This Pharrell Williams co-produced jazzy hip-hop infusion finds Lamar, despite all his bad trips and hard times, ready to face another day. With God on his side, he is confident everything will be "Alright." This was one of several songs on To Pimp a Butterfly that were inspired by Lamar's time in South Africa during 2014. He told MTV News: "When I got to Africa and saw other people's problems, their struggle was 10 times harder and was raised crazier than what I was. Going out there really inspired - I wrote a lot of records off the album just by visiting South Africa. That was the moment I knew, OK, I could either pimp this situation or fall victim to it. That was a turning point."
The song's opening lines ("Alls my life I has to fight, ni—a. Alls my life I...") reference Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Color Purple and Oprah Winfrey's portrayal of Sofia in the period drama movie of the same name.
Lamar's third verse was created very quickly. "Probably 15 minutes, just walking back and forth," co-producer Tae Beast recalled to Revolt. "No pen, no tablet to jot in. Just all mental. Went in the booth, knocked it out."
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