The one Kendrick Lamar song that saved Bono’s life: “A righteous anger”
Kendrick Lamar is a much-admired artist, with fans lifted from every corner of the world. But perhaps his most famous Irish admirer is someone he’s worked with in the past: Bono.
When Bono turned 60 back in 2020, he decided to celebrate in a manner that only he would choose to. He compiled a list of 60 songs that supposedly “saved his life” through the years.
“These are some of the songs that saved my life,” he wrote, by way of explanation. “The ones I couldn’t have lived without… the ones that got me from there to here, zero to 60… through all the scrapes, all manner of nuisance, from the serious to the silly… and the joy, mostly joy.”
Bono then penned a series of open letters to each of the artists that he’d listed. There were letters sent to everyone from David Bowie to the Sex Pistols to Billie Eilish, while several hip-hop artists received one, too. Jay-Z and Alicia Keys received a letter for their ‘Empire State of Mind’ collaboration, while Kanye West got one for ‘Black Skinhead.’ As for Kendrick, he technically received two letters. One for his part in Beyoncé’s song ‘Freedom,’ and another for his own track ‘XXX,’ which, of course, had a close link to Bono himself.
‘XXX’ was featured on Kendrick’s fourth album, Damn, and it featured a prominent U2 sample, specifically from the group’s song ‘American Soul.’ They later performed ‘XXX’ together at the 2018 Grammy Awards, which Bono specifically highlighted in his letter to K.Dot.
“I liked your crew when we did the opening of The Grammys,” he wrote. “They were shit hot and organised. It was a ballet, it was an opera, it was fusion between hip hop and rock ’n’ roll but it was not confusion.”
He then described Kendrick as “rock and roll” and “a whole lot more,” before noting of Kendrick’s artistry, “There’s a righteous anger that is hard to argue with. Oh yeah, there’s a righteous punch that could take down a much bigger man, oh yeah.”
The letter, frankly, becomes very “Bono” in nature. “For a moment,” he wrote, “any of us can be that fist. We don’t own it, it owns us. But I wouldn’t want to get in the way of it.”
He praised Kendrick’s approach to songwriting, specifically highlighting his admiration for the perspective through which Kendrick views the world. “The fact that you’re playful, self-deprecating, as well as revelatory is a note to self,” Bono wrote. “I asked you at the time if you’d rap about where America was at, and your reply was to rap about where America isn’t at. Smart.”
If we’re to take Bono at his word, then it seems that he really appreciated the experience of working with Kendrick on ‘XXX,’ but the feeling, evidently, was mutual. In an interview with Rolling Stone in 2017, K.Dot reflected on his interactions with the U2 frontman, saying, “Bono has so much wisdom and so much knowledge, in music and in life. Sitting on the phone with him, I could talk to him for hours. The things he’s doing around the world, of just helping people, is inspiring.”