Kendrick Lamar took his flair for the dramatic to a new level earlier this year when he included “We Cry Together,†a five-minute argument between himself and Taylour Paige role-playing a couple, on his long-awaited album Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers. Unless you’re some kind of masochist, you probably haven’t revisited that song much since; it dropped 81 spots after its first week on the Hot 100, from No. 16 to No. 97. But Lamar somehow figured that wasn’t enough, so he shot a whole “short film†around it in March 2020, out now as a music video. The film once again stars Lamar, chain-smoking joints in a nondescript blue uniform, and Paige, continually up in his face, as they stage the album’s argument. If you wanted to see Paige clap out “I should’ve found a bigger dick†or watch Lamar play keep-away with her keys, here’s your chance. Just be warned, it does feature a turn toward the pornographic at the end — before, in a Rehearsal-esque twist, a zoom out to show the apartment set.
Oh, and yes, it really is a short film. The Hollywood Reporter recently noted that Lamar and his company pgLang held a week of under-the-radar screenings for the film in Los Angeles in June, qualifying it for Best Live-Action Short at the Oscars. Lamar himself would get the hardware if the film won, too, since he co-directed alongside his pgLang right-hand, Dave Free and, uh, Paper Towns director Jake Schreier. And before you discount its Oscar chances, it was all shot in one take.