In terms of musical genre, the song “Fuck Your Ethnicity” by Kendrick Lamar is part of the rap/hip-hop genre. The main thing that distincts it as a rap song is the lyrics or as most rappers call it “rapping” or “MCing”. MCing is basically when the performer is “rapping” or singing in the song. What differentiates it from regular singing is the person rapping usually speaks faster than a person singing. Also, they use more rhymes, alliteration, and clever analogies. Rapping has come a long way from the days of Boogie Down Productions, to Run-DMC, to N.W.A, to Biggie and Tupac, to Jay-Z, to what it is today. There are several clever verses in this song, but my favorite is when Kendrick says “I’m no activist, I’m no Einstein, before calculus I was kicking in math Dropping that science like an alchemist, and I be kicking that ass”. As you can see, some of the rhymes he says are “activist and calculus” and “math and ass”.

Each rap song has three distinctive parts: an introduction which is usually instrumental, a hook, another word for the chorus of the song that links into the verses, which are the lyrics to the song. This song has all 3 of those elements as the intro of the song is not instrumental but begins with a speech by Kendrick uniting the community. There is a hook and finally, they have verses. In my opinion, the hooks are the most important part of the song because 1, it is the part everyone is supposed to sing along to. 2, it tells the message of the song. Lastly, 3, it usually has the title of the song in it. Kendrick uses this in this song as he says the message of he doesn’t care if you are Black, White, Asian, or Hispanic until finally ending the hook with “Fuck Your Ethnicity”. 

Rap/Hip-Hop songs also use different kinds of instruments.Most of the songs tend to have a lot of bass in them, putting more effect on the beat. There is also the use of drums, which is a significant instrument in the genre similar to rock music. The most important part to a rap song is the beat. Beats were instrumental and still are, but most of the time beats are made by using synthesized sounds electronically. Kendrick’s song does use drums that can be heard throughout the song. The thing he uses to throw us off is the piano, which is not commonly used in rap songs. Another thing that Kendrick uses is the sound of what appears to be a children’s choir in the background, which is also not commonly used in rap songs. To me, Kendrick does this in order to make this a protest song as rap songs nowadays talks about murder, drugs, and sex while this song is more poetic and about an important cause. It is also what makes this a protest song.