Kendrick Lamar Gets Therapy In “Count Me Out” Video
Kendrick Lamar has dropped off yet another creative video for his critically acclaimed Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers album. On Friday (Dec. 16), Lamar released visuals for the fan-favorite cut, “Count Me Out,” featuring an appearance from legendary actress Helen Mirren, who plays his therapist.
The video finds K. Dot using the song as a therapy session, with a couple of seconds of the video finding the Compton native disclosing a humorous incident involving a stolen parking spot to the award-winning thespian.
More from VIBE.com
Kendrick Lamar Announced As Headliner Of Osheaga Festival 2023
Kendrick Lamar Says 'We Cry Together' Short Film Let Him Live His Truth
Busta Rhymes Praises Missy Elliott And Kendrick Lamar For Their Visuals
After a moment of laughter, Mirren shifts the tone, questioning the “Rich Spirit” lyricist about a text message he sent her at 2 AM that read, “I feel like I’ve fallen.” The 2023 Grammy award-nominated poet grows noticeably uncomfortable before launching into an alternate version of “Count Me Out,” with the screen transforming showing Helen on one side and Lamar on the other.
“One of these lives, I’m a make things right,” he begins telling his therapist. “With the wrongs I’ve done, that’s when I unite/With the Father, Son, ’til then, I fight/Rain on me, put the blame on me/Got guilt, got hurt, got shame on me Got six magazines that’s aimed at me/Done every magazine, what’s fame to me?/It’s a game to me, where the bedroom at?/Sleep, I ain’t nevеr had affairs with that/What’s fair when the hearts and thе words don’t reach?/What’s fair when the money don’t take things back?”
As the video progresses, the middle of the screen illustrates Lamar, 35, going through a series of emotions depicted through cryptic scenarios.
The acclaimed “N95” bard is seen wearing all red, removing a sad mask, performing atop a sand dune with a plethora of Black fists raised in unison, and sitting at a table with a businessman appearing to be uninterested. There’s also a shot featuring his daughter, and of him getting a COVID test.
Along with acting in the video with Mirren, Lamar directed the “Count Me Out” with Dave Free.
Elsewhere, Kung Fu Kenny’s We Cry Together short film is currently eligible to be nominated at the 95th annual Academy Awards. In an interview with Variety, Hip-Hop’s poet laureate detailed its creation.
“It challenged me to actually live in what I was writing and really be there and be present with Taylour [Paige],” the DAMN rapper expressed. “And I remember us going back and forth and feeling like, damn, I understand this character even more because I’m evoking the energy from it and the passion from it because it’s alive, and it’s direct.”
