"Alright" is released

Why it matters

The Pharrell beat on "Alright" is built around a brass-and-funk loop with a thin synth line on top and the kind of soft swing Pharrell had been perfecting since the late 1990s on Neptunes records. The drums are clean, deliberate, almost danceable. The song is structurally a four-minute mid-tempo composition that does not, on first listen, announce itself as a political record. The lyric is the part that does the political work. Kendrick raps about police violence ("and we hate po-po, wanna kill us dead in the street fo' sho'"), about depression, about wanting to believe in a future. The chorus is a refusal of resignation. "We gon' be alright" is, contextually, a statement of belief made under conditions that do not actually support the belief. That is what the chant became when protesters picked it up: people in the streets, holding the line, singing the refusal back to themselves. The song won the 2016 Grammys for Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song. The awards are part of the record. The chant outlived the awards.