![]() It was going to be soulful - conscious as they say. But Kendrick was never that to begin with. It wasn’t going to be your traditional 808-laden, two-club-hits-and-a-love-song hip-hop album. We knew Kendrick was going with a new concept for this album. Kendrick Lamar isn't conventional in the least ![]() Rappers rapping about their upbringing will never end, but Kendrick Lamar isn’t conventional in the least. It worked once, and Kendrick is talented enough to make use of it again. He could have used the same blueprint for his second album. It was brilliant and clever, a concept album that still told Kendrick’s "how I got here" story. Good kid, m.A.A.d city, was an autobiographical masterpiece that vocalized the struggle of growing up in dire circumstances in Compton and how it affected Kendrick’s perception of the world. The last two artists who debuted with albums that redefined the genre were Kanye West ( The College Dropout) and Jay Z ( Reasonable Doubt). His first major label album, good kid, m.A.A.d city is one of the greatest rap albums of all time. ![]() To Pimp a Butterfly isn’t just another album, and Kendrick Lamar isn’t just another rapper. Kendrick Lamar could be the greatest rapper of all time. It would be foolish to even discuss it publicly. Like a pitcher throwing a perfect game, it’s never spoken aloud. 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.When I talk about Kendrick Lamar with people who follow hip-hop, there’s always a hushed exchange that takes place. 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. ![]() 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. "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. ![]() 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. 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. He's aware, as Bilal sings here, that "Shit don't change 'til you get up and wash your ass," and don't it feel good? 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. Anguish and despair rightfully earn more Grammys, Emmys, Tonys, and Pulitzer Prizes than sweetness and light ever do, but West Coast rapper Kendrick Lamar is already on elevated masterwork number two, so expect his version of the sobering truth to sound like a party at points. Becoming an adult ultimately means accepting one's imperfections, unimportance, and mortality, but that doesn't mean we stop striving for the ideal, a search that's so at the center of our very being that our greatest works of art celebrate it, and often amplify it. ![]()
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