Wiki
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Length
4:31
While “King Kunta” shows Lamar at a high, confidently claiming his throne atop the rap game with the influence and success he has acquired, “Institutionalized” is the dramatic realization that the murky past of the m.A.A.d. city still lurks within Lamar’s psyche. Kendrick covers wealth’s corruptive powers, and how many people are negatively affected, almost brainwashed, by the idea of getting rich.
He also condemns violence and envy. Both of these are brought on by the institution of money. We are all at some level ‘institutionalized.’ The poor and disenfranchised are institutionalized by prison, racism, classism, and the rich and the powerful are institutionalized by fear, dogma, and the almighty dollar. Everyone is a loser in this game, perspective is the only answer.
The word institutionalized also has connotations of insanity. Those who are institutionalized are taught something is “wrong” with them, but perhaps it’s the institution that’s wrong.
According to Songfacts, Anna Wise, who provides backing vocals, said to Billboard magazine:
"I just kept going back and forth with him. He would fly me out and I would stay for extended periods of time. Even up to about a month after GKMC came out, I was kind of jumping around, I wasn’t really staying in Boston at that time. I was upstate , I was in San Francisco. Sonnymoon did three tours – so we had a lot of stuff going on. But in between that, I would always come back to him."
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