Kendrick Lamar surprised everyone with his week-early release of his sophomore album, To Pimp A Butterfly. The same day Tupac released, Me Against the World 20 years ago.
His sophomore album is prophetic, passionate, expressive and unrestrained. His verses and spoken word are empowering. To Pimp A Butterfly is more than just an album, it’s a story that unfolds throughout every song. His spoken word dangles among tracks ultimately unifying on his outro, ‘Mortal Man.’
“But while my loved ones was fighting the continous war back in the city, I was entering a new one.
A war that was based on apartheid and discrimination
Made me wanna go back to the city and tell the homies what I learned
The word was respect
Just because you wore a different gang color than mine’s
Doesn’t mean I can’t respect you as a black man
Forgetting all the pain and hurt we caused each other in these streets
If I respect you, we unify and stop the enemy from killing us
But I don’t know, I’m no mortal man, maybe I’m just another nigga”
He helps his fans awaken to self-consciousness. He helps his fans realize the suppression we all feed into. He’s the voice of empowerment the minority and hip-hop community need to change the world. He’s our generation’s Tupac. He realizes the change hip-hop needs and he has the self control and determination to do it. To Pimp A Butterfly cannot be defined to just hip-hop. It spreads positivity to the whole world and has the ability to be taught among future minority generations.
“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.”
Stream it below and listen to it as a story, you can also buy it now on iTunes.
– Breanna Vasquez
Follow
