To Pimp a Butterfly

When I say that I generally can't stand hip hop, this album is one of several exceptions for me.

It's dynamic, packed with rich textures, genuinely dangerous, cultured, thought provoking and impactful. It does err somewhat on the lengthy side, but virtually all of its length is warranted due to the variety from track to track, and the attention to songwriting craft paid throughout. I don't reach for this very often, but when I do, it's a firm reminder that even my least enjoyed genres can, and do have their bright spots.

Parts of this album feel just a little too experimental for my tastes. King Kunta is great, as These Walls and Alright. The rest of the album though, I just don't fuck with.

Need to give this another listen with more focus but yep, turns out Kendrick is good at this!

I was a big Kendrick fan back in the day, and as it happens this is the album that cooled my interest in him, despite it's overwhelming critical praise. I felt it was too self-indulgent and meandering, and to tell the truth I still feel the same way after listening to it in full for the first time in 10 years for this. Personally I feel like Lamar doesn't really have the lyrical chops to match the scope of his thematic ambitions for this album. That's not to say there isn't good lyrical work on the record; Kendrick's by no means a slouch on that front. There are just too many corny moments and too much blunt lyricism that pulls me out of it, like making a song suggesting that Wesley Snipes is some sort of hard-done-by martyr for committing tax evasion, and another song where he puts on some ear-grating, cracking voice to ramble about how sad he is while inserting SFX of beer bottles clinking just to make sure nobody misses his point.

All that aside, this album has (mostly) impeccable production from some big names like Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Sounwave and a bunch of others. Honestly the whole album feels very Thundercat even though he's only actually credited on a few tracks. I remember being blown away back in the day hearing a beat with a Sufjan Stevens sample and it actually going hard as hell. The second half (or maybe last third?) of the album in particular, from Hood Politics through to i is fantastic musical experience with great beats and gripping stories.

All in all, this album's a mixed bag. A lot of tracks I'm happy to skip, but plenty more that grab my interest right back. I'd probably rate it a 3.5 if given the choice, but screw it, I'll round up.

Favourite tracks: How Much a Dollar Cost, The Blacker the Berry, i

Fuck yes. Genuinely one of the greatest albums of all time, and one of my favorites. This is the album that really got me into hip hop. Strangely, I came to it through Thundercat (who I also love), and was blown away by Kendrick’s lyricism, social commentary, eclecticism, sense of community, and varied vocal delivery. The beats are complex and interesting, the features are perfect. The Tupac and poetry through-lines elevate it to a great ALBUM, rather than just a collection of songs. I always like Kendrick most when he goes more introspective, and To Pimp A Butterfly does this better than just about anything.

I’d argue that if you took any 8 songs off this album at random, it would STILL belong on this list.

It's a cliché to call someone a wordsmith, but in Kendrick Lamar's case it's the best word that fits. His rhymes are sharp and complex, and the beats are fire.

One of the most critically acclaimed albums of all time. It has a lot of memorable lines and I like quite a few of the songs here, such as I, The Blacker The Berry, King Kunta and a few others. The album is a bit too long for my taste though. The interludes I don't really care for the the latter part of Mortal man doesn't feel necessary IMO. Production is really good as well. Just not really my thing though and too long for my tastes.

Better than Coldplay

Fantano created an army of punishing terminally online music fans off the back of his love of this. Otherwise, no notes. Bit long maybe? Fucked me up first listen. 10 years ago?!

Innovative, hard-hitting, funny. Production is incredible. It's a experimental hip-hop masterpiece. 5/5.

This album changed music. Not just rap music, but music overall. What we hear, what we expect from an album, how we experience it. David Bowie was listening to it a lot when it came out and tried to make Blackstar, his final album, sound like it. And that’s David-fucking-Bowie.
Packed with moments of profound, deep thought delivered through funky, in your face rhyme, this album was a big step forward in rap being seen as a more intellectual voice in music.
And Kendrick will always be next level with his lyrics. He is ready to throw down with anyone and it won’t end well for them … just ask Drake.
This is not M.A.A.D. City and it’s not Damn., although both of those albums are also outstanding (in purposefully different ways) and are filled with better tracks for most folks, but neither is as important musically and culturally as To Pimp a Butterfly was.

Ok, on remet ça avec Kendrick Acte II.

On venait à peine de se remettre de la claque "good kid, m.A.A.d city" et son très beau 4/5. Et voilà que le grand livre "1001 Albums" nous balance la suite "To Pimp A Butterfly".

La pression était cosmique. Que faire après un classique instantané ?

Option 1 : la sécurité. Refaire "good kid" en moins bien, capitaliser sur le son G-Funk/cinéma de rue.

Option 2 : le suicide artistique (ou le génie, c'est selon). Prendre tout le crédit, toute la thune, et livrer l'album le plus dense, le plus complexe et le moins accessible de sa carrière.

Kendrick a pris l'option 2.

Si "good kid, m.A.A.d city" (GKMC) était son "OK Computer" – le classique narratif, générationnel, mais encore "rock" (ou "hip-hop") dans sa structure – "To Pimp A Butterfly" (TPAB) est son Kid A. La déconstruction totale.

Je le dis direct, la note finale est la même : 4/5. Mais c'est un 4/5 radicalement différent.

"GKMC" était le film de gangster parfait, léché, immersif, produit par Dre et sa clique.
"TPAB", ce n'est plus un film, c'est une thèse de doctorat sur l'identité noire en Amérique, mise en musique par le gratin de la scène jazz-funk de L.A.

Et c'est là que ça coince un peu pour le vieux con que je suis, car Kendrick a pris le contre-pied absolu.

Fini les basses G-Funk qui roulent. Ici, ça pue le P-Funk (George Clinton est là), ça dégouline de jazz (Thundercat est à la basse sur presque tout, Kamasi Washington au sax), et c'est produit par des têtes chercheuses comme Flying Lotus.

C'est organique, ça refuse l'ordinateur. Ça part en free jazz ("For Free? (Interlude)").

C'est dense. Putain, que c'est dense.

"GKMC", malgré son sujet, avait des refrains, une structure à laquelle mon oreille post-punk pouvait se raccrocher. "TPAB" explose tout. Les morceaux s'enchaînent sans pause, s'interrompent par des poèmes (spoken word) que Kendrick complète au fil de l'album ("I remember you was conflicted...").

Le mec est en pleine psychanalyse.

C'est l'album post-Ferguson, l'album de Black Lives Matter. "Alright" est (ironiquement, vu le fond sombre du morceau) devenu un hymne de manifestation. Il parle de dépression ("u"), de culpabilité, de haine de soi ("The Blacker the Berry"). C'est lourd.

Et c'est là qu'est ma réserve – ce "chouia" en dessous de "GKMC" pour mon plaisir personnel.

"GKMC" mariait le Fond (violent, social) et la Forme (pop, incroyablement efficace).
"TPAB", lui, est obsédé par le Fond, c'est une œuvre "Importante" avant d'être "divertissante".

Le mec va jusqu'à sampler une vieille interview de 2Pac pour dialoguer avec lui à la fin de l'album ("Mortal Man"). Le niveau d'ambition est stratosphérique. Faut oser, et il réussit.

Mais c'est un album qui demande un effort. Je le respecte infiniment, c'est un 4/5 de respect. C'est le genre d'album qui te fait te sentir intelligent quand tu l'écoutes.

Mais est-ce que je le mets en bagnole pour taper du pied ? Jamais.

Il y a des putains de moments de grâce ("King Kunta" est un G-Funk déglingué et arrogant, "Alright" reste une bouffée d'oxygène), mais c'est un voyage éprouvant.

Alors oui, 4/5 encore. "GKMC", c'était le 4/5 du cœur, de l'efficacité. "TPAB", c'est le 4/5 du cerveau, de l'ambition démesurée.

Les deux sont indispensables. Mais si je dois en garder un pour l'autoroute, je prends good kid.

Désolé, Kendrick. Je vieillis.

A continuation of the jazzy hip hop conscious rap tradition with a lot of unfashionable (at the time, peak Trap era) sounds from 90s RnB, 70s funk, smooth neo soul that end up sounding fresh and vital - a live band in the middle of a chart full of laptop producers will always sound extremely living and dynamic. The lyrics are a mix of urgency - responding to police violence and mass incarceration - and complacency - an Obama era faith that "we're going to be alright" and that the civil rights movement is an going if painful and painfully slow inexorable march forwards. A very of its era thematic approach, with the political juxtaposed with personal, social and individual experiences of violence weave in and out of each other, hustling in world of mutual and self exploitation, grappling with contradictions and inconsistencies of the world and the self all at once, one through the other. Earnest and cynical and really on the nose. His flow is great, his phrasing precise with a rapid fire cadence, the timbre of his voice isn't my favorite though: thin and nasal. It's really good, but also extremely overrated - critics and audiences needed to anoint a rap genius for the 2010s and he was the vessel for all that cultural weight.

Kendrick Lamar is an incredible lyricist, and this album may be his magnum opus. The elements of jazz, funk, and soul mixed with contemporary hip-hop/rap are wonderful to listen to. I would recommend this to anyone to listen to at least once for those reasons alone, as well as for the story/narrative told throughout this album.

I don’t get it. Shrug.

A hiphop record that remains unmatched to this day, every single element of it is executed so goddamn perfectly.
Kendrick's pen game is obviously excellent, and the narratives and themes are nothing short of brilliant -- but to me it's the instrumental side that truly elevates TPAB far beyond any other hiphop record I know of. That 'For Free? Interlude' is such a target for hate is wild to me, because musically that's some of the most impressive fusions of jazz and rap I've ever heard.

Narratively, the jazz, funk and soul arrangements are more than backing tracks, and serve to tell a story just as much as the lyrics do. The most powerful example to me is in the final moments of Mortal Man, where the beautiful backing part accompanying the discussion with Tupac swells and abruptly cuts off with Kendrick's final "...Pac?"

I've been listening to this album for 10 years now and I'm still finding new details and meanings on every listen. I appreciate that Kendrick has gone in different directions since, but to me this is still his magnum opus and one of hiphop's most important albums.

In short,
🐐

Standouts: Wesley's Theory • For Free? Interlude • These Walls • u • For Sale? Interlude • Momma • Complexion (A Zulu Love) • i • Mortal Man

To Pimp a Butterfly is an impressively produced and engineered album, showcasing a rich tapestry of sounds, beats, and musical experimentation. The instrumentation is layered and creative, blending elements of jazz, funk, and soul in a way that clearly demonstrates artistic ambition and technical skill.

However, I personally struggled to connect with the lyrics and the narrative themes explored throughout the album. The stories and messages, while clearly meaningful to many, didn’t resonate with me—perhaps hip-hop simply isn’t a genre that clicks for me.

Despite giving it a full 24 hours, I found the listening experience quite difficult, and ultimately, I didn’t enjoy the album as a whole.

Favourite track: Wesley’s Theory was a strong opener, and For Free? stood out for its energy and originality.
Least favourite: Most of the remaining tracks didn’t land with me.
Album artwork: A fairly standard hip-hop cover—bold and in-your-face, fitting for the genre but not particularly distinctive to my eye.

Ovo je kao malo čvršća trica. Ali dosta više rapa.

I've been repulsed by every single Kendrick Lamar song I've ever had the misfortune of hearing, and this is no exception.

Utterly out of left-field! Loved it! :)