victim r/olympics

I've watched the Not Like Us music video several times by now, and I get full-body chills EVERY SINGLE TIME this scene begins. I've been thinking a lot about it, and discussing it with friends of mine, and I have a few readings of the caged owl I'd like to share, beyond the obvious illustration of Kendrick putting OVO/Drake in an inescapable, powerless position.

Something that struck me about the owl is its prominent white face and chest. There are obviously numerous kinds of owls out there - not all of them have such notable white features. So this owl in particular was chosen intentionally - as is true with everything Kdot does. No detail is overlooked.

Obviously, Kendrick speaks at length about Drake's being biracial (white/black) in Euphoria - "How many more Black features 'til you finally feel that you Black enough?" This owl is literally "biracial" in a sense - white face/chest, brown feathers on his back - bicolored. So that's a pretty literal signpost that further illustrates the owl = Drake.

Now, another theme that Kendrick goes into at length in the final verse of Not Like Us is colonizers/colonialism. Who among us, in all of history, is the most guilty of violent, uncaring colonialism? White people. Hence the white owl. Kendrick is making a huge statement here - that the script is flipping, culture is changing, and Kendrick is the mastermind behind it. Black and Brown people - and the culture they've created - are no longer the colonized. They are claiming their power and taking it back - they are waking up to the unbelievable injustices they have endured, as a people - and this leads me to my last point.

Ultimately, this beef is not something as simplistic as "oh clearly Kendrick hates Drake." What Kendrick hates is that Drake colonizes Black culture for his own profit/benefit - even though not only is he literally half-white, but he did not come up knowing the Black experience that rap was born out of. From Euphoria: "They imitate heritage, they can't imitate this violence." Kendrick is taking a very powerful stance that, as a people, Black and Brown people will no longer allow their culture to be exploited, appropriated, and profited off of by those who know nothing about the actual experience of existing in the world as a member of that community.

So, the half-white owl in the cage not only represents Drake the person - the owl represents all artists, politicians, corporations, ANYONE who has exploited Black and Brown cultures to their own benefit, while doing nothing to uplift the people and cultures they are stealing from. Kendrick is saying: this is the end of all that. You are now under our thumb. You are trapped. We have taken back our power - and this is only the beginning. This message is particularly powerful when you consider it in the context of the genocide in Gaza, which is an overt current example of the murder, exploitation, and inhumane disregard for Brown people.

One more thing is the somewhat more obvious reference to Maya Angelou's poem "Caged Bird" - there are a couple of stanzas that really put the final nails in Drake's coffin, and they really ring out in my head as I keep rewatching that final scene from the music video:

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