From the Ringer Podcast Network, this is Dissect, long for our musical analysis broken into short digestible episodes.

This is episode six of our season-long analysis of Kendrick Lamar's Mr. Morrell and The Big Stepers.

I'm your host, we examined Mr. Morrell's fifth track, Father Time.

It was there we heard Kendrick scrutinized his relationship with his father and the lessons about masculinity he was taught as a child.

Kendrick showed an understanding

about how his father's own circumstances created a survivalist mentality and a society that's

historically viewed black men as a threat, creating a need to protect oneself through

strength, stoicism, and universal distrust of others. While Kendrick recognizes why his father

instilled these attributes in him, he also understands

that these are simply another mask he wears that conceals his true innermost self. And this egoic

pressure to maintain an impenetrable exterior has complicated Kendrick's ability to be vulnerable,

which he stated is a critical component of personal growth and communal evolution. He told Harper's Bazaar, quote,

There is certainly no growth without vulnerability. If I understood the power of vulnerability

earlier, I could have had more depth and more reach to the guys that was around me in the

neighborhood growing up, unquote. At the end of Father time, Kendrick speaks directly to those in his

neighborhood, reminding them of the transcendent potential in recognizing and overcoming their mistakes.

Ending my partners, they figured it out without a father. I salute you, may your bless us be neutral. To your tireless, it's crucial. They can't stop us if we see the mistakes. Till then, let's give the women a break. Gr with daddy and sheen ending father time with a direct address to individuals and his community creates a direct

thematic pipeline into mr morale's next track the subject of her episode today rich interlude

i learned in trapping and in the business, smart people making horrible decisions, you know.

Rich niggins get my dick suck after the show.

I ain't gonna lie we're opposed.

While it's not uncommon for albums to include musical interludes, Rich Interlude stands

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