Kendrick Lamar generated an enormous amount of social media conversation with the release of his new album Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers.
One of the album’s songs, “Auntie Diaries,” garnered attention for its subject matter in particular. Kendrick Lamar raps about accepting trans relatives on the song.
Kendrick Lamar details growing up with a transgender uncle on “Auntie Diaries.” He recalls how he processed his uncle’s gender identity during his childhood.
“My auntie became a man and I took pride in it/She wasn’t gay, she ate p####, and that was the difference/That’s what I told my friends in second grade/She picking me up from school, they stare at her in the face/They couldn’t comprehend what I grew accustomed,” he raps.
Kendrick Lamar also tells the story of a transgender cousin. In one anecdote, K. Dot describes a confrontation with a preacher who singled out his cousin in front of the congregation.
“I said, ‘Mr. Preacherman, should we love thy neighbor?/The laws of the land or the heart, what’s greater?/I recognize the study she was taught since birth/But that don’t justify the feelings that my cousin preserved’/The building was thinking out loud, bad angel/That’s when you looked at me and smiled, said, ‘Thank you’/The day I chose humanity over religion,” he raps.
Kendrick Lamar’s “Aunties Diaries” elicited both praise and criticism on Twitter. Some felt it should be celebrated while others took issue with the track’s language and execution.
Check out some of the reactions to “Auntie Diaries” below.
At 13, my dad asked me if I was gay because I didn’t agree with him that all gay people belong in jail or worse.