To Pimp a Butterfly

It was early 2015 and the country was dealing with civil unrest and still is. However one rap album proved to be a huge positive turning point for the culture and the whole world. It was Kendrick Lamar’s third studio album To Pimp a Butterfly released on March 15, 2015. His lyricism throughout shows the everyday frustrations of black people in America, the current state of politics, police brutality and dealing with depression. I was in my freshman year of high school when it came out and everybody I knew was listening to it and any of my classmates who were black could relate to the album and the messages it brings. With a mixture of jazz rap, conscious rap and soul, it changed how hip hop is viewed especially in the eyes of the older and younger generations. It was after a life changing trip to South Africa that inspired the lyrics to all the songs. The first track “Wesley’s Theory” talks about black people should be educated more about managing money and to be careful when achieving success, and the title refers to actor Wesley Snipes’ arrest for tax evasion in 2008. The following track “For Free” speaks from his perspective as a black man who feels that he is being exploited by those in charge and repeats that he is not free. The third track and coincidentally third single “King Kunta” talks about dealing with the negative stereotypes and the use of ghostwriters and the title refers to Kunta Kinte from Roots. “Institutionalized” describes the institutional discrimination black people go through involving a friend wanting to steal from others. The Grammy winning single “These Walls” has a double meaning of a woman’s walls and the walls within a prison cell. The narrator details having sex with the girlfriend of the man who killed one of his friends as a way of revenge while the man is imprisoned for the crime and he is trapped behind the walls while the narrator is on the outside. “U” details how he felt about losing his friends and he berates himself harshly for it. The fourth single “Alright” became a summer hit and an anthem for social and racial justice especially when the Black Live Matters movement and protests against police brutality and the deaths of unarmed black people at the hands of police officers had come into play. It instantly became one of the best songs of the 2010s and won two Grammys. “How Much a Dollar Cost” describes an encounter the narrator has with a homeless person who asks him for a dollar, but he refuses. At the end the person reveals to be God and not giving him a dollar cost the narrator a spot in Heaven. “Complexion (A Zulu Love)” which features Rapsody is a love letter to black people with different complexions and it tackles the subject of colorism from different points of view. “The Blacker the Berry” is a highly profound protest song that is similar to “Alright” but in a much darker tone. He talks about loving his heritage and where he came from, but refers to himself as a hypocrite because he felt that he had not done enough when several black people were killed by police officers, which led to protests across the country and he felt that no better than those who are filled with hate. The Grammy award winning single “i” showcases the love he has for himself and how he wants to unite people and he does so with a spoken word poem after a fight broke out. The final track “Mortal Man” details his trip to South Africa and wonders if his fans would still be on his side, followed by clips of an interview from his idol, the late rapper Tupac Shakur. This album proved to be one of the best rap albums winning a Grammy and it is still relevant today.