On August 20, 2021, Kendrick Lamar revealed through a blog post on his website that he was in the process of producing his upcoming fifth studio album; his final project under Top Dawg Entertainment.

[9] Leon Ware and Arthur "T-Boy" Ross received posthumous songwriting credits for the interpolation of the 1976 single "I Want You", as performed by Marvin Gaye.

[13] In the video, Lamar performs the song against a red wall, while using deepfake technology to transform himself into six modern Black American figures: in order, they are former football player and convicted felon O. J. Simpson, rapper Kanye West, actors Jussie Smollett and Will Smith, former basketball player Kobe Bryant, and rapper Nipsey Hussle.

"[24] Pitchfork crowned the song with its "Best New Track" honor, with Dylan Green writing, "The convincingness of the deepfakes is mixed, to say the least, but they amplify Lamar's words and serve to visualize a complicated lineage through Blackness and the pressures of celebrity.

Highlighting Lamar's "own love for his community", Beaumont-Thomas praised how he "divines" Marvin Gaye's "innate social conscience, changing the title line from one of lust to one of hope, using the urgent disco rhythm to perfectly impart the seriousness of his feeling.

"[26] Kyann-Sian Williams of NME writes that "In the final version of his form (he's said this will be his last album on the Top Dawg Entertainment label), Lamar – or Oklama – is taking ownership of his elder role in the rap world.