This is Part 3 of an ongoing series. 

HUMBLE is the turning point of the album. Kendrick realizes he needs to be humble and be rid of his biggest sin PRIDE to escape this curse and be in the light of god, but what about his other sins.

LUST is a disgusting song, a very sinful song showing Kendricks weaknesses and his sins that he needs to change but just hasn’t. He knows he needs to change saying “LUST turn into FEAR.” Kendrick is now starting to FEAR being damned by GOD. He is slowly leaving WICKEDNESS and moving to WEAKNESS. 

LOVE is the opposite of LUST but he mainly emphasizes how he values loyalty more than love. In the beginning it starts saying “LOVE or LUST” kinda like the option in the beginning “WICKEDNESS or WEAKNESS.” It seems he has chosen the weakness side he has overcome his PRIDE with HUMBLE and his LUST with LOVE. 

XXX is all about a poor picture of America. The first verse is the mindset of young black men growing up in poverty and crime infested areas. Saying they will find a way to survive any situation but if you take the gratitude from them they will become ruthless and willing to kill. It’s just a song about how America is an evil place the opposite of a perfect world. The title XXX is like USA x-rated. 

FEAR starts with a voicemail from his cousin Carl Duckworth, he calls him trying to talk about how kendrick is struggling with no one feeling like he is praying for him and he tells kendrick they are cursed just how in YAH it is stated. Carl quotes Deuteronomy 28:28. Telling him he’s gonna feel cursed until he changes his ways. This song is about Kendricks fears it starts when he was a young kid his biggest FEAR was his mother she was abusive and always threatened him telling him she would beat him for many reasons and shes beat him if he tried to run to his dad because he was the only person that could protect him from his mother. Kendrick looked up to his dad a lot. The second verse is ten years later he was 17 years old and his biggest FEAR was death. Kendrick was terrified of dying no matter how he died. The last verse is also ten years later he’s 27 except he had many fears. One of many his biggest FEAR was losing all his fame. But at the end he says “Wondering if i’m living through FEAR or living through RAP?”