Kendrick Lamar released one of his most accomplished albums in 2015 "To Pimp A Butterfly" with one of the album's lead singles being "Alright". The music video itself is a hybrid of both narrative and performance. The video has a clear political ideology which a lot of Lamar's music represents. The music video helps to convey Kendrick's ideologies showing a common theme of the music video is the relationship between the black community and the police, Kendrick uses his voice to tell a story of the injustices he has faced in his life. The video was shot in Oakland California which is a city that is known for its crime rates and amount of poverty. This is shown at the beginning of the music video as it shows broken bottles, graffiti and fire conveying some of the issues that black America has struggled with throughout history. However, the music video specifically focuses on the police brutality on the black community.
The police are shown multiple times throughout the music video, particularly in one of the earlier shots of the video showing an unarmed black man running from the police, this could be a reference to Walter Scott who was shot five times in the back by a police officer whilst running away. However, this isn't the only time that police brutality is referred to in the music video. Towards the end of the video Kendrick is positioned on top of a street lamp and is free of the terror and trauma he had been through in his life. Following this scene Kendrick is shot down by a police man telling us that Kendrick and the black community feel dragged down by the police. Furthermore, the music video is shot in black and white emphasising the messages that Kendrick is trying to convey throughout the song.
Another theme of the music video is the sense of community and brotherhood throughout. This is shown in the performance element of the video were we see Kendrick rapping into the camera with a group of people behind him. This part of the video highlights the sense of togetherness throughout the video showing that all these people can be brought together by his music or even his beliefs, and in doing this they are stronger as a group and can use the song as a protest anthem because of the prejudice that the black community have faced throughout time. Overall, the message of the music video spreads a message of positivity. And even that when things become hopeless things can turn around.
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