Songfacts®:

• "The Heart Part 5" is the fifth installment of Kendrick Lamar's "The Heart" series of songs. They date back to April 2010 when the rapper released "The Heart Pt. 1" before his Overly Dedicated mixtape. "The Heart Pt. 2" appeared on the same year mixtape later that year. Lamar recorded and released "The Heart Pt. 3 (Will You Let It Die?)" a few days before 2012's good kid, m.A.A.d. arrived, and he dropped "The Heart Part 4" on March 23, 2017. Lamar ended that track with a hint about the imminent release date of his fourth album, Damn.
• Lamar dropped "The Heart Part 5" on May 8, 2022, five days before the release of his fifth album, Mr. Morale And The Big Steppers. It was the rapper's first new solo song since 2018's "All The Stars," the lead single from Lamar's curated Black Panther soundtrack. Each of the five installments finds Lamar rapping what is on his heart. The overriding theme of "The Heart Part 5" is spurning the notion of the black gang lifestyle as being glamorous.
• In the first verse, Lamar details the stress of living in the hood. Having grown up in Compton, California, amid gang and drug violence, Lamar knows murder is common and one wrong turn can result in death.
• Lamar continues the theme of culture in the second verse, pointing out how the gang lifestyle is full of pain and violence. At one point he remembers hearing about the death of his fellow LA native Nipsey Hussle, who on March 31, 2019 was gunned down outside his Marathon Clothing store in Los Angeles. Lamar recalls learning of the tragedy while performing at Lollapalooza in Argentina.
  
  I'm in Argentina wiping my tears full of confusion
  Water in between us, another peer's been executed
  History repeats again
  
  Like Lamar, Hussle made it his mission to uplift his LA neighborhood. The pair collaborated on "Dedication," a track from Hussle's 2018 Victory Lap album.
• Lamar raps much of the third verse from the perspective of Nipsey Hussle in Heaven. He speaks of the late rapper's forgiveness for his killer and hopes and dreams for his family and community.
• The chorus finds Lamar alluding to himself as a spokesman for the hood. He interpolates Marvin Gaye's 1976 romantic love song "I Want You," flipping its meaning to signify his wish that his community will love and respect him.
  
  The writers of "I Want You," Arthur "T-Boy" Ross and Leon Ware, get credited as co-writers along with Lamar and the producers.
• Beach Noise, a production collective comprising Johnny Kosich, Jake the Snake, and Matt Schaeffer, created the string-heavy instrumental. They produced several songs on Lamar's cousin Baby Keem's The Melodic Blue album.
• Matt Schaeffer played multiple instruments (guitar, drums, bass guitar, mellotron, keyboard) on "The Heart Part 5," and Johnny Kosich supplied the percussion. The other musicians were Aeris Roves (cello and violin) and Bekon (violin).
• Kendrick Lamar co-directed the video with longtime collaborator Dave Free and special effects by video game developers Deep Voodoo.
  
  The clip starts off with Lamar performing the song in front of a red backdrop before the rapper uses deepfake technology to make it appear a different celebrity is performing instead. Each of the six people he morphs into are famous black men with complex legacies: O.J. Simpson, Kanye West, Jussie Smollett, Will Smith, Kobe Bryant, and Nipsey Hussle.
  
  The transformations correlate with the lyrics. For example, there's a reference to a "friend's bipolar," when West's face appears, and Smith's deepfake is on screen as Lamar raps, "In the land where hurt people hurt more people." When he transforms into Hussle, the lyrics shift to the late rapper's perspective.
  
  South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone get "special thanks" in the video's credits as they are the owners of the Deep Voodoo studio.
• Barack Obama's "Favorite Music" playlist is an annual tradition. "The Heart Part 5" placed at the top of his list in 2022.
• This won for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance at the Grammy Awards in 2023. Lamar's Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers also won for Best Rap Album.