When one considers Kendrick Lamar's reputation as a hip-hop great, it's impossible to overlook the role his music videos have played in his ascendence. The visuals for his 2022 project Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers have represented his biggest leap yet from the rap video aesthetic into a different universe: the "We Cry Together" visuals were branded as a "short film," suggesting a bigger ambition for both his music videos and the album it was connected to.
Today, Lamar shares another music video/short film for "Count Me Out." It stars Dame Helen Mirren as Kendrick's therapist who guides him through a session where a dispute over a parking space snowballs into existential questions represented by avant-garde symbolism. As per usual with Kendrick's videos, the new clip (co-directed by Lamar and his pg Lang partner Dave Free) is a subliminal invitation to revisit the entirety of the album cycle and dive deeper into its layers.
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