Crew Chronicles: Rick reviews the new Kendrick
After YEARS of waiting, anticipating, debating, wondering, and pondering; it is here. Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly has finally debuted….. one week early to everyone’s surprise.
After Kendrick’s most talked about verse in his rap career, featured on Big Sean’s single, Control, where Kendrick called out multiple rappers and in so many words proclaimed himself the King of modern day rap; real hip hop fans could only marvel and wait for his third solo album.
Let us also not forget about the masterpiece, the classic, the great body of work, which Kendrick released in the fall of 2012….Good Kid, M.A.A.D City. These two factors alone gave hip hop fans the feeling of the good old days, when hip hop was about telling your story and the stories of those culturally connected to you.
In the early 90’s (the best hip hop era ever), rap was a way for the “forgotten people” to hear their views expressed on a nationwide scale. With that angle being completely lost….Kendrick became our new hope to bring that feel good, conscious voice back to hip hop music. So, weeding through today’s current music topics, mainly focusing on money, jewelry, violence, drugs, and sex (some of which is still very good and important to today’s hip hop culture), we find a way To Pimp a Butterfly.
This album has a funkadelic, jazzy, rock n’ roll, r&b, hip hop feel to it, all in one. To Pimp A Butterfly gives off a feeling of a summertime/family reunion vibe that you can groove to, relax to, and enjoy. But it doesn't end there.
Along with its smooth grooves, featuring artists such as George Clinton and Snoop Dogg, Kendrick fights to display the current outlook of Africans in America (as I prefer to call us) during these trying and uneasy times. The triumph, pain, victory, disappointment, glory, and unwillingness to accept defeat by an entire culture is incorporated into this body of work.
Kendrick’s approach at self and cultural reflection was a great success and were the primary topics of discussion, within this album. But was that enough?
I would argue that some commercial/radio tracks should have been included. People that know me will reread that last statement and ask themselves…. “Did Rick just say that?” YEAH I SAID. And I will tell you why. THE CONSCIOUS CANNOT TEACH THE CONSCIOUS!!!
By sprinkling a few commercial songs within this album, a different target market is attracted. Then a different target market gets wrapped up in To Pimp A Butterfly and is exposed to greatness, to the thoughts manifested through music, which belong to the African in America.
Intelligent marketing bates a different type of consumer and transforms that consumer into another segment of the original target. KENDRICK, MAKE THEM WANNA LISTEN. You have so much valuable information, and it is as though so many will be cheated out of hearing it. OK, I am done with the positive reinforcement.
Overall Kendrick Lamar has produced a wonderful body of work. I was not yet sold on the first single off of the album. Entitled “I”, which later grew on me. When “The Blacker The Berry” dropped….I knew we were in for a winner. My personal favorite songs are “For Sale”, “Hood Politics”, These Walls, and the previously mentioned “The Blacker The Berry”.
But wait, there’s more. The best ending to an album I have ever heard happens to be on To Pimp a Butterfly. Kendrick Lamar ends the album by interviewing Tupac Shakur. You say “Hold up Rick, Is Tupac Back?” (Word to Meek). The powerful interview at the end of the song “Mortal Man” was just genius, bone chilling actually.
The poetry incorporated in this album….thought provoking. The messages of self-love, cultural-love, self-criticism, cultural-criticism….astonishing. WE NEEDED THIS. Not only African in America, but people of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds in America can learn from this. Is To Pimp a Butterfly a classic? I have not decided just yet, but it was definitely a breath of fresh air in this thing we call “modern hip hop”.
Good Job King Kendrick… From one King to another.
After Kendrick’s most talked about verse in his rap career, featured on Big Sean’s single, Control, where Kendrick called out multiple rappers and in so many words proclaimed himself the King of modern day rap; real hip hop fans could only marvel and wait for his third solo album.
Let us also not forget about the masterpiece, the classic, the great body of work, which Kendrick released in the fall of 2012….Good Kid, M.A.A.D City. These two factors alone gave hip hop fans the feeling of the good old days, when hip hop was about telling your story and the stories of those culturally connected to you.
In the early 90’s (the best hip hop era ever), rap was a way for the “forgotten people” to hear their views expressed on a nationwide scale. With that angle being completely lost….Kendrick became our new hope to bring that feel good, conscious voice back to hip hop music. So, weeding through today’s current music topics, mainly focusing on money, jewelry, violence, drugs, and sex (some of which is still very good and important to today’s hip hop culture), we find a way To Pimp a Butterfly.
This album has a funkadelic, jazzy, rock n’ roll, r&b, hip hop feel to it, all in one. To Pimp A Butterfly gives off a feeling of a summertime/family reunion vibe that you can groove to, relax to, and enjoy. But it doesn't end there.
Along with its smooth grooves, featuring artists such as George Clinton and Snoop Dogg, Kendrick fights to display the current outlook of Africans in America (as I prefer to call us) during these trying and uneasy times. The triumph, pain, victory, disappointment, glory, and unwillingness to accept defeat by an entire culture is incorporated into this body of work.
Kendrick’s approach at self and cultural reflection was a great success and were the primary topics of discussion, within this album. But was that enough?
I would argue that some commercial/radio tracks should have been included. People that know me will reread that last statement and ask themselves…. “Did Rick just say that?” YEAH I SAID. And I will tell you why. THE CONSCIOUS CANNOT TEACH THE CONSCIOUS!!!
By sprinkling a few commercial songs within this album, a different target market is attracted. Then a different target market gets wrapped up in To Pimp A Butterfly and is exposed to greatness, to the thoughts manifested through music, which belong to the African in America.
Intelligent marketing bates a different type of consumer and transforms that consumer into another segment of the original target. KENDRICK, MAKE THEM WANNA LISTEN. You have so much valuable information, and it is as though so many will be cheated out of hearing it. OK, I am done with the positive reinforcement.
Overall Kendrick Lamar has produced a wonderful body of work. I was not yet sold on the first single off of the album. Entitled “I”, which later grew on me. When “The Blacker The Berry” dropped….I knew we were in for a winner. My personal favorite songs are “For Sale”, “Hood Politics”, These Walls, and the previously mentioned “The Blacker The Berry”.
But wait, there’s more. The best ending to an album I have ever heard happens to be on To Pimp a Butterfly. Kendrick Lamar ends the album by interviewing Tupac Shakur. You say “Hold up Rick, Is Tupac Back?” (Word to Meek). The powerful interview at the end of the song “Mortal Man” was just genius, bone chilling actually.
The poetry incorporated in this album….thought provoking. The messages of self-love, cultural-love, self-criticism, cultural-criticism….astonishing. WE NEEDED THIS. Not only African in America, but people of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds in America can learn from this. Is To Pimp a Butterfly a classic? I have not decided just yet, but it was definitely a breath of fresh air in this thing we call “modern hip hop”.
Good Job King Kendrick… From one King to another.
