Trayvon Martin was killed in what was widely believed to be a racially motivated murder, which led to outrage across America, including from Kendrick himself.

However, Kendrick has also been involved in acts of violence against young black men, which even led to death of one of his friends.

At the start of each verse Kendrick states that he’s a hypocrite without specifying why, and each time he reassures us that the answer is coming:

Once I finish this, witnesses will convey just what I mean

All of this leads up to these conclusive, and most crucial bars; in which he finally reveals the root of his self-confessed hypocrisy:

How much can he really condemn the violence he himself has participated in?

These are also Terrace Martin’s favorite lines on the song.

As a side note, these last few lines caused some controversy, with some feeling they were misguided and fed into the often used (and largely irrelevant) narrative of “What about black-on-black crime?”. Kendrick addressed the controversy on an interview with MTV News: