“Collard Greens” by ScHoolboy Q (ft. Kendrick Lamar)

Collard greens, as you probably already know, is a type of plant food that tends to be especially popular in traditional African-American (i.e. Southern) cultures. However, considering the word “green” found within the term, it is also one that intrinsically has a number of potential colloquial applications. 

For instance, being that many rappers, including Schoolboy Q, are weed aficionados, well, take into mind that weed does tend to be green. Also considering that Schoolboy dedicates ample lyrics to propagating weed smoking, then some listeners have logically assumed that such is the “collard greens” he is referring to. We can assure you that he definitely isn’t using the term to point to the aforementioned dish! But what the rapper is rather alluding to is money, i.e. his wealth.

In any event, even though Q may reference getting high quite a few times in the first verse, in actuality the passage is about a myriad of topics. Interesting to note though is that at the time he was heavily affiliated with a crew called Black Hippy which, just by implication of such a moniker, wouldn’t specialize in gangsta rap. And accordingly this particular piece reads a lot tamer than some of his more recent works, at least as far as this passage goes.

Kendrick Lamar

Meanwhile Kendrick’s verse is very-sexually oriented, especially if you translate some of the lyrics which are rendered in Spanish. 

He also doesn’t necessarily stick to the topic of “collard greens”, i.e. money. But K. Dot does close out the passage by mentioning a couple of aspects of his lifestyle which would convincingly indicate that he is in fact rich.

Schoolboy Steps in Again

Then comes the third verse, which is also held down by Schoolboy Q. This verse reads a lot like a combination of the first and second. For therein we have ample citations to blazing herb. Furthermore, Q briefly, albeit graphically depicts his sexual encounter with a romantic interest.

What “Collard Greens” is all about

Thus we can also conclude that this song is primarily about weed and sex, with the titular “collard greens” taking more of a backseat subject-wise. Or using logical reasoning, let’s say that it is the collard greens which empowers the vocalists to fully enjoy a lifestyle full of weed and intimate encounters.

When was “Collard Greens” released?

This song was released on 11 June 2013. It is the earliest big hit in Schoolboy Q’s discography, which itself dates back to 2008. 

At the time Kendrick Lamar, a rapper who would later go on to a Pulitzer Prize (in 2018) amongst other great achievements, was also a relative newjack in the game. 

And both artists were associated through sharing a common ‘hood, that being southern Los Angeles. Furthermore both are also part of a crew of Top Dawg artists that was formed in 2008 called Black Hippy. 

And in fact even though we may rarely hear of this superteam featuring Kendrick and Schoolboy alongside Ab-Soul and Jay Rock, they are still technically extant as of the writing of this post, though the last time they dropped a track was in 2016.

More Facts

This song served as the lead single from Oxymoron, Schoolboy Q’s third studio album. The track was co-produced by a highly-successful musical team THC.

Two of the members of THC, Axel Morgan and Ricci Riera, also acted as co-writers of “Collard Greens”.

Another musician who performed both roles is Gwen Bunn. And of course the two vocalists are additionally acknowledged as writers of the tune.

Macklemore made an appearance on the music video to this song. The visual itself was directed by an artist known as JeromeD.

The audio itself had a moderate critical showing. It appeared on four Billboard charts overall and fared most impressively on the Heatseekers Songs list. On this list, it peaked at number nine. But it was a major commercial success in that Collard Greens has been certified double-platinum by the RIAA.

Kendrick’s Spanish and French Lyrics on “Collard Greens”

On this song, Kendrick drops lyrics not only in Spanish but also French. Neither of these are languages which he apparently knows how to speak. But he was able to include such via an association with an employee of Interscope who was from Peru and taught him these phrases. 

To note, Schoolboy Q didn’t actually understand at first what his collaborator was saying in Spanish.