The Heart Pt. 2 Lyrics

[Intro: Dash Snow, Daniel Joseph & Kendrick Lamar]
"I’ll tell you what I don’t believe in, can I do that? All right, I don’t believe in laws, or the system by any means, whatsoever. I try not to obey them at anytime. That's what I believe in not believing in."
"So what keeps you alive?"
"Four big bottles of water a day, two packs of Marlboro Reds. And, uh, I don’t - what keeps me alive, shit. Music, I have to listen to music all day long. I'd say that keeps me going. I’m a pretty dark person, I’ve thought about ending it a million times. And I have to say that music keeps me here, by far, the main thing."

Thank you

[Verse: Kendrick Lamar]
Sitting in the studio thinking about which mood would go
Right now, freestyle or write down, whatever
It still'll come up clever,
I just need to free my thoughts
And Lord knows that I know better, but I ain't perfect
I ain't seen too many churches or know them testament verses
You should either hear me now or go deaf
Or end up dead, die trying and know death
Might end up dead, swallow blood, swallow my breath
Fuck a funeral, just make sure you pay my music respect, nigga
I mean that from the bottom of my heart
You see my art is all I have
And victory tastes sweet, even when the enemy can throw salt
Still knock them out the park like a fucking tow car

Let bygones be bygones, but where I'm from
We buy guns and more guns to give to the young

I'm living the life of a nigga trapped, nigga
Inside the system all you envision is trap niggas
My uncle doing life inside prison; he wasn't wrapped too tight
He told me "Rap about life, not rap niggas"

That's why I'm shaking my head when you rap-dissin'
My stomach start turning, my nerves get to twitching
I start evaluating, then my final intuition
Is that you wishing a come up, would just come up
We used to beefing over turf, fuck beefing over a verse
Niggas dying, motherfuck a double entendre

And this is Comp-ton, lions in the land of the triumph
Wrap-Saran our defiance, ban our alliance
Put burners in the hands of the black man
One hood with 20 four-fours like a cloned Kobe Bryant
You probably heard I wanna be heard and wonder who I am
You probably even listened to "Faith," and think I know Zion
But really I'm just caught in the loop, of understanding the truth
Because it seem like it's always clashing with science

I got a big fear of flying
My future so bright I'd probably go blind before I blink twice
I ain't lying
I swear to God, half of y'all just don't know Kendrick
The school of hard knocks, we was the first ones in attendance

You walking down the block, he got shot, you are no eye witness
You just mind your business
You just turn your head, kneel down and then tie your tennis

It's kind of scary, ain't it?
You can't act like no bitch, that only got Tyler Perry famous
Just let me explain this, why you pick up that stainless?
'Cause your pops wasn't anxious to see you and you hate it
So much you probably had your burner tucked at graduation
So if you see him on 'em bleachers then you kill him
Facing 25 to life with a murder charge
Your enemies was the prey and now you pray to God
I pray these bars get farther than Compton
And if our record never break, I still won’t break my promise
I promise to keep it honest
Secret society, all we ask is trust

And all we lack is communication like service sucks
The people scared of annihilation when Kingdom Come
And I'm like, "The Kendrick Lamar OD in less than a month, all right?"

Gotta keep it pushing
Can't let the government tell me how my future looking

I'm on Rosecrans and Central trying to duck the central bookins'
If the fucking pigs get behind me then you know I'm bookin'
Never will I surrender

I been a warrior when I came out my mom's placenta
In the gutter lane like I'm Master Splinter
How splendid, I guess my project had did it
Got all these niggas approaching they mixtapes different

They said seven tracks, I said 15
Called it an EP, they said I’m trippin'

But little did they know, I’m tryna' change the rules
That we’ve been confined to, so the corporate won’t make decisions
Uppity bitches handling business
Killing our dreams, stealing our vision
Out in Haiti, adolescents barely have a home
In LA everybody think they fucking on
Hop on Twitter, perpetrate we doing big shit
Who we hanging with and bragging about the iPhone

I swear to God most of y'all cats just don’t know Kendrick
You barely know yourself, so I guess most of y'all should be offended
Ain’t doing this for my health, I’m tryna' purchase my momma dem' Benzes
Occupying my time with riches, justifying my time ambitions
Just to coincide, just to go inside, plus we idolize why we living
Look, the mastermind took the master's mind
Just the perfect time, just to master mine
Just to match the grind with precision
Look, the mastermind took - (cough)

[Outro: Alori Joh]
We would like to call this an appreciation tape for those who recognized the Kendrick Lamar EP. For this is the Kendrick Lamar OD. Because of you we are Overly Dedicated

[Produced by The Roots]

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About

Genius Annotation

This is the first song from Kendrick Lamar’s official mixtape, sometimes stylized as O(verly) D(edicated), where he raps over an extended version of The Roots' 2010 instrumental “A Peace of Light.” Kendrick has previously stated that this is his favorite song on the tracklist. According to a 2011 SoulCulture interview at SXSW, it features one of his favorite original verses.

He adopts a stream-of-consciousness flow, expressing his thoughts as they come to him in the studio. The song is also the sequel to April 2010’s “The Heart Pt. 1” and was followed by 2012’s “The Heart Pt. 3 (Will You Let it Die?)”, 2017’s “The Heart Pt. 4” and 2022’s “The Heart Part 5”

In a 2017 interview with Rolling Stone, he explained what led to this song:

I remember saying to myself, ‘I just wanna show a spew of emotion on a record. I don’t care how long the bars are, but people are literally gonna have to feel me.’ I told myself that if I can’t connect that way, then it ain’t no point in me just putting a bunch of good words together. So that spaz-out toward the end, where I just choke up and lose my breath – I wanna keep all that.

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

What did Kendrick Lamar say about "The Heart Pt. 2"?
Genius Answer

According to Songfacts, Kendrick explained the origin of the song to Rolling Stone:

I remember saying to myself, ‘I just wanna show a spew of emotion on a record. I don’t care how long the bars are, but people are literally gonna have to feel me.’ I told myself that if I can’t connect that way, then it ain’t no point in me just putting a bunch of good words together. So that spaz-out toward the end, where I just choke up and lose my breath – I wanna keep all that.

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