The Rundown: Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly
A track-by-track look at K Dot's second major label release.
1 / 17
The Rundown: Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly - Kendrick Lamar dropped an album about a week ago. No one was ready, not even his label, forced to release it earlier than expected (original plan: today, March 23). But alright. The demand had to be met, and To Pimp a Butterfly more than returns.Read on for a track-by-track look; you haven't digested it all yet.(Photo: Interscope Records)
2 / 17
"Wesley's Theory" featuring George Clinton and Thundercat - Computer games wouldn't begin to explain how we finally got our hands on K Dot's sophomore album, making the George Clinton feature here as prophetic as the song's bass line. "Anybody can get it," Dr. Dre says on it. "The hard part is keeping it, motherf***er."(Photo: Chelsea Lauren/WireImage)
3 / 17
"For Free? (Interlude)" - Church leads this track right into the mind of your typical around-the-way girl and then left turns to rest at an open mic night. "This d**k ain't free," Kendrick The Poet repeats, in anxious restraint.(Photo: Angelo Merendino/Getty Images)
4 / 17
"King Kunta" - "Now I run the game, got the whole world talking," King Kendrick announces over a stank and feverish Sounwave and Terrace Martin-produced beat. He ain't never lied.(Photo: Paras Griffin/Getty Images)
5 / 17
"Institutionalized" featuring Bilal, Anna Wise and Snoop Dogg - To Pimp a Butterfly slows down a bit here –– musically, not in message. "S**t don't change until you get up and wash your a**," sings Bilal. Snoop is in storytelling mode, even though he's relegated to a hook.(Photo: Noel Vasquez/WireImage)
ADVERTISEMENT
6 / 17
"These Walls" featuring Bilal, Anna Wise and Thundercat - This one wails at first, then delivers a disco-heavy funk. Kendrick closes it as he began (in spoken word). "I remember you was conflicted, misusing your influence/ Sometimes I did the same," he confesses.(Photo: Paras Griffin/Getty Images)
7 / 17
"u" - "Loving you is complicated," Kendrick croons as if he's using an empty OE bottle –– or something 100 proof –– as a microphone. His voice, as distressed as the impending hangover this song leaves.(Photo: Angelo Merendino/Getty Images)
8 / 17
"Alright" - After the libation, there's this Terrace Martin-on-the-sax-driven liberation. "If God got us, then we gon' be alright," Kendrick assures.(Photo: Dana Edelson/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank)
9 / 17
"For Sale? (Interlude)" - The judge on the cover of To Pimp a Butterfly, haunted by the exploitation of the homies for some money-grubbing fun, gets his voice heard here.(Photo: Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)
10 / 17
"Momma" - Lalah Hathaway is in on the background vocals. The time signature, complicated. Jazz. "I know everything," he says. "...I know what I know/ and I know it well to not ever forget/ Until I realize I didn't know s**t."(Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
ADVERTISEMENT
11 / 17
"Hood Politics" - "Boo boo" K Dot is back, lamenting about the world at large ("politics and rap") because, although "it's set trippin' all around," none of that really matters when it comes to life and death where he's from.(Photo: Seth McConnell/The Denver Post)
12 / 17
"How Much a Dollar Cost" featuring James Fauntleroy and Ron Isley - This is Kendrick at his best. The storytelling legacy that The Doggfather instilled percolates, passing through digital claps and Ron Isley melodies.(Photo: Angelo Merendino/Getty Images)
13 / 17
"Complexion (A Zulu Love)" featuring Rapsody - The boom bap finally finds its balance here. Pete Rock is present in the scratches to make sure of that. "Let the Willie Lynch theory reverse a million times with complexion," Kendrick offers. Rapsody backs him up. "Keep ya head up; when did you stop?"(Photo: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)
14 / 17
"The Blacker the Berry" - In context, this single sounds more urgent. Kendrick, further out into the diaspora –– to hip hop's dancehall roots with Assassin on the vocals –– reminds, he's the "biggest hypocrite in 2015." Ain't nothing sweet about this juice. OJ.(Photo: Noel Vasquez/WireImage)
15 / 17
"You Ain't Gotta Lie (Momma Said)" - Kendrick's mom appears again, this time speaking through him (instead of to him), while K Dot flips a colloquialism over a LoveDragon beat. "I can spot you a mile away, I can see your insecurities written all on your face ... You ain't gotta lie to kick it."(Photo: Mark Davis/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank)
ADVERTISEMENT