KendricK Lamar
To Pimp A Butterfly
courtesy of theboombox.com
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Time has a way of influencing music, artistry, people, places, things and everything in between. Over the course of the three years since Kendrick Lamar released his critically acclaimed debut, good kid, m.A.A.d city, he has matured as a man, rapper and more notably as a role model.
In 2013, he was focused on capturing the essence of his life prior to rap fame. good kid, m.A.A.d city was dedicated to not only telling his own story but he also served as a voice for the involuntary mutes of the ghetto and he couldn’t deliver their experience fast enough. K. Dot seduced hip-hop heads with his unapologetic rawness on cinematic, autobiographical tracks like “Backstreet Freestyle,” “Sherene a.k.a Master Splinter’s Daughter” and “The Art of Peer Pressure,” to name a few. He shared his trials and tribulations — which centered on Compton, the crime-riddled streets and his own career — at the right moment and fans listened receptively.
His second major label effort, To Pimp a Butterfly, radiates with a parallel sense of urgency. When it was unexpectedly released on iTunes on March 15 — a week ahead of the previously announced March 23 date — the lyrical gift from the MC caused supporters on social media to cry synchronized emoji tears of joy. But for those fans expecting anything remotely similar to good kid, m.A.A.d city, the ever-enigmatic Lamar had a different story to tell.
The Grammy Award-winning artist dedicated this entire album to issues of racism, sexism and self-destruction in the black community. K. Dot’s 80-minute soliloquy is as nostalgic as it is timely. He takes the listener through the stages of becoming a butterfly, from self- awareness to discovery. In order to illustrate his own despair, which is mirrored by that of black America today, he retreated to the origins of black music.
Lamar borrows the poeticism of Gil-Scott Heron, the funkdafied glory of George Clinton, the uninhibited jazz rifts of Herbie Hancock and Duke Ellington and the brash narratives of N.W.A. to create sonic art that embodies every sense of the phrase “for us by us.”