To Pimp a Butterfly

To this day this album is still something I think about.

When I see the capitol being stormed by scum, I think about *To Pimp A Butterfly*. When I think about all the alcohol and drugs that have taken a grip on communities I've seen and my family, I think about *To Pimp A Butterfly*. When I see black communities tearing each other apart, when I see artists fall victim to the pimps of the industry-

When I think about conquering one's self, dealing with depression, loving thyself, his work never fails to loom in my mind. Utilizing Soul, Jazz and Hip-Hop to reinforce the concepts of love, art, worth, sorrow, materialism, value, power, race and ESPECIALLY responsibility.

Just think about what's going on in this man's head throughout the track list before we've even hit *You Ain't Gotta Lie*.

"Am I really helping my community by being where I am right now? Who else has the stardom I have and who else is willing to spread the right message? If I don't, who will? Should I even consider it? I see the right and wrong, I'm grown enough to acknowledge the ills but I'm greedy and wicked enough to enjoy the pleasures the industry's fed me. How much will satisfy me? What do I actually NEED for nourishment? What do my people need for nourishment?"

No fucking wonder I only listen to this thing in full every... 6 to 8 months or so, maybe a year if we're being honest. It's one of the most stressful album experiences I've ever endured and yet at the same time infinitely enjoyable. Those thoughts aren't even covering everything he has to question and meditate on, there's just so much self-awareness and so many topics and yet the album never feels like a mess, the project is excellently woven together. He's always at a breaking point but sometimes it wouldn't feel like that because all those juicy and layered instrumentation are just too distracting to acknowledge it.

So much weight on his shoulders and yet at the end of the tunnel he finds a solution. Just... gorgeous... Kendrick Lamar was put on this Earth to give us this once-in-a-lifetime experience from God.

This album will never not be a classic. 10 years, 20, 50... hell if we make it that long I dare even 100 years into the future and all the themes and underlying messages will hold up.

A cinematic, world-ending musical artefact.