Kendrick Lamar - "To Pimp a Butterfly"

[Breezy_Kilroy]

"Bitch where was you when I was walking"

Swear I was in this bitch like Outkast for a good 15 mins

 

[lazypakman]

NY Times interview

LOS ANGELES — Following the success of his major label debut, “good kid, m.A.A.d. city,” in 2012, the rapper Kendrick Lamar did not indulge in earthly luxuries. Instead, he got baptized.

That album was the story of his redemption, not just from street gangs through rapping but from a life of sin by embracing Jesus Christ. His long-awaited follow-up, “To Pimp a Butterfly” (TDE/Aftermath/Interscope) is about carrying the weight of that clarity: What happens when you speak out, spiritually and politically, and people actually start to listen? And what of the world you left behind?

Mr. Lamar, who grew up in Compton, Calif., had previously been saved as a teenager in the parking lot of a Food 4 Less, he said, when the grandmother of a friend approached him after a tragedy, asking if he had accepted God. “One of my homeboys got smoked,” Mr. Lamar recalled. “She had seen that we weren’t right in the head. That was her being an angel for us.”

Nearly a decade later, having found that fame and riches did not offer additional salvation, or happiness, he “wanted to take it to the next level — being underwater,” he said. “I felt like it was something I had to do.”

For many fans, “I’m the closest thing to a preacher that they have,” Mr. Lamar, 27, said from the couch of a Santa Monica studio where he recorded much of the new album. “I know that from being on tour — kids are living by my music.” However, he added: “My word will never be as strong as God’s word. All I am is just a vessel, doing his work.”

Mr. Lamar is working to purify hip-hop, a genre he hopes to ground in his true experiences of growing up poor, the son of a former gangbanger. He offers a corrective, or at least an alternative, to the opulent fabulism of some mainstream rap. “You know the songs that are out — we all love these songs,” he said. “They sell a lot of singles and make these record labels a lot of money.”

But those “really living” in the streets don’t want to hear boasts about murder and drug dealing, he continued. “They want to get away from that,” Mr. Lamar said. “If it comes across as just a game all the time, the kids are going to think it’s just a game.

“From my perspective, I can only give you the good with the bad,” he said. “It’s bigger than a responsibility, it’s a calling.”

But at the start of Mr. Lamar’s new album, George Clinton intones over a Flying Lotus beat: “Gather your wind, take a deep look inside, are you really who they idolize? To pimp a butterfly.” In repeated spoken word sections, each telling more of the story than the last, Mr. Lamar acknowledges the risk of “misusing your influence” and in song aims criticism at himself as well as the powers that be.

Kiese Laymon, who has taught Mr. Lamar’s music as a professor of English at Vassar College, said the rapper recalls singers like Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield — “artists who have positioned themselves as prophetic witnesses.” While Mr. Lamar is “reckoning with violence, race, police power and white supremacy,” Mr. Laymon said, “he’s implicating himself in what he’s witnessing.”

On “good kid, m.A.A.d city,” interstitial phone calls re-enacted by Mr. Lamar’s parents went to voice mail because he was a teenager getting into girls and home invasions; this time around, the chasm is fame. “Where was your presence? Where was your support that you pretend?” he raps to himself in character on “u” after a friend is shot. “You ain’t no brother, you ain’t no disciple, you ain’t no friend/A friend would never leave Compton for profit.”

“You even FaceTimed instead of a hospital visit,” he adds tearfully over a slow, unsteady saxophone plea, his voice cracking.

Mr. Lamar, who now lives in a condo not far from his old neighborhood, said he was not prepared for the uncertainty and depression that came with being accepted as a voice of his community. “You can tell a person about fame and fortune all you want, but until you’re really in it and you know the person that you can become ...” he said, trailing off.

“I know every artist feels this way, but in order for it to come across on record for your average 9-to-5-er is the tricky part,” he said. “I have to make it where you truly understand: This is me pouring out my soul on the record. You’re gonna feel it because you too have pain. It might not be like mine, but you’re gonna feel it.”

This hurt and insecurity is noticeable only in song. Dave Free, the president of Top Dawg Entertainment, Mr. Lamar’s label, and a friend since ninth grade, said the rapper is “the most sane person around” and compared him to Gandhi. “He’s so calm,” Mr. Free said. “You’ll never get a crazy reaction out of him.”

“When I speak, I speak for self first — this is my experience,” Mr. Lamar said in response to critics who said he was ignoring institutional racism. “I know where I come from. I know the hurt that I’ve caused families,” he added. “These are my demons.”

As for police brutality and political disenfranchisement, “I know the history,” he said. “Black and brown pride have been taught in my household for a long time.”

At 15, Mr. Lamar said, he experienced his first of two Los Angeles Police Department house raids. “I’ve been stomped in the back,” he said. “I’m not talking to people from the suburbs. I’m talking as somebody who’s been snatched out of cars and had rifles pointed at me.”

But, he added, “Playing the victim only works so long.”

The cover of “To Pimp a Butterfly” addresses that juxtaposition in a striking image by the French photographer Denis Rouvre: shirtless black men of all ages, gripping 40-ounce bottles and stacks of cash, posing in front of a White House backdrop.

Mr. Lamar said the cover represents “taking the same things that people call bad and bringing them with me to the next level, whether it’s around the world or to the Grammys or the White House. You can’t change where I come from or who I care about.”

While material possessions failed to move him, Mr. Lamar said, “what gives me inspiration is giving thought and game to people who don’t have it.” Compton, he said, is “where we’re putting in the real work with these kids and these ex-convicts.”

The album ends with “Mortal Man,” Mr. Lamar’s attempt to own his role as hip-hop prophet while maintaining his defenses. “As I lead this army, make room for mistakes and depression,” he raps, invoking the ghosts of Mandela, Huey Newton, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Michael Jackson. “Do you believe in me?” he asks, before challenging the listener: “How many leaders you said you needed then left them for dead?”

But to call “To Pimp a Butterfly” a political record “would be shortchanging it,” Mr. Lamar said. “It’s a record full of strength and courage and honesty” but also “growth and acknowledgment and denial.”

“I want you to get angry — I want you to get happy,” he said. “I want you to feel disgusted. I want you to feel uncomfortable.”

 

[D0wn]

If these walls could talk is,about pussy walls....

 

[LcnsdbyROYALTY]

Dope interview/article.

 

[judahxulu]

while they cracking jokes i'm trying to figure out if that avi is him or pootie tang.

got a better view now?

Yeah you still look like pootie tang with a burger king crown now

Pootie tang in his own venue in the Chi with women using his art to improve the community around him instead of just talk about the shit. Pootie tang mentoring young gangbangers in the murder capital of the country, ya bitch. Pootie tang getting his content aired on television in 13 states. Faceless faggot. Where's your crown? Where's your venue? Where's your women? Where's your network? Where's your fucking face?

 

[Idiopathic Joker]

Lmao this thread is pure comedy

 

[Babaaa]

Guilt trippin' and feelin' resentment

I never met a transient that demanded attention

They got me frustrated, indecisive and power trippin'

Sour emotions got me lookin' at the universe different

I should distance myself, I should keep it relentless

My selfishness is what got me here, who the fuck I'm kiddin'?

So I'ma tell you like I told the last bum, crumbs and pennies

I need all of mines, and I recognize this type of panhandlin' all the time

I got better judgement, I know when nigga's hustlin'

Keep in mind, when I was strugglin', I did compromise

Now I comprehend, I smell grandpa's old medicine

Reekin' from your skin, moonshine and gin

Nigga your babblin', your words ain't flatterin', I'm imaginin'

Denzel be lookin' at O'Neal

Cause now I'm in sad thrills, your gimmick is mediocre, the jig is up

I seen you from a mile away losin' focus

And I'm insensitive, and I lack empathy

You looked at me and said, "Your potential is bittersweet"

I looked at him and said, "Every nickel is mines to keep"

He looked at me and said, "Know the truth, it'll set you free

You're lookin' at the Messiah, the son of Jehova, the higher power

The choir that spoke the word, the Holy Spirit, the nerve

Of Nazareth, and I'll tell you just how much a dollar cost

The price of having a spot in Heaven, embrace your loss, I am God"

god damn

 

[Jabu_Rule]

while they cracking jokes i'm trying to figure out if that avi is him or pootie tang.

got a better view now?

Yeah you still look like pootie tang with a burger king crown now

Pootie tang in his own venue in the Chi with women using his art to improve the community around him instead of just talk about the shit. Pootie tang mentoring young gangbangers in the murder capital of the country, ya bitch. Pootie tang getting his content aired on television in 13 states. Faceless faggot. Where's your crown? Where's your venue? Where's your women? Where's your network? Where's your fucking face?

Nobody checking for that public access bullshit. Your face is scandalous nigga. Those bitches really think they gonna make it with your corny ass at the helm? So you don't have no alpha males on the team? You out here coaching a women's league? lmao. You not fucking near one of them. You not making a impact in the Chi. You getting shot at and robbed by your own admission.

 

[LEMZIMUS_RAMSEY]

In europe its has been considered " A MUSICAL TOUR DE FORCE"

 

[LEMZIMUS_RAMSEY]

After a first listening it has put me in the same landscape as BLACK MESSIAH.

Original

Cohesive

Sonically well crafted

Insightfull

great lyrics that touches you

 

[LEMZIMUS_RAMSEY]

Personnaly i think that its an achievement to have all these multiracial listeners that listen to a EXPLICIT PRO BLACK album.

True artistry overpowers barriers. And Kendrick Lamar, like Nas, like Lupe Fiasco , has to be respected for that. We need this kind of rappers to remind us that there are many roads to success.

 

[dontdiedontkillanyon]

Stereogum made a good point that To Pimp A Butterfly is similar to the likes of D'Angelo and Bjork's recent albums - all three being demanding internal journeys best suited for headphones. It's an exhausting listen but you know the album has hidden layers that is going reveal itself more with repeated listens. It's great that Kendrick Lamar was able to reach the same kind of heights as GKMC by doing what was not expected by him at all.

 

[dontdiedontkillanyon]

Only listened to half of the first track but I fucks with it heavy for the fact that Flying Lotus produced it. Ppl sleep on homie. I can say I didn't know shit about dude until GTAV but since then I've checked out his catalogue and honestly, he got that real west coast sound. Bruh shit on Mustard with no remorse.

Flying Lotus needs to receive more love from the Hip Hop audience, the guy always was and still is on another level. He caught my attention when he dropped Los Angeles and he's been a consistent force since. More rappers need to be hitting him up, same goes for Thundercat who features on TPAB as well.

 

[LEMZIMUS_RAMSEY]

Now Inyerscope is in the same place as Atlantic was with Lupe as far as being with a problack / concious artist that sells .

Will they try to shade him or not?

 

[bless the child]

Aight could be reaching but in These Walls he's clearly talking about sex with the girl/bm of the dude that killed his homie. In the song he speaks of himself using his influence for the wrong reason, meaning using his influence to get revenge for his homies death by fucking on the dudes love. So right after "These Walls" it flows right into"U". We go from an upbeat energy song to a sulking, dark and gloomy sounding song. You hear an emotional drunken character speaking to Kendrick. This is Kendrick speaking to himself from the perspective of his own concious. He's expressing guilt, remorse, and a hatred for himself which ultimately amounts to him expressing suicidal thoughts.

In the lyrics he expresses feelings of isolation and abandonment that all leads to some level of depression. When he's talking about "never leave Compton for profit", and " you ain't a brother" he putting himself low which ends with him talking about "I should've killed your ass a long time ago" He talking about killing himself. So this is probably why he calls it a counterpiece to "I". One about self love, the other about self hatred. Its kind of funny that it goes to "Alright" right after.

 

[R.D.]

Mikey and JD in here looking like me in the Forest Hills Drive thread

You niggas is true stans

Respect

 

[R.D.]

Why y'all acting like there's a big difference between the physical and digital versions?

Cause it is

Anything I wanna buy, I need the physical copy of

 

[DNB1]

NEGUS

So I'ma dedicate this one verse to Oprah

On how the infamous, sensitive N-word control us

So many artist gave her an explanation to hold us

Well this is my explanation straight from Ethiopia

N-E-G-U-S definition: royality King royalty - wait listen

N-E-G-U-S description: Black emperor, King, ruler, now let me finish

The history books overlooked the word and hide it

America tried to make it to a house divided

The homies don't recognize we be using it wrong

So I'ma break it down and put my game in the song

N-E-G-U-S, say it with me

Or say no more. Black stars can come and get me

Take it from Oprah Winfrey

Tell her she right on time

Kendrick Lamar, by far, realest Negus alive

_________________________________

I think my understanding is correct, but please correct me those who know better....to sum up Nigger derived from Negus (eventually).. take out the leader/ruler/king first so the people are easy to govern. Right?

The word negus is a noun derived from the ancient language Ge'ez Negus Ge'ez.png verbal root N - G - Ś meaning "to reign."

The use of Slavery was acts of capture, seize, and control. Typically when an army goes out to take capture of someone they capture the person in charge to control the social society of a particular land and system. When a person captures someone they typically want to capture the persons in charge of King or Queen so it can show the rest of the village that they sense of power and leadership is gone and now your left to fend for yourself.

The thought provoking sense and duty behind slavery is to control. Does that mean capturing the King and Queens of the land or Chiefs and placing them into captivity so their tribal association can fall victim to poverty and non sufficient leadership. Without the presence of a dominant figure to administer the tribes and land to structure, that means people will fall victim to outside control and ruler ship.

Nigger is now discretely said and used in reference to describe any and all persons of African decent, regardless of social status, income or religion. It is also used to define an act of ignorance. As time manifest from the ancient origin the word has been re worded and translated in a derogatory and inappropriate use against Africans chosen through the Diaspora of the slave trade.

 

[R.D.]

Niggaaaaaa we gon be alright

 

[(ob)Scene]

The performance version of i was perfectly placed & is clearly superior but I wish there was a deluxe album with the studio version just for the breakdown at the end alone.