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7. To Pimp a Butterfly - Kendrick Lamar (2015)
Hip Hop
At the 2014 Grammy awards, the award for Best Rap Album was given to Macklemore & Ryan Lewis for their shockingly successful and unbelievably appropriately named album, The Heist. In winning this award, the duo beat out Drake (Nothing Was the Same), Kanye (Yeezus), Jay-Z (Magna Carta… Holy Grail), and Kendrick Lamar (good kid, m.A.A.d city). Let’s just take a moment to let that sink in.
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Regardless of whether or not Kendrick had put much stock in garnering accolades like Grammys, getting infamously and egregiously robbed in 2014 just might have been the best thing for him. Good kid, m.A.A.d city brought him worldwide attention and established him among a handful of rappers (at least two of which were also ripped off along side him that same night) at the very tip top of the rap game.
Good kid, m.A.A.d city (#50 on this list) did a lot of things very well. It managed to capture the essence of west coast gangster rap, while being decidedly conscious throughout, striking a balance that Kendrick pulled off to great effect. But it was a “mainstream” rap album, brimming with youthful energy and with clear Top 40 aspirations. It was evident on this, Kendrick’s breakthrough into the big time, that he had his sights set on bigger things, that he wouldn’t be content to churn out party records for frat boys (like his Top Dawg Entertainment brother ScHoolboy Q). He wanted to change the game.
Losing out on the Grammy in 2014 might not have been devastating to Kendrick, in fact I doubt that it was, but it probably recalibrated his aim in terms of what was to come next. That moment illustrated the transience of popular opinion and the obvious meaninglessness of industry awards like the Grammys, which are a nothing but an inconsistent function of popular appeal. Suddenly free from whatever compulsions he may have had previously to appeal to these fickle popular sensibilities, Kendrick was left to explore his greater aspirations, his conscious hip-hop dreams, his musical ambition, all of it.
The result was To Pimp a Butterfly, an album drastically and unapologetically out of left field within the context of popular hip hop at the time. Its nearly 80 minute run time is absolutely jam-packed with layer after layer of deep, deep meaning, thoughtfully woven in, around, and through possibly the most diverse portfolio of sound ever contained in one album. Kendrick’s goals for the album were plentiful and lofty and he achieved them all by creating one of the most well-executed rap albums ever made.
The most striking quality of To Pimp a Butterfly is its vast, complex and diverse sound which serves as Kendrick’s tribute to Black music that’s come before. Incorporating funk, bop, elements of disco, and a heavy dose of jazz, the album exudes an eclectic, pulsating energy, expertly channeled from the library of history and arranged so meticulously as to envelope the listener in a veritable museum of African American music. “For Free”, an interlude track after album opener “Wesley’s Theory” depicts an angry Black woman colorfully disparaging her man for a number of perceived shortcomings over a lush and bombastic jazz arrangement. The effect is remarkable, illustrating the distinct and surprisingly endearing musicality of the woman’s ire by featuring it as the star instrument on the track. “King Kunta”, which ironically ended up being the biggest single from the album, does very little to primp itself for mainstream consumption. Atop a sort of “dopey” bassline that conjures a slew of simpleton sentiments seemingly directed at the contingent who were foolish enough to doubt Kendrick’s potential, the track also makes obvious references to Roots, the famous Alex Haley slave epic detailing the tribulations of Kunta Kinte.
From a lyrical perspective the album waxes philosophical, pondering big questions relating to the role of African Americans in the modern day U.S. The resiliently upbeat “Alright” became the unofficial anthem of the Black Lives Matter movement, affirming that amidst chaos and injustice, “if God got us then we gon’ be alright”. Conversely, “The Blacker the Berry” struggles with the hypocrisy of ascribing to a movement like that as someone who’s also participating in gang violence that perpetuates Black on Black violence. It’s a stark call for Black America to look in the mirror and answer honestly when asked if they’re doing everything they can to stem the tide of violence in their communities. On “You Ain’t Gotta Lie”, reassurances are offered to the less confident youth in these communities who are indoctrinated with the idea that they need to “front” and act hard in order to be accepted. The climax of the album, “i”, is an exuberant and joyful celebration, in drastic contrast to the earlier track “u”, which depicts a suicidal Kendrick chastising and denigrating himself mercilessly between the refrain “loving you is complicated”. Conversely, “i” finds him repeating the affirmation “I love myself”. It ends with a chill-inducing address from Kendrick to a small crowd at a show suddenly becoming divided in a petty squabble. He implores his people to put that pettiness away and unify in the face of repression and discrimination. It’s a powerful statement from an artist willfully taking up the mantle of his idol, Tupac Shakur.
The working title for the album was Tu Pimp A Caterpillar, a nod to Tupac, the undisputed king of west coast hip hop and a pioneer of conscious rap. Spoken interludes interspersed throughout the album gradually comprise a letter to the late legend that culminates in a cleverly constructed “dialogue” between the two on the last track “Mortal Man” in which Kendrick seeks advice from Tupac on how to navigate life as a superstar while also focusing on being a leader and role model within his community. The back and forth, constructed using recorded interviews from Tupac while he was alive, is eerie and thought-provoking. It concludes with Kendrick reading to him a letter a friend wrote that describes the caterpillar/butterfly analogy that defines the album, only to finish it and realize that ‘Pac is gone.
To Pimp a Butterfly definitively placed Kendrick at the pinnacle of hip hop. It’s an album that, as he himself predicted, will be taught at universities; a product so singularly and critically important to the culture that its impact will never fade away. Almost unquestionably the most important album of the decade, it became a sort of one-off foray into this philosophical arena for Kendrick. Follow-ups untitled unmastered. and Damn. focused their attention elsewhere, while still making huge impacts. His continued reticence to perform tracks from TPAB during live performances seems to indicate Kendrick’s desire to let the album rest, to grow organically with age. It is his shining contribution to the culture of Black America, and to all America, and for that he’ll remain an icon forever.
*image; cover art for the album To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar