Kendrick Lamar releases To Pimp a Butterfly

Timelines Involved

Kendrick Lamar

Analysis

Kendrick Lamar releases his 3rd studio album under Top Dawg Entertainment. This album released 8 days early. This album resembles a poem, after most songs the poem progresses a little bit more and at the last song he says the entire poem.

This album was very well received and the album itself received 7 Grammy nominations so in total Kendrick Lamar received 11 Grammy nomations. It was the highest rated album among critics in the 2010s as well as being very highly rated by the public.

Kendrick says on the Jimmy Fallon Show that he wanted this to be his debut album but he wasn't confident enough.

On an MTV interview Kendrick Lamar explains the title of the album. He says the original name was supposed to be Tu Pimp A Caterpillar because the abbreviation would be TuP.A.C but he decided to do butterfly because it shows the beauty of life with the aggression of the word pimp. The title can mean many things such as making sure he doesn't get pimped out by the industry, and using his celebrity for good.

Kendrick explains the cover in the interview as well, he says that the cover is inspired by Wesley's Theory and it's about going back to his neighborhood and bringing people who haven't seen anything around the world, though this is just one of many meanings there are deeper meanings which he didn't explain.

This album deals with internal hatred and love as well as going heavy into politics about race in the US. In the last part of the MTV Interview Kendrick talks about the University of Oklahoma racism scandal, Trayvon Martin's passing, and Michael Brown's passing all lining up with the message of the album was god's doing, the message of the album was already intended from the start.

There was criticism that the album was too preachy, and he responded to this on a Breakfast Club interview after the album came out saying that he was just talking about his life so he didn't understand that criticism.

In the same interview he says he doesn't like that people were already calling it a classic. The album is supposed to have longevity and you're supposed to live with it and learn from it, after doing that then you can come back and call it a classic.

In the Breakfast Club interview he says Momma, King Kunta, and These Walls were his favorite songs from the album.

For the making of this album in the same Breakfast Club interview he says that he locked himself in the studio with Bilal, George Clinton, Anna Wise, Terrace Martin, Sounwave, Thundercat, and Rahki for 7-12 months.

In a conversation with Rick Rubin, Kendrick says that he came up with the poem while recording the songs, he wanted a thread that conceptually tied in with the songs.

On the day of the 2016 Grammy's in an interview with 2dopeboyz he said he was surprised an album like To Pimp A Butterfly was able to get 11 nominations. He believed that even though he knew this wouldn't be played by the masses he believed the message was too important to not make this album.

The previous album he released was good kid, m.A.A.d city.

The next album he released was untitled unmastered.