As many performers do when they appear on Saturday Night Live, hip hop artist Kendrick Lamar remixed his popular new track, "i," during his high-powered performance this past weekend. Most noticeably, Kendrick changed the hook of the track.
In the previously released version the hook says:
And I love myself
(The world is a ghetto with big guns and picket signs)
I love myself
(But it can do what it want whenever it want, I don't mind)
I love myself
(He said I gotta get up, life is more than suicide)
I love myself
(One day at a time, sun gon' shine)
However, at 0:50, 1:29, and 2:08, in the SNL remix, Kendrick changed the lyrics of the hook to say:
And I love myself, when you lookin' at me
And tell me what do you see (I love myself)
I put a bullet in the back of the back of the head of the police
Illuminated by the hand of God, boy ain't that high
One day at a time, the sun gon' shine
Since the song is about self-esteem, particularly in prison and the inner city, perhaps the best interpretation of this lyric change, particularly the line about the police, is rooted in the tense reality that police not only harass black bodies, but have caused real problems with the emotional well-being of black people.