EPT"To Pimp a Butterfly" is Kendrick Lamar's third sutdio album .It was released in 2015 and follows his highly successful sophomore album "Good Kid M.A.A.D City." The Compton hardened rapper is here to make a statement: "I got the world's attention" he utters on "Complexion (A Zulu Love)" "so imma say something that's vital." It's a mission statement as difficult as it is usual.
The title of the album, Lamar has stated, means to sell out a thing of beauty. He employs metaphor: the butterfly represents beauty, and to pimp means to sell out for profit. The implication is that Lamar will stay true to his art and his message.
"To Pimp a Butterfly" is an album meant as a unified piece. It has refrains and transitions and spoken word and instrumental interludes. It has motifs and themes. It has singles, to be sure, but the album is clearly meant to be listened to as a whole.
The album is more melodious than his previous work. That is its strength. Lamar demonstrates his ear for counterpoint and rag-time rapping, funking, grooving and changing genres with the ease of a master. Complex.com called it a "free jazz rap album." That does not say it completely. The chorus on "The Blacker the Berry" is performed by dancehall artist Assasin adding a Jamaican flavour to the song, while "King Kunta" reminds one of a funk band like Funkadelic. The samples and musical allusions are great in number and may require research to fully grasp. "i" uses a sample from "The Lady" by The Isley Brothers.
Gun shot samples, imagery including jail cells, streets, tribes in Africa and the stages of a butterfly are used to illustrate a point. Several songs make heavy use of allusion, and even clichés are used to great effect. "Black don't crack" he says in one of the darker moments on an already dark album, implying that he will make it through his suffering.
Themes on this album are tangled up. Universal themes like liberation and romantic love are here but so are themes that concern Kendrick as an artist and as a black American.He is concerned with his role as an artist. In the spoken word poem he recites between songs, he states "I remember you was conflicted, misusing your influence, sometimes I did the same." He intends to speak up and say difficult things about being black in North America.
One of the album's singles "Alright" comes at a time of tense race relations in North America. On The potent chorus he chants "and we hate po-po/wanna kill us dead in the street fo' sho'" speaking for the Black Lives Matter movement, which have been known to chant "We gon' be alright" at protests and marches. On the verses Lamar spits about his personal wealth stating with characteristic flow the things he lives for. Eventually he admits he may have gone "cray" but insists that "if God got us" then we will be alright. The a choire humming "da" in unison along with the beat that stutters creates a sense of danger. "Alls my life I has to fight!" he yells, and his tone is clear. He wants to defy the pain somehow and he will do it with the bravado of his voice.
Later, on the album, during "The Blacker the Berry," Lamar questions his emotions and his statements, and he asks "so why did I weep...When gang bangin' make me kill a nigga blacker than me?"
Another single "King Kunta" is a funky, deep, bass driven song. It grows on you. It builds up with a familiar sense of impending danger but it settles into a satisfying, grooving crescendo. It alludes to Kunta Kinte (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunta_Kinte) a slave. The effect of said allusion central to"King Kunta". He has freedom and it is central to his royalty. He says: "If I got to brown nose for some gold then I rather be a bum than a baller." He is a king now, above his old enemies, no longer walking (driving now) he has yams (money) and that is power in this world, but can he enjoy it when his brothers are not.
Survivors guilt, and the war on discrimination are weighing him down. This is his concern he reveals spoken word poem, which he utters after various songs. He has an atidote though and it is respect. Respect for his fellow blacks regardless of their gang colours
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Kendrick Lamar succeeds in speaking up about what hurts. Where he fails is with the unity of the album. Musically his range is all there. He flows he yelps and most of all he stays true to his inner butterfly.
