Now, through all of this, there was a 2012 album, widely regarded as one of the best hip hop albums of the decade so far, that dropped just twelve days after I left on my mission and to which I was completely oblivious. good kid, m.A.A.d city, the triumphant breakout album from Compton's 25-year-old Kendrick Lamar, had completely slipped me by. My introduction to him was November 2014's single "i" which I listened to because of the blogosphere's buzz, but I was at least as turned off by its pop-rap vibes as were Kendrick's hardcore m.A.A.d city fans. So, when To Pimp a Butterfly dropped, I dismissed it. What a wack album title from that pop-rapper. Black dudes flashing Benjamins and 40s in front of the white house, how clever and conscious.
But then I caught wind of what people were saying about TPAB, ("It is not a rap album: it is the absolute rap album") and I gave it a listen to see what all the buzz was about.
I remember it was about the time that "u," the emotional turning point of the album, came on that I knew I had found the sort of music I had been craving for almost 6 months. When he came on that track literally screaming at himself "Loving you is complicated!" I could almost tangibly feel the honesty and rawness and musicality I was hearing. I knew firsthand that sort of self-loathing and agony Kendrick was leveling at himself, as I think all human beings have felt at some point: "I tell you, you failure—you ain't no leader! I never liked you, forever despise you—I don't need you!"
I was hooked. I devoured the rest of the album and for 78 minutes my hunger for meaningful, artful music was satisfied.
Musically, this album is the rare rap album that maintains visceral power, street cred, and musical variety all at once. While being far more abstract than the straightforward (and delicious) m.A.A.d city, the beats on To Pimp A Butterfly catalyze Kendrick's charisma and flow with just as much power, if not more. Find me a banger more bump-worthy this year than "The Blacker the Berry." Find me jazz rap track this year more soulful than the duple-triple compounded "How Much a Dollar Cost." And find me any beat this year as dope as "Momma." Kudos to Knxwledge on that one; FlyLo, you better watch your back!
Yes, sometimes Kendrick experiments a little more than might be easily accessible. But lyrically he never falters. He weaves together a story arc over the course of these 16 tracks that I think is more dynamic and direct than the one that lit m.A.A.d city on fire. Kendrick, by way of a poem running throughout the album, takes us through his journey as an artist, fighting both the tides of personal sin and of institutionalized discrimination while trying to just make a difference to the people in his hometown. It starts with the deliberately bling-ish "Wesley's Theory" and the lines "When I get signed, homie, I'ma act a fool," and it ends with the raw, sober "Mortal Man" where Kendrick is talking to you, soul to soul.
And yes, I choose to listen to the edited version, which does away with the vulgarity while leaving Kendrick's messages and stellar lyrics to enjoy.
Really, this album is so dense, so deep, and so effective that the only way to really get an accurate description is to listen to it yourself. It would take a textbook to divulge everything going on here (a textbook that will no doubt one day be written). I mean, an English professor sat down for 3 minutes to expose the layers of meaning in the 2 second lyric on "King Kunta": "the yams is the powers that be."
All I can say is To Pimp A Butterfly impacted me in a way few albums have and, yes, I have thought through each of the 10's I'm giving these songs (including "i" which was revamped perfectly for the album). This album is one that I'll always poignantly remember. And I'll especially always remember how I felt the first time I heard the album-concluding ghost interview with 2Pac end in portentously abrupt silence, leaving both Kendrick and us without answers to the questions Kendrick has been so desperately pursuing on the album:
What is the place for a black person in America, when he can be hailed as a hero, a "butterfly" full of talent and beauty, one day but be devoured by fans, The Powers That Be, sin, hatred, cultural disunity, racism, "survivor's guilt," or lack of education the next?
How can Kendrick, African-Americans, or any American, really, keep a level of sanity in a backward nation of confused morals?
I was hooked. I devoured the rest of the album and for 78 minutes my hunger for meaningful, artful music was satisfied.
Musically, this album is the rare rap album that maintains visceral power, street cred, and musical variety all at once. While being far more abstract than the straightforward (and delicious) m.A.A.d city, the beats on To Pimp A Butterfly catalyze Kendrick's charisma and flow with just as much power, if not more. Find me a banger more bump-worthy this year than "The Blacker the Berry." Find me jazz rap track this year more soulful than the duple-triple compounded "How Much a Dollar Cost." And find me any beat this year as dope as "Momma." Kudos to Knxwledge on that one; FlyLo, you better watch your back!
Yes, sometimes Kendrick experiments a little more than might be easily accessible. But lyrically he never falters. He weaves together a story arc over the course of these 16 tracks that I think is more dynamic and direct than the one that lit m.A.A.d city on fire. Kendrick, by way of a poem running throughout the album, takes us through his journey as an artist, fighting both the tides of personal sin and of institutionalized discrimination while trying to just make a difference to the people in his hometown. It starts with the deliberately bling-ish "Wesley's Theory" and the lines "When I get signed, homie, I'ma act a fool," and it ends with the raw, sober "Mortal Man" where Kendrick is talking to you, soul to soul.
And yes, I choose to listen to the edited version, which does away with the vulgarity while leaving Kendrick's messages and stellar lyrics to enjoy.
Really, this album is so dense, so deep, and so effective that the only way to really get an accurate description is to listen to it yourself. It would take a textbook to divulge everything going on here (a textbook that will no doubt one day be written). I mean, an English professor sat down for 3 minutes to expose the layers of meaning in the 2 second lyric on "King Kunta": "the yams is the powers that be."
All I can say is To Pimp A Butterfly impacted me in a way few albums have and, yes, I have thought through each of the 10's I'm giving these songs (including "i" which was revamped perfectly for the album). This album is one that I'll always poignantly remember. And I'll especially always remember how I felt the first time I heard the album-concluding ghost interview with 2Pac end in portentously abrupt silence, leaving both Kendrick and us without answers to the questions Kendrick has been so desperately pursuing on the album:
What is the place for a black person in America, when he can be hailed as a hero, a "butterfly" full of talent and beauty, one day but be devoured by fans, The Powers That Be, sin, hatred, cultural disunity, racism, "survivor's guilt," or lack of education the next?
How can Kendrick, African-Americans, or any American, really, keep a level of sanity in a backward nation of confused morals?
With decades of artists, centuries of philosophers, and millenia of human beings trying to identify and fix the ills that repeatedly, tragically ail the human race, is it even worth it for some Compton kid to put his heart and soul into a rap album to try again?
Pac? ....Pac? Pac!
| OVERALL SCORE: 10 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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