"America is turning into a big meme": NPR

"I feel like with this album, I wanted to challenge myself and do other things," said Anderson .Paak.

Emma McIntyre / Getty Images

hide the legend

activate the legend

Emma McIntyre / Getty Images

"I feel like with this album, I wanted to challenge myself and do other things," said Anderson .Paak.

Emma McIntyre / Getty Images

From disturbing stories by Vince Staples to Kanye West's blunt partisanship, the demarcation line between staff and politics in hip-hop is getting slimmer. Anderson .Paak is the last to register in his new album, Oxnardnow, who is equal in escape and realism. One song in particular, "6 Summers", discusses the absurdities of American politics, the debate on gun violence and meme culture.

From the first guitar chords, .Paak opens the door with: "Trump has a child in love and I hope that b **** is buckwild", and later sings, "Pop, pop, pop goes shooter / Reform, the reform should come sooner. "

"Every day, a new situation arises," Paak told NPR's David Greene in a recent interview for Morning edition. "So I had to write about it.Some artists are not affected socially by what's going on around them.They create their own movie, and maybe that helps others I'm doing it too, but I've got the impression with this album, I wanted to challenge myself and do other things. "

The lyrics that hide behind the title of the song – "It's not going to budge for at least six summers / But it will not change before at least three summers" – points to 2021, the first summer of a new administration to the White House if Trump is not re-elected.

And while Paak says he wants to express his point of view on the news, he does not try to lecture his listeners. In the vein of contemporaries like J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar – both appearing on Oxnard Paak says his goal is to make you dance and think: "Woah, this guy is really talking about something, I do not have to stop what I'm doing – the song is still funky – but dang, he is actually, really talk about real things. "To that end, the song gets a jazzy performance, even in its most thrilling and satirical form.

"Every day, it seems like America is turning into a big meme," adds Paak. "Just a face of Jordan crying."

Oxnard is now available on Aftermath Entertainment.