelujah
Pick your poison, tell me what you doin’”
In the chorus, arguably the best part of the song, Lamar makes clear his choice: “Halle Berry or Hallelujah.” If he chooses Halle Berry he’s sent down a path of greed and sensuality. In an interview, Lamar explains Halle Berry as a metaphor for the “vice of what’s going down: the lust for money.”
His other choice, Hallelujah, allows him to do music full time and make a living off of something he has a genuine passion for.
“Everybody gon’ respect the shooter
But the one in front of the gun lives forever
(The one in front of the gun, forever)”
Kendrick uses a religious theme to explain how the one committing the crimes is feared/respected for a moment while the honest people in front of the gun will be immortalized.
The end of the chorus and the refrain highlight the temptation Kendrick felt from money. He repeats the line “a dollar might…” listing off things that younger him would do with all the money in the world. “It was the mind state of thinking everything is about a dollar,” Lamar said. “That’s where we were at the time.”
In “Money Trees,” Lamar raps about the glorification of money and how it plays into people's struggle to go down an honest path in life. Kendrick wanted to show people in Compton, and other impoverished cities, that their future isn’t defined by their upbringing. He used his experience breaking away from the gang culture of Compton to try and inspire other people that they can do the same.
Proclaiming that money is the best way to become comfortable, Kendrick notes that there are different ways people can chase money. If people pursue it simply for the power of it, he says they will be doomed to stay in the same position. However, If people pursue it for self-improvement and use their talents to obtain it, they will be saved from the hardships they face on a daily basis. According to Kendrick Lamar, “Money trees are the perfect place for shade,” but how we get to those money trees ultimately determines our fate.
