Like any of the Heirs characters, Kendall Roy also has countless components that make up his personality: a desire for power, greed for money, madness for size, wholesale daddy issues and at least one accidental murder. But none of these manage to explain his character like a small and strange element that pops up under his tie from time to time – his great love for hip-hop. It starts as early as the second scene in the entire series, when Kendall raps in the back seat of the limo to the sounds of the Beastie Boys, but reaches its peak in the eighth episode of the second season, in what is probably the most awkward moment in the entire series – the song that Kendall performs in honor of his father Logan, and chooses of all genres, to do that in rap.
It’s a cringe-inducing scene on stressful levels, mostly because it’s so disconnected from the tie-dye event we’ve seen in Logan’s honor so far (Kendall even represents this disconnect, ripping off his suit to reveal a baseball shirt he made for the occasion), but like every song reveals the The artist who created it, as well as the song of praise for Logan, reveals who Kendall really is. And his love for hip-hop is a very significant part of this exposure.
>> Want to remember where it started? We have a recap for the first season
Kendall doesn’t like hip hop just like that. Even before analyzing the character, it is a direct inspiration taken from the life story of James Murdoch, the youngest son of the media mogul and head of the conservative Fox News, Rupert Murdoch. During the 1990s, while he was in his college years, the young Murdoch decided to invest in an independent hip-hop label called Rokus Records, which released some of the more alternative acts in hip-hop – Mos Def, Talib Kwali, Kampani Flow (Al-Fi Maran De Jules) and a variety of other activist and liberal rappers. This strange love for the protest genre was copied to the rebellious Kendall, who listens to hip-hop mainly when he needs to gather strength, and imagine himself as a killer. And as Logan himself already said, he is not a murderer.
In fact, at that point in the series, Kendall is Logan’s puppy, and so is his song. It’s a hip-hop praise song – or an ego song, if you will – that rappers usually make about themselves, not their father. And when Kendall does it, he only emphasizes the dissonance of this choice to do a rap show in front of all these respectable people, just to flatter his father. But for Kendall, hip hop is a sign of strength, aggressiveness, all the qualities he really admires in his father, but fails to muster for himself. Obviously he’s writing a rap song in honor of his dad, because his dad is the biggest gangster he knows. And what makes this all weirder, is that it’s not such a bad song.
>> We also wrapped up the second season, including a reminder of why Kendall was so defeated at this point
looked
And thanks to DJ Squiggle for this bombshell. Just, well – this beat was prepared by the composer of the series and the infectious opening, Nicholas Brittle. Like that opening, Kendall’s beat also combines classical music with aggressive hip-hop drums a la the nineties. The beat samples the piece “Prelude No. 2” by Bach, and incorporates a definite beasty-boysy roughness. In the official recording version, you can actually hear a slight distortion on Kendall’s vocals, which points to the obvious inspiration from the three Jewish rappers of the Beastie.
It’s not a bad beat at all. You can even say he is good. This is an old piece by Brittle, a remnant of his days as a producer in a hip-hop group in college, and it is evident that the producer put time and thought into it to make it sound good. But at the same time it is also very old fashioned, almost vintage nineties. It reflects on Kendall’s ancient taste, who doesn’t really like hip-hop as much as he likes to like hip-hop. His taste remains stuck on his college days, and the look he likes sounds just like that – 20 years late. Sorry Squiggle, that’s the truth.
The fluo
And here is the saddest part – he really tries to make it good. Kendall sounds like he’s sure this song is the coolest thing to happen to the Roy family since the invention of masturbation. This is of course an extension of his ego and personal blindness, who thinks (at times) that he is stronger, more impressive and smarter than he really is. Interestingly, even at a time when he is most subordinate to his father, he still believes that he is the one who knows what “voice” is today. In fact, I’m pretty sure he would have used the word “voice” himself.
Kendall’s flow, accordingly, changes throughout the song, even if he remains – like the beat – in the areas of the New York boom-bap flow. In fact, there is only one other source of inspiration, nineties G-punk, which was borrowed to create a Snoop Dogg-esque semi-sung chorus. There is and will never be a mish-mash rap cliché greater than East-style beats and a West-style chorus. No musical uniformity, just take from here and there what you want, and show as if you understand what you are doing even when you really have no desire to go deeper. What is Kendall if not this.
The lyrics
And now, some fun. Kendall’s lyrics are a masterpiece of disturbed unconsciousness, the love song that no one wants to hear – especially the subject of the song – and yet was written and performed on stage. You could sit down and break it down here almost line by line (I know I did that to myself for hours of enjoyment), but instead we’ll focus on a few points that arise from the lyrics. During the song, Kendall mixes all the weird titles associated with his father’s name and rap clichés of success and power, but in practice it comes off as childish, just like making your father rap in his honor. “The king of the eastern side”, “rolling in a car with gears” (Yani, a luxury car), “handmade suits”, “you should salute” these are all statements that come out of Kendall’s mouth within the first two lines (!), and it only gets stronger.
“King Kong Daddy”. Yikes. Kendall and Logan Roy, “The Heirs.” Screenshot
He refers to him as a general, as a king, as an actor, as “King Kong Daddy” – and considering the job he was trying to destroy just eight episodes earlier, it seems pathetic. The mixing of images from the worlds of rap doesn’t sound very successful to the conservative tycoon either – “chatty bitches” still goes smoothly in the mouth of the dirty-mouthed family, but “rolling some fatty” (in the Joynt’s sense) not only sounds like slang unrelated to the world of the Roy family , but also one that once again clarifies how disconnected he is from the street, or current hip-hop, or the 2000s. At least culturally.
>> and just before the return, here is a recap of the previous season
The most horrifying moment, then, is the chorus. Milea stealing from Snoop and wanting to spell the name, we could still forgive that, but he is so pleased with the connection between the spelling of Logan’s name and the gangster term OG (Old or Original Gangster: a term of honor that refers to the veterans of the gang), as if it is not the most forced pun in the world Also, the way he forces the rest of the letters into a sentence (“AN he playing”) and then immediately repeats the word playing twice to force the content into music, feels a bit like the screeching of fingernails on a chalkboard.
The second house is no less tough. This time Kendall talks about Logan from his point of view, or at least from the defeated point of view he had at that point. The key sentence here is “Don’t confuse it, I’ve been through hell/ But since I’m dad’s stan, I live in peace”. Stan, for those who don’t know, is a reference to the song “Stan” by Eminem, which became a nickname for an obsessive fan. So yeah, Kendall went through hell, and then from the moment he changed his skin and became a fan of dad, he’s just fine. A little sad truth that spills out between the lines.
Precisely after this line, Kendall’s nicknames for his father suddenly become more real. “Designer of worldviews, creator of the news”, he calls him, and is right in every word. He also calls him “father of many”, which is both a very dictatorial nickname, and also a sad statement about Logan as a neglectful father who does not show love to his children. The signature line is simply a summation of everything Kendall has learned through the series so far: “So don’t try to be rude to the king/ Just get ready, Beach, to kiss his ring.” And that’s exactly what Kendall thinks he’s doing with this song, only Logan doesn’t really want that weird kiss.
The performance
Even in the face of shocked looks, clear mockery and implied boos (and that’s only from his brothers), Kendall sinks into the performances fully. He moves on the stage in full pose, relates his movements to the content (for example: when he implores everyone to salute, he points himself), holds the microphone correctly, enjoys the performance of the chorus with a hidden smile. He gets so into it that he starts pointing at some members of the audience and makes the grave mistake of every beginner rapper – trying to turn on an audience without being sure the audience is with you. The crowd isn’t quite with him, and Roman’s desperate pleas (“You’ve got to end this”) resonate much louder than the meager crowd chants, with all due respect to Greg’s good will.
But the worst thing, the final punch, is his choice to put the hat on Logan’s head. There was really only one way it would be more awkward – if he put his hat on upside down. Thank God it didn’t happen, because then the series would have ended with a murder in front of a hall full of witnesses, and Logan Roy in prison. Kendall’s show is a personal ego-trip that got tangled up in public embarrassment, but also a sad reflection of what Kendall would like to be – tough, sophisticated, cool – But will never succeed. And at the same time, his father sits with a closed face, refusing to accept the embarrassing gift that was thrown at him, and must also be horrified by the very choice to do it in rap. Just another small but representative gap in the great battle between the eldest son (shut up, Connor, it’s none of your business) and the powerful father, the OG.