"XXX" is truly two melodies in one. The first half is a vengeance illustration with Old Testament hints, scored with reptilian 808's, stirring synths, and stark sirens. Lamar gets notification from a companion that his exclusive child has been killed — a resounding reference on Good Friday — and it sends Lamar turning into dreams of retaliation that skirt on lewdness. ("Sick catch a n**** leavin' benefit if that is all I got.") Like whatever remains of DAMN.,"XXX" is an articulated takeoff from the luxurious soul-jazz ensembles of Lamar's past collection, the 2015 perfect work of art To Pimp A Butterfly, rather supporting a meager soundscape that puts the accentuation on Lamar's virtuosic lyricism and the melancholy wrath of his conveyance.
U2 doesn't enter "XXX" until the second half. However, it's not the fantastic Joshua Tree-style ballyhoo that many foreseen. Rather, this is U2 in Zooropa mode, in which additional accentuation is put on the transaction between drummer Larry Mullen and bassist Adam Clayton. The Edge's particular guitar, in the interim, is M.I.A. (Is The Edge playing those extra gospel piano harmonies? If not, then he more likely than not been consigned to joint-moving obligation amid the session.)
In this segment of "XXX," Lamar turns from story to sermon, straightforwardly tending to a culture that is consistently at war with itself, certainly drawing an association between the hunger for vengeance in the tune's first half to the ceaseless cycle of Americans obliterating different Americans out of a constant feeling of oppression. Once more, the religious implications are made plain: "Hail Mary, Jesus, and Joseph/The colossal American banner is wrapped and dragged with explosives," Lamar says. He then goes ahead to connection road savagery with Wall Street debasement, in which "workers and managers with maniacal contemplations" prompt the awfulness of a Donald Trump administration. (How strong does the collection front of To Pimp A Butterfly appear to be currently only three months expelled from the Obama time?)
Bono's vocal snare is a greatly Bono vocal snare, in that it appears to convey wide truths without very appearing well and good: "It's not a place/This nation is to be the sound of drum and bass/You close your eyes and glance around." Aside from the yell out to his young men Larry and Adam, what Bono appears to allude to is a natural subject from various U2 tunes: Mankind interminably feels disengaged inside and out — physically, inwardly, profoundly — –which sends our eyes heavenward looking for direction and, ideally, deliverance. Afterward, Lamar distils this inclination down to a question: "However is America legitimate or do we lounge in wrongdoing?"
What's striking about "XXX" is the means by which Bono, one of shake's extraordinary seething braggarts, totally sublimates himself to Lamar, permitting himself to be utilized as a paint shading in a bigger canvas. The supposition (or dread) was that U2 would subsume Lamar, however, plainly all included gatherings never questioned that Lamar would be in complete control.