Is Kendrick Lamar’s “i” The New “Happy”?

Is “I love myself” the new “Because I’m happy”?

It sure looks like it! Even Ellen Degeneres love it!

Last week, Kendrick Lamar flipped the sound of hip-hop on its head when he dropped the first single from his highly anticipated sophomore album.

Before clicking play, fans may have been expecting a hard-hitting anthem similar to his Grammy performance of “Maad City,” or “Swimming Pools (Drank)” but instead, Kendrick changed up the game and dropped a feel-good track, called “i,” about loving yourself. The record features live instrumentation and an Isley Brothers sample without one mention of a club, a drank, drugs or sadness. It’s all about positivity, and of course, the commercial/crossover feel of it are making some Hip Hop fans nauseous.

Some hate it, some love it, but just ask Pharrell, who’s still cashing those “Happy” checks — you can’t please everyone. And Kendrick basically predicted the backlash in the lyrics saying:

“Everybody looking at you crazy (Crazy)

What you gon’ do? (What you gon’ do?)

Lift up your head and keep moving (Keep moving)

Or let the paranoia haunt you? (Haunt you)

Peace to the fashion police, I wear my heart

On my sleeve, let the runway start

You know the miserable do love company

What do you want from me and my scars?

Everybody lack confidence, everybody lack confidence

How many times our potential was anonymous?

How many times the city making me promises?

So I promise this

I love myself

(The world is a ghetto with big guns and picket signs)

I love myself

(But it can do what it want whenever it want, I don’t mind)

I love myself

(He said I gotta get up, life is more than suicide)

I love myself

(One day at a time, sun gon’ shine)”

Listen to the single, and watch Kendrick perform it for the first time in Toronto below

Kendrick Lamar will not be put in a box!

Bonus: For some reason or another, Tech N9ne’s “Fragile” track featuring Kendrick Lamar didn’t get that much burn, but it’s an amazing track where they talk about the constant criticism of artists. Kendrick went OFF on his verse, and the hook of the song is just the right icing on the cake. Take a listen below: