To Pimp a Butterfly
To Pimp a Butterfly is the third studio album by the American rapper Kendrick Lamar. It was released on March 15, 2015, by Top Dawg Entertainment, Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records. The album was recorded in studios throughout the United States, with production from Sounwave, Terrace Martin, Taz "Tisa" Arnold, Thundercat, Rahki, LoveDragon, Flying Lotus, Pharrell Williams, Boi-1da, Knxwledge, and several other high-profile hip-hop producers, as well as executive production from Dr. Dre and Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith. Guest appearances include Thundercat, George Clinton, Bilal, Anna Wise, Snoop Dogg, James Fauntleroy, Ronald Isley, and Rapsody.
Primarily a hip-hop album, To Pimp a Butterfly incorporates numerous other musical styles spanning the history of African-American music, most prominently jazz, funk, and soul. Lyrically, it features political commentary and personal themes concerning African-American culture, racial inequality, depression, and institutional discrimination. This thematic direction was inspired by Lamar's tour of historic sites during his visit to South Africa, such as Nelson Mandela's jail cell on Robben Island.
To Pimp a Butterfly sold 324,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release, earning a chart debut at number one on the US Billboard 200, while also becoming Lamar's first number-one album in the UK. It was eventually certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America and sold over one million copies in the United States by 2017. Five singles were released in promotion of the album, including the top 40 hit "I". Lamar also supported the album with the Kunta's Groove Sessions Tour from late 2015 to early 2016.
The album received widespread acclaim from critics, who praised its musical scope and the social relevance of Lamar's lyrics. It earned Lamar seven nominations at the 2016 Grammy Awards, including a win for Best Rap Album and an Album of the Year nomination. He received four additional nominations for other collaborations from that year, receiving a total of 11 Grammy nominations, which was the most nominations for any rapper in a single night. It topped The Village Voices annual Pazz & Jop poll of American critics nationwide, and was also ranked as the best album of 2015 by many other publications. In the years following its release, several publications named To Pimp a Butterfly one of the best albums of the 2010s; in 2020, the album was ranked 19th on Rolling Stones updated list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
Background
On February 28, 2014, Kendrick Lamar first revealed the plans to release a follow-up to his second studio album, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, during an interview with Billboard. During its development, Lamar traveled to South Africa. Touring the country and visiting historic sites such as Nelson Mandela's jail cell on Robben Island heavily influenced the direction of the record and led to Lamar scrapping "two or three albums worth of material".Co-producer Sounwave reflected on Lamar's visit, claiming it revitalized his mind and led to the album's conception. Regarding his visit to South Africa, Lamar said, "I felt like I belonged in Africa. I saw all the things that I wasn't taught. Probably one of the hardest things to do is put a concept on how beautiful a place can be, and tell a person this while they're still in the ghettos of Compton. I wanted to put that experience in the music." In addition, Lamar said, "The idea was to make a record that reflected all complexions of black women. There's a separation between the light and the dark skin because it's just in our nature to do so, but we're all black. This concept came from South Africa and I saw all these different colors speaking a beautiful language."
Recording and production
To Pimp a Butterfly was recorded at a variety of studios; including Chalice Recording Studios, Downtown Studios, House Studios, Notifi Studios and No Excuses Studios. Lamar wrote the lyrics to the song "Mortal Man" while on Kanye West's Yeezus Tour. During the whole tour, producer Flying Lotus played Lamar a selection of tracks that was intended for Captain Murphy's album. Lamar kept all the tracks, but only opener "Wesley's Theory", which also features Thundercat and George Clinton, made the final cut onto the album. Lotus had produced a version of "For Sale? " that was ultimately discarded, with Lamar using Taz Arnold's version of the song on the album instead. Lotus stated that it is unlikely his version of the song will see a release. American rapper Rapsody appeared on the album, contributing a verse to the song "Complexion ". Lamar had requested that 9th Wonder contact Rapsody and request her appearance. Rapsody and Lamar discussed the song but there was little instruction from Lamar regarding her contribution. Speaking about the song, she stated that Lamar had already decided on the concept of the song and stated that the only instructions he gave were the song's title and the idea that "...we are beautiful no matter our race but he really wanted to speak to our people and address this light versus dark complex". Lamar also contacted Madlib to seek his collaboration on the record but was unable to reach him.In 2014, Pharrell Williams, who previously worked with Lamar, along with producer Sounwave, played the track "Alright" at the Holy Ship Festival. The track features the same unidentified sample that Williams used on Rick Ross' track "Presidential" from his album God Forgives, I Don't. Reportedly, at one time it featured a guest appearance from American rapper Fabolous. The album went through three different phases before the production team could move forward with the idea. Afterwards, producer Thundercat was brought into the process, after Flying Lotus brought him along to see Lamar's performance on The Yeezus Tour. The album's lead single, titled "I", was produced by Rahki, who also produced a song for the album entitled "Institutionalized". Containing a sample of the song "That Lady" performed by the Isley Brothers, Lamar personally visited the Isley Brothers, to receive permission from lead vocalist Ronald Isley to sample the song.
Lamar began traveling to St. Louis and began working with Isley at the studio. Isley also performed on the song "How Much a Dollar Cost" alongside the singer-songwriter James Fauntleroy. Producer and rapper Pete Rock provided some backing vocals and scratches to the song "Complexion ", and as he stated, the contribution was unusual, as he was not the producer for the track. Singer Bilal features on the songs "Institutionalized" and "These Walls", and has provided uncredited backing vocals on the songs "U", "For Sale? ", "Momma" and "Hood Politics". Bilal stated that he and Lamar were initially unsure of how many songs he would be featured on, stating he worked on various tracks, but did not yet know the outcome. "For a lot of the material, Kendrick had an idea of what he wanted. He would sing out the melody and some of the words, and I would interpret what he was telling me." On the songs where Bilal added backing vocals, he stated that "...some of it was freestyle; just adding color to make it a fuller sound." Lamar also reportedly worked with American musician Prince; however, the duo were too pressed for time during the recording session and therefore were unable to complete any work for inclusion on the album. Lamar professed to having listened often to Miles Davis and Parliament-Funkadelic during the album's recording.
In 2016, Lamar released Untitled Unmastered, a compilation album, which contains previously unreleased demos that originated during the recording of To Pimp a Butterfly. According to producer Thundercat, it "completes the sentence" of Lamar's third studio album.
Musical style
According to musicologist Will Fulton, To Pimp a Butterfly engages in and celebrates the black music tradition. Much like the singer D'Angelo on his 2014 album Black Messiah, Lamar "consciously indexes African American musical styles of the past in a dynamic relationship of nostalgic revivalism and vanguardism." Kyle Anderson of Entertainment Weekly described the album as "embracing the entire history of black American music." Lamar's co-engineer/mixer MixedByAli praised Lamar, saying, " a sponge. He incorporated everything that was going on and in his life to complete a million-piece puzzle." Lamar described the album as an "honest, fearful and unapologetic" work that draws on funk, hard bop, spoken word and soul while critics also noted elements of West Coast hip-hop and avant-garde. Allison Stewart from The Washington Post says the album is "threaded" with G-funk. Speaking on the album's styles, co-producer Terrace Martin said, "If you dig deeper you hear the lineage of James Brown, Jackie Wilson, Mahalia Jackson, the sounds of Africa, and our people when they started over here. I hear something different every time. I heard Cuban elements in it the other day."The album features contributions from the collective of musicians called the West Coast Get Down, who experiment with jazz and progressive hip-hop sounds, and feature Lamar, Flying Lotus, Martin, and saxophonist Kamasi Washington, among others. Consequently, the music is "jazz-like in spirit if not always in sound", according to Ben Ratliff, while Mosi Reeves from Deadspin observes a virtuosic quality to its "prog-rap cornucopia". Stereogum described To Pimp a Butterfly as an "ambitious avant-jazz-rap statement," and The Source categorized the album as an experimental hip-hop release. Dan Weiss of Spin noted "shades of Miles Davis' On the Corner and free jazz all over , as well as Sly Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On and Funkadelic and Erykah Badu's similarly wah-crazy but comparatively lo-fi New Amerykah ," but stated nonetheless that "the sense of this album is vividly contemporary." Other critics regard it as "throwback" to neo soul music of the 1990s. Greg Kot of Chicago Tribune noted the album's affinities with previous black music, but argued that "Lamar takes familiar musical tropes into new territory." The Atlantic noted the influence of collaborator Flying Lotus, writing that "his signature sound—jazz instrumentation and hip-hop layered into chaotic collages—is all over the album." Steve Mallon of The Quietus noted an "eerily warped psychedelia bursting out of its idiosyncratic arrangements."