--- title: Kendrick Lamar's 'To Pimp a Butterfly': REVIEW description: Kendrick Lamar's new album 'To Pimp a Butterfly' raises issues of black identity canonical: https://time.com/3747392/kendrick-lamar-to-pimp-a-butterfly-review/ author: Jamieson Cox article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-17T16:57:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T05:12:49.025Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: REVIEW: Kendrick Lamar's 'To Pimp a Butterfly' og:description: Kendrick Lamar's new album 'To Pimp a Butterfly' raises issues of black identity og:url: https://time.com/3747392/kendrick-lamar-to-pimp-a-butterfly-review/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb9bf4b045087b459/698783f555a85917c5a86566/kendrick-lamar.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Shaun White's Air And Style Music Festival og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: REVIEW: Kendrick Lamar's 'To Pimp a Butterfly' twitter:description: Kendrick Lamar's new album 'To Pimp a Butterfly' raises issues of black identity twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb9bf4b045087b459/698783f555a85917c5a86566/kendrick-lamar.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # REVIEW: Kendrick Lamar's _To Pimp a Butterfly_ Is an Angst-Filled Anthem for Blackness > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [Jamieson Cox](https://time.com/author/cox-jamieson/) ## Jamieson Cox Mar 17, 2015 4:57 PM UTC  Kendrick Lamar performs onstage at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., on Feb. 21, 2015 Kendrick Lamar performs onstage at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., on Feb. 21, 2015Scott Dudelson—Getty Images by [Jamieson Cox](https://time.com/author/cox-jamieson/) ## Jamieson Cox Mar 17, 2015 4:57 PM UTC Kendrick Lamar’s rapid ascent to a place near hip-hop’s creative and commercial peak can be traced to his command of three key skills: 1\. On a purely technical level, he’s one of the most exciting rappers of his generation, possessed of both impressive agility and the capacity for tremendous force. When he’s on the mic, beats are less constraints than canvases — he doodles on and around them with abandon. 2\. He’s fearless, a quality that frequently manifests itself in the sound and effect of his voice: it cracks and spits, carries feeble melodies, bears the weight of rich stories. 3\. As a narrative sculptor, he’s fearsome, stitching together fully realized characters, lived-in locations and generational angst into snapshots of life for the young, black and questioning. All three are in full effect on Lamar’s third studio album, _To Pimp a Butterfly_, which had been scheduled for release on March 23, but [dropped early](http://time.com/3745549/kendrick-lamar-to-pimp-a-butterfly-drake-rap-hip-hop/), the night of March 15\. While the album’s extreme density warrants plenty of digestion time, it’s apparent from the first few listens that it’s worthy of the same sort of praise won by its predecessor, 2012’s _good kid, m.A.A.d city_. _GKMC_ was so thick and compelling it earned the subtitle “A Short Film by Kendrick Lamar.” A crackling, tense journey from the streets of his beloved Compton, Calif., to a throne somewhere high above the city — part thriller, part romance, part introspective diary entry — it managed to balance oodles of exposition and plot work with radio-friendly singles and jazzy, intricate composition. Sonically, Lamar veers in a more contemplative direction. _Butterfly_ boasts a warm, murky stew pulled from the last several decades of compassionate, inventive black music: the 1970s soul and funk of Stevie Wonder and George Clinton’s Funkadelic; the descendant G-funk of mentor Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg; the weird and technically audacious work of the Soulquarians at the turn of the millennium. The instrumentation is live and hyperkinetic, thanks to contributors such as bass virtuoso Thundercat and a crew of other crack session musicians. The focus is on atmosphere rather than hooks or lead melodies. Lyrically, _Butterfly_ is another plot-centric, thematically complex release. Surprisingly, it parallels the last few releases from Lamar’s rival and sometime nemesis Drake: both artists have been transformed by sudden fame, and their music reflects the trials and joys of their upward trajectory. But while Drake has emerged from superstardom calcified, Lamar questions whether he should leverage his celebrity to become a standard bearer for blackness. The inquiry comes to define the album: How can you fight for love on behalf of your people when you can barely find a reason to love yourself? The answer doesn’t come easy, and Lamar struggles to uncover it even as he rails against the demons and constraints that make his journey more difficult. He takes them on with characteristic ferocity and incisiveness: alcohol, depression, systemic racism, police brutality. The album climaxes with an imagined conversation with the late legend Tupac Shakur — his responses sampled from [a 1994 interview](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/listen-rare-tupac-interview-featured-781697) Shakur gave to a Swedish radio host — in which Lamar grapples with the weight of black leadership and galvanization, a responsibility he claims to inherit from a range of black luminaries, from Nelson Mandela to Michael Jackson. It’s certainly a bold gambit, but it’s also a good example of his blinding, mighty ambition. Lamar wants nothing less than greatness, and _To Pimp a Butterfly_ is yet another step forward on that path. 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