Songfacts®:

• Kendrick Lamar's father, Kenny Duckworth, moved to Compton, California, from Chicago in 1984. Before his move, Kenny had been running with a notorious street gang called the Gangster Disciples. When the rapper's mom, Paula Oliver, gave him an ultimatum, they boarded a train to California with $500. After three years, the pair saved enough money for their first apartment and gave birth to Kendrick. Money was tight, so Kenny continued to work the streets to provide for the trio.
  
  Kenny kept his gangsta mentality, raising his son to be unforgiving of himself and not show his feelings. Here, Lamar speaks candidly about his tough upbringing and the personal and mental health problems that his "daddy issues" created.
• Lamar opens the song with a sketch where his fiancée, Whitney Alford, tells him to seek counseling from spiritual teacher and author Eckhart Tolle. Throughout Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, Lamar positions the self-help sage as his spiritual adviser.
• Kanye West and Drake had a longstanding beef that started when the Toronto MC accused the Chicago rapper of leaking the story of his then-secret child, Adonis, to Pusha T. The rap titans' feud continued for several years until they reconciled in late 2021. During the second verse, Lamar offers his reaction to the squashing of their vendetta.
  
  When Kanye got back with Drake, I was slightly confused
  Guess I'm not as mature as I think, got some healing to do
  
  Because of Lamar's "daddy issues," it surprised him that two men could so easily make up. The rapper realized his heart is still too hard because of the masculine values and self-pride passed onto him by his father.
• Lamar has collaborated with both Drake and West multiple times and toured alongside them in 2012 and 2013, respectively. His interest in their reconciliation may have ignited when the two reconciled rappers hosted a Free Larry Hoover Concert in December 2021. Incarcerated since 1973, Larry Hoover is the co-founder of Kenny Duckworth's former street gang, Gangster Disciples.
• English singer-songwriter Sampha croons the hook. He references how Lamar bottles up his emotions because of his father's tough love. Sampha's debut album, Process, won the 2017 Mercury Prize, an annual award given to the best album from the UK and Ireland.
• Grandmaster Vic, Duval Timothy, Bekon, DJ Dahi, Beach Noise and Sounwave's production samples Hoskins 'Ncrowd's 1960 track "You're Not There."
• Kendrick Lamar also recorded a track about his father for his DAMN album. "DUCKWORTH" tells the true story of a chance encounter back in 1984 between his dad and label boss Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith.
• The song's opening lines are one of Lamar's favorite lyrics from Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers.
  
  You really need some therapy
  Real nigga need no therapy
  
  There is a stigma among African American men refusing to address their mental health. Much of this comes from Black men being brought up to be macho and ignore their emotional difficulties. "You live and you experience this s--t that you go through and you deal with it right then and there, or you don't ever deal with it. We learned to hold all our s--hit in," said the rapper in the mini-documentary A Day In Ghana With Kendrick Lamar. "To challenge myself to go to therapy... s--t. That's like a whole new step in a whole new generation. It's growth."
• Kendrick Lamar gave "Father Time" its first live outing during his July 19, 2022 concert at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. It was one of seven Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers tracks he premiered during the show.