To Pimp A Butterfly

If there's any textbook example of outdoing oneself, sure as hell Kendrick Lamar is doing it. GKMC was already an contender to be a pivotal rap album in the history of rap music, and then he drops this bomb. 2PAB is everything GKMC was, and then some. The lyrics are pure dope and are chock-full of references, innuendos and double meanings (I'm trying to understand them one by one through Rapgenius). The production is tight and loose at the same time: you have your wiggly radio-friendly beat-fests, soul, funk, g-funk, jazz, spoken word, a Capella which flows silky smooth throughout the LP. To top it all, you have this 27 year old kid effortlessly spitting it out about racism, consumerism, institutionalism, God and the bible, self-love, depreciation, idealism and a bunch of other topics. And the outro of the last track is downright chilling. When the album was over, my mind was blown from all that awesomeness. As a listener, sometimes it becomes a sensory overload to process all of it at the crazy pace Lamar often spat it out in the album. Yet whenever I listen to it, it feels fresh and new. I thought nobody could do all that. This kid, this damn kid my age did. Favorite tracks: Wesley's Theory For Free? King Kunta Hood Politics How Much a Dollar Cost The Blacker the Berry You Ain't Gonna Lie Heck the whole album is a must listen.

Just perfection.

This album along with Lupe Fiasco's Tetsuo and Youth are the best albums that have released in 2015 till now. The best thing about the genre is how it heavily incorporates jazz.

This will go down as classic. Eazy.

best rap music cd of 2015

a classic. must buy for your hip hop collection

Don't expect a lot of instantly likable material: it will grow on you with time. He's somehow managed to be a socially conscious gangster

#1 No doubt.

Kendrick Lamar has finally released the successor to his gigantic success and modern-day classic "Good Kid m.A.A.d City" (2012). Many people, myself included, wondered how he could possibly match the enormous success of GKMC. After all, it was widely-regarded as the best hip-hop album in years, and in my opinion is the greatest hip-hop album of the 2000's or 2010's. So it's impossible Kendrick could possibly find enough inspiration to match the masterpiece that was GKMC, right? Wrong. He proved that completely and utterly wrong with "To Pimp a Butterfly." From the opening sample of the album that quickly turns into a cacophony of old-school west coast G-funk assembling the bassline for the opening track, "Wesley's Theory," it's clear that Kendrick has taken an artistic turn since GKMC, which with some exceptions had a very modern hip-hop sound. P-funk legend George Clinton even laces the track with vocals to make the funk influence more conspicuous. After hearing the next song, the "interlude" (even though both interludes are decently long) "For Free?," it is apparent that this album's sound will be very funk- and jazz- heavy. "For Free?" really displays how Lamar is not at all looking for a mainstream audience with this album as it has Kendrick rapping in a scat-like form over a straight-up jazz backbeat. No bass, no catchy hook, just quick-hitting rapping of "This d*** ain't freeee" over saxophone, piano, and some jazzy percussion. "King Kunta" then displays a James Brown-esque groovy rhythm and "These Walls" combines some soul and funk with great vocals contributed by Anna Wise. While there are some tracks later on the album such as "Alright" or "Hood Politics" that have more traditional percussion-led hip hop beats, there is a major jazz and funk influence on the overall sound of the album. It also must be noted that a majority of the songs contain some sort of beat change mid-song to keep the listener on their feet and rarely ever able to get comfortable with the music. This is a complete 180 from GKMC, which from the first listen was very listener-friendly with its sound. Building on top of the unsettling effect of having so many beat changes within songs is the lyrical content of the album. Anyone that heard the single "The Blacker the Berry" knows that this album has some major racial and social themes running through it. While many concept albums fall victim to the church effect of coming off as too preachy, Kendrick is absolutely incredible at never coming off as haughty or self-righteous. He does this by acting more as a reporter than as someone that is above the topics he's talking about. This gift reminds me of how Nas was able to tell stories fairly objectively in his early career. A good example of this is the song "How Much a Dollar Cost," which is a story about Lamar's confrontation with a homeless person in South Africa. While many rappers may simplify the societal issue of homelessness by rapping something along the lines of "Steal from the rich, give to the poor, you're terrible if you don't support a homeless person," Kendrick takes us through the roller coaster of emotions he experiences in this confrontation that really give you the feeling that this is a true story. Furthermore, it allows the listener to connect to an experience with which they likely have had similar experiences in the past. Overall, I could go on for days and break down each track's brilliant complexity lyrically/sonically, but I'll save that for professional music critics, and I'll just say that: The lyrics on this album explore a huge bevy of societal issues along with personal struggles giving insight into Kendrick's not-so-perfect life ("u"). What I love about it is that he explores how messy and seemingly impossible these problems are to solve, but resolves the album with a track like "i." The message is very similar to MLK Jr. or Gandhi's "Be the change you wish to see in the world," and this isn't even to mention the two beautiful poems that interweave throughout the album and wrap up its themes incredibly well in the final track, "Mortal Man." It's great that such a big artist is so focused on providing a positive message for the countless youth that listen to his music. And he still displays artistic brilliance while doing so. Another instant classic for King Kendrick!

Anche se il mio album preferito è Mr. Morale (per me un 10/10) Capisco perché è così da critica e pubblico (per me è un 9,75/10). È un album con dei testi profondi e delle rime fantastiche, con una jazz che rende il tutto più spettacolare. E non mancano neanche le hit. Alright è un singolo fantastico. Kendrick è un grande

力強いラップ。クラシック。

absolute goated album with one of the best Kendrick intro songs of all time, and i adore the cover art the only problem was that it came with a huge crack in the plastic case, which i got another one for but whatever goated album

Das Verlangen, dieses neue Werk von Kendrick zu hören war für mich riesig, da mir seine vorherigen Mixtapes, Section 80 und ganz besonders good kid, m.A.A.d. city unheimlich gut gefallen haben. Aus lyrischer Sicht ist good kid von vorne bis hinten fantastisch und obwohl ich kein allzu großer Fan von diesen mainstreamigen Dirty South Beats bin, haben die mir zu meiner Überraschung da echt gut gefallen. Ist To Pimp A Butterfly dope? Ist es besser als der Vorgänger? Und hat das Album auch die Lobpreisungen verdient? Meine Antworten auf diese Fragen sind ja, ja und ja. Das Album ist good kid in jedem Aspekt überlegen. Lyrisch und beattechnisch ist es das kreativste and künstlerischste Projekt, das wir bisher von Kendrick zu hören bekommen haben und zudem komplett anders als die Vorgänger. Die erste Single "i" war schon ein Indiz darauf, wie Kendrick das Album angehen wird. Als die Single erschien, war jeder überrascht, denn die kam wie aus dem nichts und hatte nicht den üblichen Kendrick sound. Anfangs hat mir der Song auch nicht gefallen, doch nach mehrmaligem hören mochte ich ihn immer mehr. Monate später kam dann The Blacker The Berry und das war der Punkt wo ich gehyped war. Mir hat der düstere Boom Bap Beat und der lyrische Inhalt sehr gut gefallen, ebenso die Art wie Kendricks aggresive delivery and seine raue und kratzige Stimme den Beat perfekt ergänzt haben. Die letzte Single, die kurz vor dem Release von To Pimp... erschien war King Kunta. Ein weiteres Lied, das ich genossen habe aufgrund der funkigen/groovigen Natur des Beats, welcher den Vibe eines frühen 90er westcoast sound hatte und sehr an das frühe Material von DJ Quik erinnert. Das Album an sich ist wie bereits gesagt anders und auch soundmäßig sowie thematisch ein gewagter Schritt vfür einen Mainstream-Künstler wie Kendrick Lamar. Das hätte locker ein Schuss nach hinten sein können. Gott sei Dank ist dem nicht so. Beattechnisch orientiert sich das Album eher an einem klassischen Sound und bedient sich an Sounds mehrerer Musik-Genres. Die Soundkulisse ist vielfältig, dennoch hat man es hier geschafft, dass alle Lieder nahtlos aneinandergeknüpft sind und wie in einem Fluss laufen. Natürlich ist der stand out Kendrick selber, der hier nachwievor in Höchstform ist. Ich finde es echt klasse, dass Kendrick sich nicht von Sozialkritik distanziert. Er thematisiert unter anderem die Probleme innerhalb der schwarzen Gemeinschaft, macht es aber im Vergleich zu gewissen anderen Rap-Künstlern mit Stil und nicht auf radikale und beschuldigende Art und Weise. Vielmehr ist er darauf aus, nicht nur das Selbstwertgefühl seiner Leute, sondern auch das der Menschheit zu stärken. Natürlich ist Kendrick dazu nicht abgeneigt, auch persönliche Erfahrungen in dieses Werk mit einfließen zu lassen. So stellt er z.B. sein Leben als Rap Superstar in Frage. Abschließend kann ich sagen, dass To Pimp A Butterfly ein exzellentes Album des Ausnahmetalents aus Compton ist und womöglich mein album of the year 2015 sein wird. Ich gehe schwer davon aus, dass dieses Jahr ein Projekt kommen wird, das dieses Album auch nur im Geringsten das Wasser reichen wird.