Kendrick Lamar and pgLang co-founder Dave Free explained the creative process for the short film starring Taylour Paigem "We Cry Together" from Kendrick's latest album, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. The discussion took place during a panel moderated by actress Tessa Thompson following a screening of the short film.

“[We were like] let’s find super intense moments that have a lot of atmosphere in the room. And as we went through the process we started talking about how this should be a film,” Free said, adding that the film was recorded before the 2020 COVID lockdowns. “We settled on a one-take format that was essentially a dance in the room. There was a lot of people in that room, even outside of Kendrick, dancing around to capture that. And Jake was a huge help. He did some one-take work that we were really inspired by, so we asked him to join us, and we started putting the pieces together.”

Kendrick added that the film actually came before they'd even put the song on the actual album. “The crazy part about this joint is that it started with the film first and the music — putting it on the actual album — came after,” K-Dot also said. “The idea was always to capture this writing, not no song, [but] the writing and the film and the texture and the cinematography of it in order to get the full experience out.”

Kendrick said that he trusts Free's creative vision, and that they've known each other since they were teens. “I always had trust in Dave, and vice versa, to trust all of our ideas as a collective," he said. "And I think the energy that we bring, and the groundwork that we put forth brought us individuals like Taylour and Jake to come and say, ‘OK, this is a collective I want to be a part of and not be blocked in by the margins of what people perceive is OK."

Kendrick continued, "“Ultimately, the main thing is, [we wanted to show] people that we can actually identify with, not only from our culture but from cultures all around the world,” Lamar concluded. “I think we all [know] individuals out there that feel like they can’t find an agreement — whether it’s their surroundings, or whether it’s their psyche that puts them in that environment. So the environment played a huge role, that’s something we definitely wanted to bring to life along with the script. It was just as important as the individuals that were actually spewing out the insults.”

Check out the short film above.