‘Zola’ Breakout Taylour Paige Makes Rap Debut on Kendrick Lamar’s ‘We Cry Together’
Florence Welch also features in the track from Lamar's album "Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers" about a toxic relationship and the contradictions of feminism.
Film Independent Spirit Award winner Taylour Paige just proved her triple-threat talent. The “Zola” star made her rap debut on Kendrick Lamar’s highly anticipated new album “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers,” out May 13.
Paige is featured in the song “We Cry Together ft. Taylour Paige,” which captures an argument between a couple, voiced by Paige and Lamar. Florence Welch sings the intro to the track, which later takes on the patriarchy, politics, feminism, and gender roles.
“See, you the reason why strong women fucked up,” Paige raps (via Genius Lyrics). “Why they say it’s a man’s world, see, you the reason for Trump / You the reason we overlooked, underpaid, under-booked, under shame.”
Paige continues, “You the reason Harvey Weinstein had to see his conclusion / You the reason R. Kelly can’t recognize that he’s abusive.”
On the track, Lamar slings back, “Man, shut the fuck up, we all know you still playin’ his music / Said I’m tired of these emotional-ass, ungrateful-ass bitches / Fake innocent, fake feminist, stop pretendin’ / Y’all sentiments ain’t realer than what you defendin’.”
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The Grammy winner wonders why “women in general just can’t get along” while Paige warns, “Stop tap-dancing around the conversation.”
Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Lamar released his fifth studio album after a five-year hiatus.
Paige is a classically trained ballerina turned actress, who previously worked with celebrity choreographer Debbie Allen. Paige was a featured dancer in “High School Musical 3: Senior Year,” as well as the 2014 music video of “She Came To Give It To You” by Usher and Nicki Minaj.
She appeared in “Jean Of the Joneses” and “White Boy Rick” before starring in the critically acclaimed 2020 Sundance hit “Zola.” Paige won Best Female Lead at the 2022 Film Independent Spirit Award for portraying real-life exotic dancer A’Ziah “Zola” King, who got caught up in a road trip gone wrong. King wrote a viral Twitter thread in 2015 that became the basis for Janicza Bravo‘s film.
“I really, really, really love the words ‘independent,’ ‘film’ and ‘spirit,'” Paige said at the 2022 Spirit Awards when accepting her trophy. “The world that we live in, but also just being an artist, being a human, is really weird and you can feel like you’re alone and on this island and like being rejected, but the boundlessness of this — the spirit of this — is what keeps me uplifted in my attempt, so I just hope to keep attempting.”
Paige added, “It’s hard to be a human. It’s really weird. It’s like the most impossible circumstances and we’re all just trying, so thank you for being alive.”
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