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Kendrick Lamar And Rihanna Prove Their 'Loyalty'

Talk about arrogance.

Three days after topping the pile of MTV Video Music Award nominees with eight nods for "Humble.," Kendrick Lamar is back to test our "Loyalty." Now the most pop-worthy song from DAMN. has a video as epic as the collaboration behind it.

In a romantic-thriller plot, directed by Dave Meyers and the Little Homies, Lamar and Rihanna co-star as ill-fated love interests caught up in a gangster's paradise. Like "Humble." and every visual released from his 2017 album DAMN., "Loyalty." is full of intoxicating visuals and special effects that hearken back to the big-budget video era of the late-'90s. Lamar doubles as good and evil versions of himself in one climactic scene; shark fins protrude from the concrete below, encircling the hero in another. But the ultimate moment comes when Lamar holds Rihanna's hand while she dangles over the ledge of a skyscraper.

"You trust me," he asks Rihanna, with a gleam in his eye that would make Drake eat his heart out.

Yes, Kung-Fu Kenny. We do.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Rodney Carmichael is NPR Music's hip-hop staff writer. An Atlanta-bred cultural critic, he helped document the city's rise as rap's reigning capital for a decade while serving on staff as music editor, culture writer and senior writer for the defunct alt-weekly Creative Loafing.