Kendrick Lamar’s Freedom Summer

I was at a barbecue on the Fourth of July, eating burgers and drinking rum punch, watching store-bought fireworks belch and sizzle overhead, when Kendrick Lamar released the music video for his song “Not Like Us.” Lamar likes this kind of drama—dropping something new at just the right moment, entering time with the flourish of an invisible cape. You could imagine him at home in Los Angeles that night, YouTube fired up on a big outdoor projector, watching his new video on a never-ending loop, looking up now and then at his own pyrotechnic display in the sky. Maybe he was surrounded by cheering friends. Wherever he was, he was probably feeling free.