The lyrical rawness and poetic element to this album reaches out to the political chaos we are experiencing now in 2015, things that have been happening in America for too long, things that need to change.
-Elena Ruiz
-Elena Ruiz

To Pimp A Butterfly was released on March 15th of this year, a very desired new album from Kendrick since his last album good kid, m.A.A.d city in 2012. In his last album he told the story of his life through each song in order. By doing this Kendrick gave the listener the opportunity to take a walk in his shoes. Now in 2015 Kendrick gives the listener the opportunity to take a walk in the shoes of a broken nation, to see through the lense of colored America in the age of “colorblindness,” and how the media's portrayal of beauty, the school systems lack of deserved education, and neighborhood pressure to be “a man” influenced his life.
Let’s be honest, if you’re into hip hop there’s no way you haven’t heard Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly yet. After going through each song, getting a feel for the melodies, and the poem that builds onto itself through each song, I had made a quick decision that this would be one of the greatest albums made in 2015. The 27 year old rapper from Compton made it very clear that people of color (specifically African American men) are still and always have been living in an institutionalized new age of slavery. This couldn’t have been a better time for Kendrick to release an album like this especially when Baltimore’s Freddy Gray was just recently killed. The album release date and Gray’s killing were a little bit separate in time but just as relevant to the times we are in. Right now America is in dire need of self reflection and structural reconstruction, and if one album can help the youth and lovers of hip hop (which is a primarily black audience) then we as a community will have a more educated step towards our future.
This album touches on the most delicate and serious of situations on being a black person in America, and even though I am not a young male growing up in Compton CA, I can definitely relate to the issues being arrised and talked about in the album. The song U, is probably the most relatable to me, because as a teenage girl the feeling I know the most in this social and technological age would have to be self deprecation and insecurity. In the song Kendrick repeats “Loving you is complicated,” and continues to go on about why. In a world where European beauty is the standard, it’s hard to feel like you’re enough, or important if you don’t fit that “ideal.” The way Kendrick was able to open up about his unconfident ways made me connect to him and his music even more. He doesn’t only appeal to 16 year old girls, but the entire black community, bringing up topics we can all relate to.
In multiple songs he refers to the lack of education when it comes to teaching black people how to handle money saying things like “We should never gave niggas money.” He also brings up a very important topic, which is the injustice in the prison system and black on black violence. His single “The Blacker the Berry,” says the “The blacker the berry the bigger I shoot,” which seems to be the new motto of the police and “Gang bangin’ made me kill a nigga blacker than me, hypocrite.” The lyrical rawness and poetic element to this album reaches out to the political chaos we are experiencing now in 2015, things that have been happening in America for too long, things that need to change. Kendrick attacks these issues with a musical approach which the most accessible and convenient for youth today. He keeps it real while sharing his own personal experience, which I hope will influence and educate our youth for a better and more politically aware future, in the streets and in hiphop culture.
In multiple songs he refers to the lack of education when it comes to teaching black people how to handle money saying things like “We should never gave niggas money.” He also brings up a very important topic, which is the injustice in the prison system and black on black violence. His single “The Blacker the Berry,” says the “The blacker the berry the bigger I shoot,” which seems to be the new motto of the police and “Gang bangin’ made me kill a nigga blacker than me, hypocrite.” The lyrical rawness and poetic element to this album reaches out to the political chaos we are experiencing now in 2015, things that have been happening in America for too long, things that need to change. Kendrick attacks these issues with a musical approach which the most accessible and convenient for youth today. He keeps it real while sharing his own personal experience, which I hope will influence and educate our youth for a better and more politically aware future, in the streets and in hiphop culture.