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To Pimp a Butterfly: a Hip-Hop Masterpiece 10 Years Later written by Daniel McDonald
- General Manager
- Mar 30
- 5 min read
Album: To Pimp a Butterfly
Artist: Kendrick Lamar
Release Date: March 15, 2015
Sub-Genres: #GFunk #ExperimentalHipHop #JazzRap #NeoSoul
On March 15th, 2015, Kendrick Lamar, arguably the most prolific hip-hop artist of the past decade and a half, released his third studio album, To Pimp a Butterfly, which is to many (myself included) his magnum opus. Hailed by many (myself included again) as one of, if not the greatest album of all time, To Pimp a Butterfly is the highest rated album by users on both albumoftheyear.org, scoring a 95/100 with 34,465 individual reviews, and rateyourmusic.com, scoring a 4.39/5 with 92,347 individual reviews. That said, this is definitely an album deserving of a full revisit to celebrate its 10-year anniversary.
The Rapping
The intrigue of To Pimp a Butterfly does not end with its unique production. This album also sees Kendrick’s pen game at a masterful level akin to that seen on “Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst”, the 10th track off good kid, m.A.A.d city, the album preceding To Pimp a Butterfly. He also delivers his most vibrant, charged, and emotionally powerful performances on this album, with tracks like the aforementioned “u”, as well as cuts like “i” and “King Kunta”. Not only is Kendrick relaying emotions, telling stories, and sending messages in a way more impactful than any of his predecessors, he’s also doing so through great wordsmithing skills, from his rhyming ability to his phenomenal wordplay.
I’ll bring up “u” once more, as it is exemplary of these skills. This is a track with two parts, the first seeing Kendrick furious with a certain someone referred to in the second-person as “you”. He goes on to refer to this person as a worthless failure in a verse surrounded by a chorus that repeats the line “Loving you is complicated”. There is then an
interlude that leads into the latter half of the song, in which a member of housekeeping staff for a hotel is knocking on the door of Kendrick’s hotel room, asking him to “Abre la puerta [open the door]”, to no response.
The second half then begins with Kendrick rapping through a drunken rage/depressive state. He continues to berate “you” for betraying his city by leaving to tour and chase his rap career, blaming this betrayal for the shooting of his best friend’s little brother and bringing up that he never even came to visit him when he was in the hospital. Kendrick claims the “you” in question’s contact with his friend’s brother was only as much as a single FaceTime call, which Kendrick chalks up to “you” thinking that he would recover. In reality, his friend’s brother passed away from his injuries. It grows more and more clear who the “you” Kendrick is speaking to truly is, and it’s revealed that he is speaking to a mirror. He can be heard taking swigs of alcohol throughout the verse, and he uses masterful wordplay to reference his distraught mental state and concerning alcohol use:
“
…everything is your fault
Faults breakin’ to pieces, earthquakes on every weekend
Because you shook as soon as you knew confinement was needed
”
These incredible displays of songwriting skill are all throughout the entire runtime of To Pimp a Butterfly, but if I were to give more examples, we’d be here for a few hours.
Kendrick goes on to finish the final verse of the song fully expressing how little he thinks of himself, and how much he blames himself for the battles his loved ones are fighting and the deaths that have occurred since he rose to fame. The final lines of the song are as follows:
“
You should’ve felt that black revolver blast long time ago
And if these mirrors could talk it’d say, “You gotta go”
And if I told your secrets the world’ll know money can’t stop a suicidal weakness
”
This heart-wrenching conclusion is brought to a somewhat beautiful resolution, as “u” is directly followed by “Alright” which is an anthem for hope; that, as Kendrick and Pharrell rap, “We gon’ be alright”. The track “i” also falls later in the album. This track juxtaposes “u”, featuring a chorus that repeats the line “I love myself”, and features an empowering message at the end through Kendrick speaking to a live crowd as a fight breaks out at his show.
The Concept
A major inspiration that led to Kendrick Lamar creating this album was a trip he took to South Africa in 2014. There, he experienced many aspects of South African culture, as well as societal unfairness analogous to that present in the United States. He evolved a specific experience from his trip involving his refusal to give any money to a beggar at a gas station into the meaningful, powerful, and arguably best track on the album, “How Much a Dollar Cost”.
The overarching theme of the album is about one pimping their butterfly, pimping here meaning idealizing, as one would pimp a car by customizing it to their liking. The butterfly represents the means by which someone can pimp their life, and on “Mortal Man”, the final song of the album, Kendrick explains what it means to pimp a butterfly, reciting the following poem written by a friend of his:
“
The caterpillar is a prisoner to the streets that conceived it
Its only job is to eat or consume everything around it
In order to protect itself from this mad city
While consuming its environment
The caterpillar begins to notice ways to survive
One thing it noticed is how much the world shuns him
But praises the butterfly
The butterfly represents the talent, the thoughtfulness
And the beauty within the caterpillar
But having a harsh outlook on life
The caterpillar sees the butterfly as weak
And figures out a way to pimp it to his own benefits
Already surrounded by this mad city
The caterpillar goes to work on the cocoon
Which institutionalizes him
He can no longer see past his own thoughts, he’s trapped
When trapped inside these walls certain ideas take root, such as
Going home, and bringing back new concepts to this mad city
The result?
Wings begin to emerge, breaking the cycle of feeling stagnant
Finally free, the butterfly sheds light on situations
That the caterpillar never considered
Ending the internal struggle
Although the butterfly and caterpillar are completely different
They are one and the same
”
In Summary
Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly is a timeless album. It’s just as phenomenal as it was a decade ago. Everything this album aims to do it does to a level accomplished by none neither previously nor since. To Pimp a Butterfly is what perfection in music sounds like, and is the only album I myself have ever heard that I can confidently call perfect.
Rating: 10/10
Reviewer’s Name: Daniel McDonald
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