FEATURE:
Vinyl Corner
Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly
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YOU get these albums that take on a different life…
PHOTO CREDIT: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
when you hear them on vinyl. Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly is an album you want to hear on vinyl and experience every drop of. It is Black History Month in the U.K. and, as I will do for the rest of the Vinyl Corner albums this month, I am including powerful albums from black albums. To Pimp a Butterfly is an album that can be appreciated and absorbed by anyone, from any background. Sure, those who will feel the album hardest are those who can identify with themes of police violence, community deprivation and the rights of black lives. I would not suggest there is a hierarchy when it comes to appreciation but, as I say, Kendrick Lamar’s third studio album is a masterpiece that translates through borders and barriers. With some production skills from important names – including Flying Lotus and Boi-1da -, it is a busy and eclectic album that is so rich, layered and complex. One would assume the album is direct and simple but actually, there is so much nuance and life that one needs to have a few listens before everything clicks. Not only do the lyrics look across a variety of themes but the music brings together Jazz, Funk; some Spoken Word and, of course, Rap. To Pimp a Butterfly is a charged album that brings fire and support to those oppressed and struggling, yet it also sounds deeply personal to Lamar. One cannot help but feel a very real sense of aggrievement and anger throughout To Pimp a Butterfly.
To Pimp a Butterfly is the follow-up to 2012’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D City and marks a quantum leap in terms of scope and impact. Whilst Lamar was reacting to what was happening in the U.S. in terms of police violence and political turmoil, he visited South Africa and saw the jail Nelson Mandela was incarcerated in on Robben Island. That must have been a pivotal moment; the sense of injustice and a saviour being wronged and banished. I think To Pimp a Butterfly is a lot more fluid, story-like and cinematic because of its use of samples, dialogue and story. I would not say To Pimp a Butterfly is a concept album, as such, yet there does seem to be this definite narrative and flow. There are many standouts on the record, but I think Alright is the defining anthem. It has been adopted as a rallying call for the Black Lives Matter movement. To Pimp a Butterfly is not an album where Lamar is focusing on white-on-black violence and that form of a racism. He puts black-on-black violence under the spotlight on The Blacker the Berry and asks why his community is turning on their brothers and sisters. I find a lot of Rap and Hip-Hop albums are quite flat and lack depth in terms of their musical roots. To Pimp a Butterfly connects with black tradition and African-American styles. Lamar seamlessly looks back and pushes forward with his mixture of tones and sounds.
To Pimp a Butterfly is as much a celebration of black history and lives as it is a call for action, change and progression. The sheer ambition, urgency and insatiable mood of the album means every song hits the mark and moves you. A lot of Rap albums are also intense the way through: To Pimp a Butterfly brings Jazz to the fore and one gets this fusion of smooth supplication and electricity. I think To Pimp a Butterfly is an album that will continue to impact and influence generations from now. It has only been four years since its released, yet it grows in relevance and power every year. There have been many articles written about Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly – I will bring in a couple of reviews. In this feature, the author talks about Lamar’s striking and expansive narrative voice:
“Lamar’s narrative was just as ambitious. It’s an intense exploration of big themes: exploitation, living up to responsibilities, the importance of staying true to yourself, finding strength in the face of adversity. Over the course of To Pimp A Butterfly he tells the story of a rapper finding fame; learning how to “pimp” his talent for material gain; dealing with the temptations that accompany fame and wealth; feeling the burden of his new position of influence; turning to black history and his roots to try to find guidance; dealing with a kind of survivor’s guilt after leaving his people; and eventually finding the self-belief and wisdom to share with his community.
But the album is nowhere near as tidy and linear as that sounds. As complicated as the subject demands, To Pimp A Butterfly’s songs are crammed with deep dives into US history, and just about every lyric has the listener conflicted as to the narrator’s motive (and, sometimes, even the identity of the narrator).
All of this would be worth little if the album didn’t communicate all of its ideas effectively. Somehow, however, To Pimp A Butterfly does that brilliantly. A thrilling, genuinely affecting and often awe-inspiring ride through Lamar’s psyche, it resonated with enough people for its influence to be felt everywhere: the hope-filled ‘Alright’ was adopted as the unofficial anthem of the Black Lives Matter movement; there were stories of teachers playing the album to students to help them better understand the oppression faced by African-Americans; listening to it influenced David Bowie to move in a jazz-inspired direction on his final album, ★.
With To Pimp A Butterfly, Kendrick Lamar delivered on expectations and then some. It remains a visionary, landmark album that will resonate for generations to come”.
Hip-Hop and Rap are always moving; we are seeing phenomenal albums arrive every year – this year has been especially strong. Lamar’s most-recent album, DAMN., was released in 2017 and I am not sure whether there is another album in the works. Lamar is an artist who can do no wrong; who has received praise throughout his career and is a source of guidance and influence for so many young artists out there. To Pimp a Butterfly goes beyond Kendrick Lamar’s discography and the Hip-Hop landscape: it is a record whose language and visions are historic, political and world-straddling. In fact, I think To Pimp a Butterfly is less an album and more a work of art; maybe an historical artifact that should be studied decades from now. The reviews, as you’d imagine, were universally positive! This is how AllMusic judged the album:
“The sentiment is universal, but the viewpoint on his second LP is inner-city and African-American, as radio regulars like the Isley Brothers (sampled to perfection during the key track "I"), George Clinton (who helps make "Wesley's Theory" a cross between "Atomic Dog" and Dante's Inferno), and Dr. Dre (who literally phones his appearance in) put the listener in Lamar's era of Compton, just as well as Lou Reed took us to New York and Brecht took us to Weimar Republic Berlin. These G-funky moments are incredibly seductive, which helps usher the listener through the album's 80-minute runtime, plus its constant mutating (Pharrell productions, spoken word, soul power anthems, and sound collages all fly by, with few tracks ending as they began), much of it influenced, and sometimes assisted by, producer Flying Lotus and his frequent collaborator Thundercat.
"u" sounds like an MP3 collection deteriorating, while the broken beat of the brilliant "Momma" will challenge the listener's balance, and yet, Lamar is such a prodigiously talented and seductive artist, his wit, wisdom, and wordplay knock all these stray molecules into place. Survivor's guilt, realizing one's destiny, and a Snoop Dogg performance of Doggystyle caliber are woven among it all; plus, highlights offer that Parliament-Funkadelic-styled subversion, as "The Blacker the Berry" ("The sweeter the juice") offers revolutionary slogans and dips for the hip. Free your mind, and your ass will follow, and at the end of this beautiful black berry, there's a miraculous "talk" between Kendrick and the legendary 2Pac, as the brutalist trailblazer mentors this profound populist. To Pimp a Butterfly is as dark, intense, complicated, and violent as Picasso's Guernica, and should hold the same importance for its genre and the same beauty for its intended audience.
I shall round things off shortly but, before doing that, I wanted to bring in Pitchfork’s review, as it makes for compelling and engrossing reading (I have selected a snippet):
To Pimp a Butterfly pivots on the polarizing lead single, "i". Upon release last autumn, the sunny soul pep talk came off lightweight and glib. When it appears deep in the back end of Butterfly, though, "i" plays less like the jingle we heard last year and more like the beating heart of the matter. To push the point, the album opts for a live-sounding mix that ditches out midway through, giving way to a speech from the rapper himself. In tone, the speech is not unlike the legendary 1968 concert where James Brown waved off security and personally held off a Boston audience’s fury after news broke that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated.
"How many niggas we done lost, bro?" Kendrick shouts over the crowd. "It shouldn’t be shit for us to come out here and appreciate the little bit of life we got left." Underneath the tragedy and adversity, To Pimp a Butterfly is a celebration of the audacity to wake up each morning to try to be better, knowing it could all end in a second, for no reason at all”.
Whether you are new to To Pimp a Butterfly or have listened to it numerous times, I do think it sounds completely awe-inspiring on vinyl and is a completely new experience. I am revisiting the album now and I wonder whether Lamar, when making the album, realised just what he was releasing into the world. Maybe the political situation is more fraught now than in 2015, but To Pimp a Butterfly has helped so many people and remains this incredibly powerful creation. As it is Black History Month in the U.K. – it is celebrated in the U.S. in February -, I wanted to feature some wonderful albums from black artists (from the U.K. and U.S.). Make sure you go and grab a copy of To Pimp a Butterfly and, if you cannot get the vinyl, stream the album and I am sure you will agree: it is a truly staggering thing! There will be a lot of debate when I say this: I think To Pimp a Butterfly is one of the finest…
ALBUMS of the decade.