The Blacker The Berry (track)
by Kendrick Lamar
Year: 2015
From the album To Pimp A Butterfly (track #13)
Listen on Spotify
The Blacker The Berry appears on the following album(s) by Kendrick Lamar:
- To Pimp A Butterfly (track #13) (this album) (2015)
Upcoming concerts
Listen to The Blacker The Berry on YouTube
The Blacker The Berry ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
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| Rating | Date updated | Member | Track ratings | Avg. track rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 01/17/2026 18:10 | Robert_fripp | 823 | 86/100 |
| ! | 01/14/2026 11:52 | Exist-en-ciel | 76,796 | 70/100 |
| ! | 12/21/2025 03:24 | vindivast | 73 | 88/100 |
| ! | 11/17/2025 19:23 |  LukasAntoine00s | 5,217 | 80/100 |
| ! | 10/10/2025 16:17 |  II | 4,060 | 71/100 |
Rating metrics:
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(*In practice, some tracks can have several thousand ratings)
This track is rated in the top 1% of all tracks on BestEverAlbums.com. This track has a Bayesian average rating of 92.7/100, a mean average of 90.1/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 92.9/100. The standard deviation for this track is 18.1.
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The Blacker The Berry comments
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Everything about this song is crushing. It's devastating, it's a masterpiece of raw hatred and fear.
jesus fuck
YEEZY 06/12/2018 19:12 | #216588
IMO, this is maybe the most intense song of all time. Every word hits you harder than the last, and holy fuck that final verse is one of the greatest in rap history.
jhuik 04/27/2018 20:49 | #213775
Absolutely one of the best songs ever recorded. So powerful, so varied in style. Every part of this wonderful song is perfectly executed. And dat pow'ful poetry 'bout po-po fo sho.
TimothyTurner 12/09/2017 08:15 | #202851
As someone who started out as a massive hip hop fan who got heavily into prog rock, punk and blues later on i
think this is probably my favourite hip hop song ever.
It's a very personal song in which Kendrick states his frustration with the institutionalized racism that, from his (and other black people's) point of view, is prevelant in the US, yet he still shows a lot of self criticism in calling himself "the biggest hypocrite of 2015" for condemning the government while tolerating or even participating (it's unclear if this is actually true) in black on black violence.
Pro:
-Timeless subject matter;
-tons and tons of personality on here;
-lyrics and tone are on point;
-perfect vocal performances across the board;
-tension building intro;
-heavy and grandiose yet dancable boom bap beat
-beautiful outro;
-THAT RAW EMOTION!!
Con:
-you could argue that the mix is slightly too loud;
-i personally prefer live performances of BtB for their diverse live instrumentation (the orchestra performance at the Kennedy Center in particular was amazing)
AAL2014 07/01/2017 16:36 | #193532
A song deserving such a high rating, really one of the most enigmatic songs I've ever heard. So fucking heavy and with the beautiful jazz resolve at the end, just brilliant.
The song to send anyone to if you want to quickly show them what Kendrick is really about and how talented he really is. This could possibly be the greatest song I have ever heard. The final verse is enough to make anyone lose their mind by itself, and in the context of the whole song its the orgasm to a massive climax which feels like an orgasm in itself. The soft 1 minute outro with a gorgeous sax solo from Terrence Martin is a wonderful breath of relief but also despair after an extremely intense performance by Kendrick. Holy shit
Lukeanaderdude 01/25/2017 18:40 | #184254
That last verse, damn, Kendrick is going down in history
arthur237 03/08/2016 15:53 | #161576
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Grzywa 01/02/2016 06:45 | #155565
Great song, captures the spirit of its times and will be remembered this way.
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