My Extremely Long "To Pimp a Butterfly" Blog Post

Meet Kendrick Lamar.

I was introduced to Kendrick in 2012, reading the hailed reviews for his good kid, m.A.A.d city album. A listened to it all the way through the following year and fell in love. I then tried his 2011 album Section 8.0 and was fairly impressed. But To Pimp a Butterfly was a surprise to me. Because I loved good kid so much, Kendrick returned with the most unexpected turn of all: A better album.

At first, I liked Butterfly enough. I expected a funk rap album and that's what I was getting. On first listen, I wasn't paying attention to the storyline, which made it difficult for me to enjoy every song. But I'll never forget hearing those last 4 songs for the first time. It was all coming together. I had previously heard the promo single "The Blacker the Berry," so I was literally yelling in my chair like I was at a football game ("OOOOHHH!") when I heard the surprise, intercom spoken-word intro:
"I don’t see Compton, I see something much worse. The land of the landmines, the hell that’s on earth."

"The Blacker the Berry" is an angsty powerhouse of a track with a smooth, soulful outro. This leads us to "You Ain't Gotta Lie," a friendly, familiar song, but ends with the sound of a crowd. The crowd spills onto track 15, "i." "i" was the first single; catchy and funky, a Grammy-winner and top 40 hit. So what I was hearing on the album just made 0 sense. It was a live version! There's a minute of crowd noise and some guy introducing Kendirck to the stage. He plays the song for about 2 minutes then he stops the show as a sudden volume burst from the crowd takes over. "Not on my time! Kill the music! We could save that sh** for the streets!"
What happened? Did a fight breakout? Anyways, the crowd continues buzzing while Kendrick is onstage trying to get everyone to listen stressing the importance of black unity; microphone in hand, amid a crowd of voices.. it sounded apocalyptic.

He catches their attention with an a capella rap, discussing the word "N-E-G-U-S." This is where the racist slang "nigger" came from, but is actually the Ethiopian word for "king royalty."
The next song, "Mortal Man," is this musically beautiful, minor key song. In the closing verse, he raps: "Let my word be your earth and moon. You consume every message, as I lead this army." Through the whole song, covered in goosebumps, I think to myself: Oh my gosh. This is the end,

But something was missing... The poem! THE POEM! OOOOHHH! HE HAS TO FINISH THE POEM! 
Throughout the album, there's a poem he reads between songs. With each citation, he reveals more lines to it. And sure enough, he reads the whole thing as the music fades out on modern man. The full poem is linked here, and it my first listen to it was the most bone-chilling thing I've ever heard.

The story of Butterfly goes over Kendrick's life since becoming rich and famous. Having grown up on the streets of Compton, he thought stardom would help him donate money to his hometown friends and family. But he gets sucked in by the album's antagonist, "Lucy." It's hard to 100% pinpoint who Lucy is, but I have various answers: Music Industry, America, Fame, Pride, Greed. He describes his relationship with Lucy as something both unhealthy and sexual (try the discomforting, hard-to-read, "Wesley's Theory"). He raps in a different voice when he represents Lucy (like the Tom Waits of hip-hop). Kendrick realizes he's not the first black musician to get "pimped" by Lucy. 

He goes back home on my favorite track "Momma." His relationships with his old poverty-struck friends has been blurred by his fame. None of Lucy's promises were true ("Lucy gone move your mama out of Compton inside the gigantic mansion like I promised!") The message turns from his inward struggle with fame to the outward expression of black/African-American humanity. 

The percentage of black-on-black murders in America has been 90% or higher for the last 5 years. Kendrick witnessed gang crime throughout his childhood. His new intent is no longer to represent himself, but represent his entire demographic; almost as much in a militant manner as poetically.
It's super hard to grasp the plot just from the first listen. It seems like all the songs are individually not too related to each other. But it all makes sense. All the sexual references, the self-doubting messages, even the choice of which background singers are used-- all where they are for a reason.

After he finishes his poem on "Mortal Man." he does an interview with... Tupac Shakur. What? But he's dead! Well, Kendrick plays interviewer to some samples from some 1994 interview Tupac did with some Swedish radio show. Some club-jazz music plays behind the interview. I have no idea where the heck Kendrick got this idea, but whatever. Eventually Kendrick shares a poem with Tupac (a very much different poem than the one he drew out during the album, but same message). The album ends with the jazz music climaxing as Kendrick asks Tupac (unanswered):
"What's your perspective on that, Pac? Pac?"
(music suddenly stops)
"...Pac?" 
End album. 

I always laud pop artists for writing songs where each word used has a deeper meaning. To pull this off on an 80-minute rap album is extremely hard. This is both Kendrick's third album and third concept album. Considering they're all good, I'd say he joins the concept album ranks of Pink Floyd.
The music throughout the album is full of old black musical influences; namely funk, jazz, soul. The message of hope for the future of black America (try "Alright," Rapsody's guest verse on "Complexion") is noticeable, but at the same time covered by dark stories of their current reality (try "Hood Politics," the crowd argument of "i"). The album cover shows a crowd of shirtless black males holding cash in-hand on the White House lawn, surrounding a dead white man dressed as a court judge. Plenty of black artists have written, sang and rapped about black oppression, but I guarantee you-- musically, metaphorically-- you have never heard anything like this before.

Some people think this album to preachy, boring and stark. But he has some fun on here. Some phrases have been given popularity from this album:
BOO-BOO! He says this on "Hood Politics," after listing things people from the hood have loved their whole lives. It's like he's shooting them down, one-by-one.
THIS. D**K. AIN'T. FREEEEE! From "For Free? (Interlude)." He raps about greed and black America for 90 seconds over legitimate "free jazz" rhythm; each verse bookended by this phrase.
BUST THE YAMS! "King Kunta" is the total banger on the album, featuring the most quotable lines and the greatest bass line of the year. I imagine people cranking this in a parking lot and people all over going ape-shizz. Anyways, I found out just last month that "yams" is a slang term for "cocaine." Kendrick doesn't smoke or drink, but I'm sure people drop coke to his music all the time.
WE GONNA BE ALRIGHT! "Alright" is one of the album's most accessible songs, yet it instrumentally almost entirely consists of jazz vocals, with a bizarre chord progression to boot. This phrase has been used as a chant by Black Lives Matters protesters. We gonna be all-RIGHT!
THE BLACKER THE BERRY, THE SWEETER THE JUICE. Fact is folks, Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly is poetically-- if not literally or sonically-- the voice of the future. The minor key moments make it seem spooky at times, but we're just not ready for it yet. This album is as beautiful as it is dark. In Kendrick's eyes, the future is black.