Kunta Kinte is the main character in the novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley. Haley’s said that Kunta Kinte was his own great, great, great grandfather and the character is based on a mix of fact and fiction. Kinte refused to accept the name “Toby” that slave masters tried to give him and his right foot was cut off following his attempts to escape the plantation he was enslaved on.

Kendrick explained what influenced this song to NME: