| "We Cry Together" | |
|---|---|
| Song byKendrick Lamar andTaylour Paige | |
| from the albumMr. Morale & the Big Steppers | |
| Released | May 13, 2022 (2022-05-13) |
| Recorded | 2019–2020 |
| Studio | IGA andWindmark (Santa Monica) |
| Genre | |
| Length | 5:41 |
| Label | |
| Songwriters | |
| Producers |
|
"We Cry Together" is a song by American rapperKendrick Lamar and American actressTaylour Paige, taken from the former's fifth studio album,Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, released on May 13, 2022. The eighth track on the album, Lamar wrote the song alongsidethe Alchemist,Bekon, and J.Lbs.Florence Welch andGary Peacock received additional songwriting credits for the sampling of their respective songs "June" and "Valentine".
Ajazz rap andspoken word song, "We Cry Together" portrays Lamar and Paige as anemotionally abusive couple in the midst of a heated argument that ultimately ends withsexual reconciliation. Media outlets have pointed out that the song's concept shares similarities withEminem's 2000 song "Kim", which sees the fellow rapper engaged in a violent argument with his then-wife.[1]
The song was praised as a standout track fromMr. Morale & the Big Steppers.MEL Magazine noted its "harrowing" intensity and realistic depictions ofdomestic violence.[2] Following the release of its parent album, "We Cry Together" debuted at number 16 on theBillboard Hot 100. A short film based on the song was released worldwide on September 1, 2022.[3]
The introduction for "We Cry Together" was first teased on March 5, 2020, in the visual mission statement for American rapperKendrick Lamar's creative collectivePGLang.[4] It was released alongside his fifth studioMr. Morale & the Big Steppers on May 13, 2022, as a duet with American actressTaylour Paige. Lamar wrote the song alongsidethe Alchemist,Bekon, and J.Lbs, who produced the track withEmile Haynie. The song contains samples of "June" written byFlorence Welch and performed byFlorence and the Machine, and "Valentine" written byGary Peacock and performed by Peacock,Art Lande andEliot Zigmund.[5][6]
"We Cry Together" features additional narration from Lamar's longtime partner Whitney Alford. It was recorded at IGA Studios andWindmark Recording inSanta Monica, California by Ray Charles Brown Jr., Johnathan Turner, James Blunt and Matt Schaeffer, with assistance from Logan Haynes, Andrew Boyd and Tristan Bott.Derek "MixedByAli" Ali and Cyrus "NOIS" Taghipourmixed it at No Name Studios inTarzana, with assistance from Curtis "Sircut" Bye and Brandon Blatz. Emerson Mancinimastered it atLarrabee Studios inNorth Hollywood.[7]
Lamar's longtime collaborator,Sounwave, revealed in an interview withGQ that "We Cry Together" was one of the earliest songs recorded forMr. Morale & the Big Steppers. In 2019, after holding onto the initial beats for a while, Lamar showed him a "scratch idea of a couple arguing. He didn’t have all the words down—he just had the male’s verse and then mumbles of the lady’s part. I come in one day and he had pitched his voice up to sound like a girl and he was literally arguing with himself." Amazed at the demo, Sounwave asked him if they should "drop it likethis with just your voice?" Lamar answered, "Nah, we’ve gotta find someone who can actually nail this moment.” After a long process of finding someone who "can give this kind of emotion but also act it out the way that it’s supposed to feel", Lamar's creative partnerDave Free suggested Paige, which made them all "lit up". The song was recorded almost in one take with Lamar and Paige in February 2020.[8] Sounwave disclosed that it was "one of the songs that we knew was staying" on the album.[9]
"We Cry Together" is a "polarizing"jazz rap andspoken word song with stripped-down pianos and drums played in aloop.[9][10] It is set in the key ofB-flat minor with its lyrics, a representation of "what the world sounds like" according to Alford, follows an emotionally abusive couple, played by Lamar and Paige, in the middle of an intense argument. Throughout the song, the duo argue and spew insults at each other non-stop over their toxic relationship, thepatriarchy,politics,feminism, andgender roles.[11] The song ends with Paige demanding Lamar toreconcile with her over sex, to which he agrees while they still argue.Tap dancing can be heard in the background of the ending, before Alford urges them to "stop tap dancing around the conversation".[12]
Steven Loftin ofThe Line of Best Fit described the "traumatic and heartbreaking" song as "wonderfully elaborate and horrifyingly real, so much so it feels like a moment you shouldn’t be privy too, as if your neighbors are having a roaring argument through the paper thin walls."[13] Stephen Kearse ofPitchfork was impressed by the blow of insults present in the "noxiousmelodrama", writing that they felt "almostimprovised despite being tightly rhymed and metered.Eminem can finally retire happy."[14]Jon Caramanica ofThe New York Times applauded the song's "startlingly raw toxicity, even if construed as character work" and calls it "one of the most musically successful songs on the album, a shuddering alignment of rhythm and sentiment."[15]
Several critics named "We Cry Together" as a highlight onMr. Morale & the Big Steppers. Ben Bryant ofThe Independent chose it as "the most ruthless track" on the album.[16] Miloslaw Archibald Rugallini of Sputnikmusic lauded over how the song "creatively implements cadence to balance immersion in the drama, utilizes humor to break the tension of an ugly confrontation, has the characters swap venomous one-liners while sharing flows, and ends with them about to get their fuck on. This track is the goods, and anyone who tells you otherwise is agaslighting fool who needs theBlu Cantrell treatment stat." He suggests Alford's closing line acts as an "observation of the nature of most quarrels (that their root cause is often ignored in the exchange ofad hominem and finger-pointing) and signposts the confrontation of self that Kendrickactually fucking has in the second half of the album."[17] Will Pritchard ofThe Daily Telegraph, however, criticized her closing line as the album's "most egregious" example of its "occasional blip."[18] In a more mixed review, Jeff Ihaza ofRolling Stone writes that Lamar "misfires a not entirely bad concept. It is indeed naïve to ignore the complicated dynamics of attraction, love, and violence, but so too is proffering them with too much meaning."[19]
Following the release ofMr. Morale & the Big Steppers, "We Cry Together" debuted at number 16 on theBillboard Hot 100 chart alongside the album's 18 songs.[20] In its second week of charting, the song descended a record-setting 81 spots to number 97, marking the biggest single-week drop in Hot 100 history for a song that remained on the chart.[21][22]
Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.[7]
| Chart (2022) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[23] | 19 |
| Canada (Canadian Hot 100)[24] | 22 |
| Global 200 (Billboard)[25] | 20 |
| South Africa (TOSAC)[26] | 4 |
| Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)[27] | 96 |
| USBillboard Hot 100[28] | 16 |
| USHot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (Billboard)[29] | 11 |
| USHot Rap Songs (Billboard)[30] | 9 |
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