Kendrick Lamar’s “The Blacker The Berry” Gets An Anime Remix In Netflix’s “Bass X Machina”
Kendrick Lamar just landed in the anime world — and he didn’t even have to record anything new to do it.
A clip from Netflix’s Bass X Machina is going around today, and it’s the needle drop nobody saw coming. In the scene, Bass Reeves — voiced by Brian Tyree Henry — is caught in the middle of a gunfight on a train. Before the next round flies, he gives the men across from him one last chance: “Anybody wanna reconsider? You got until I finish reloading this gun.” Then the beat drops — a remixed version of “The Blacker The Berry,” reworked to fit the sound design of the episode.
Let’s be clear about the timeline, because this is not a premiere announcement. Bass X Machina launched on Netflix back on November 3, with all six episodes dropping at once. What’s fresh is this moment getting picked up and passed around — and once you see the pairing, you understand exactly why it’s traveling.
Because the fit is almost too perfect. “The Blacker The Berry” is one of the heaviest records on To Pimp A Butterfly, Kendrick’s 2015 magnum opus — a song so pivotal in rap history that it has been performed on the Grammy stage. It’s a record carrying Black rage, Black pride and Black history at full volume. Now drop it under Bass Reeves: the real-life lawman who was born into slavery, escaped, and went on to become one of the first Black deputy U.S. marshals west of the Mississippi. LeSean Thomas — the creator behind The Boondocks and Yasuke — built this steampunk Western around that legend, with Henry leading the voice cast as Bass and also serving as an executive producer. A Kendrick record about the weight of Black history, scoring a Black marshal holding court in the Old West? That’s not a random sync. That’s a thesis statement.
And if you’re wondering how Kendrick ends up soundtracking an anime in the first place, the influence has been running in the other direction for years. Mustard once told Grammy.com that when he asked Kendrick what made him rap the way he did on “Hey Now,” Kendrick answered: “When I heard the beat, I just felt like Goku or something.” The anime-inspired rapper just became the anime soundtrack. Full circle.
All six episodes of Bass X Machina are streaming now on Netflix.
Source: HotNewHipHop.
So let’s talk about it: which other Kendrick record deserves the anime treatment — “Alright”? “DNA.”? Another one off To Pimp A Butterfly? Drop your pick.
