Kendrick Lamar's concept for his"The Heart Part 5" video is dope.
But it's not original.
In the video, Kendrick morphs into Kanye West, Will Smith, Kobe Bryant, OJ Simpson, Jussie Smollett, and Nipsey Hussle, sometimes taking their perspective, with a plain background
New Jersey rapper Ak did the same thing in his 2020 video for "Family Ties", morphing into rappers like Li Wayne, Eminem, 50 Cent, and even Kendrick.
The only difference is Ak's video is back and white whereas Kendrick's is color and Kendrick's has better face morphing tech.
Ak addressed the similarities on social.
[Instagram post not found]“Maybe I’m fooling myself for thinking that Kendrick saw my video and was like, ‘Damn, that’s so good that I want to do it myself.’
“But I was under Universal; he is under Universal. I did that video in 2020 with Universal. Obviously, the song didn’t do as good as if Kendrick was to do it, but the concept was so sick and I fucking don’t know, but it’s the same exact thing — it’s a backdrop, it’s him in front of it, it’s one take," he said.
“And I want to make it clear, like, he’s an icon, I respect Kendrick. This is just very weird, bruh. That’s why I was like, ‘Damn, this is unique as fu*k.’ And when I drop this, it’s gonna go stupid because nobody’s ever done this before.
“But as an independent artist, that’s the type of sh*t that you have to eat. And my whole message behind it is, keep going ’cause you gotta eat sh*t sometimes but eventually, you’ll be aiight.”