58th Grammy Award nominees Lamar, Terrace Martin, Thundercat, Rapsody and other key contributors to the creation of To Pimp A Butterfly, nominated in the Album of the Year category, tell the story behind the album.
In 2014, between the creation of "good kid, m.A.A.d. city" and "To Pimp a Butterfly", Kendrick traveled to South Africa and changed forever. Traveling around the country and visiting such significant historical sites as Nelson Mandela's prison cell on Robben Island, influenced the musician's worldview and his music.
According to sound engineer Derek "MixedByAli" Ali, after returning from the trip, Lamar threw out "two or three albums of decent material." Lamar wanted to create music that reflected the sound of Compton, in which he grew up and was raised. He began to listen to records in the style of Sly Stone, Donald Byrd and Miles Davis. In the end, "To Pimp a Butterfly" emerged, incorporating elements of jazz, funk, soul, art recitation and hip-hop.
"I wanted to do something similar to my debut album, but I wasn't sure it would work," says Kendrick.
Lamar has received 11 Grammy nominations, including Album of the Year and Best Rap Album. He and his co-authors told the story of the creation of "To Pimp a Butterfly".
Soundwave (co-producer): I remember how he went to Africa and after that something in his head switched. I think it was at that moment that the work on the album really began.
Lamar: I felt like Africa is my home. I caught everything that I was not taught. Perhaps one of the most difficult tasks is to tell about the enchanting land to the people who still live in the Compton ghettos. I tried to express this experience in music.
Derek "MixedByAli" Ali (sound engineer): Lamar is like a sponge. He absorbed all the events that took place in his life and in Africa in order to assemble one whole puzzle out of this million elements.
Lamar: During my concert tour with Kanye, I wanted to work in a mobile "bus" studio, so I called Flying Lotus. He wrote beats, and among them was one special one that Flylo did not include. He skipped that beat, but I heard the first three seconds and was like, "What is that?" He replied: “This is not your topic. It's real funk... You can't read it." It sounded like a challenge.
Thundercat (co-producer): The idea for "Wesley's Theory" was born when Flying Lotus and I sat on the couch in front of the computer and studied the music of George Clinton. It gave impetus to further creativity. I was very impressed by Kendrick's zeal in working on this song.
sounwave: This song is depicted on the cover of the album.
Lamar: I had to look for George Clinton in the wilderness. He was somewhere in the south, and I flew to him. As soon as we sat down in the studio, we immediately got together. Working with him took my skill to the next level, thanks to which I was able to create more of these compositions for the album.
sounwave: When we first started writing "King Kunta", the beat was extremely jazzy, with melodic flutes as well. Kendrick said he liked it, but it needed to be "dirtier". As a sample, he gave a joint track by DJ Quik and Mausberg "Get Nekkid" and told me what needs to be changed. I added different drums to our song, simplified it, called Thundercat to play the bass, and that was it.
Thundercat: Creating this fucking rhythm with powerful drums and bass, Sounwave and I were watching "Fist of the North Star" in parallel [cartoon based on the popular Japanese manga - approx. site] and ate Yoshinoya [Japanese fast food]. It's funny because a lot of this album was actually created while eating Yoshinoya and watching cartoons. It's so cool and so black.
Terrace Martin (co-producer): If you dig deeper, you'll find a pedigree going through James Brown, Jackie Wilson, Mahalia Jackson, African music and all of our early people. Every time I hear something new. Sometimes I can detect Cuban motifs in this music.
Martin: While working on "Complexion" we listened a lot to J Dilla, Jimi Hendrix and Lala Hathaway, who is also on the song. Robert Glasper played the piano. Sounwave and I listened to his part and decided to change the beat, so we called Lala Hathaway and got into the J Dilla spirit. Then Rapsody joined us and destroyed the beat.
Rapsody (guest artist): When I got the first call, I was in New York. It happened the day after the release of Lamar's verse to the song "Control". All they did was discuss his verse while Kendrick himself was in Africa. I had also been there a year earlier, so I was aware of the changes that come to you as a result of such a trip, especially if you are black.
Lamar: The idea was to talk about the complexion of all black women in one song. We distinguish between light and dark skin, this is inherent in us by nature, but at the same time we are all black. The idea came from South Africa, where I saw with my own eyes all these different colors and shades, speaking the same beautiful language.
MixedByAli: Lamar has a library of voices in his head, and he knows exactly when he hears something suitable. He sees music as colors. Creating each song, he seems to collect a rainbow.
Lamar: As soon as the beat started, I immediately heard Rapsody's voice and the right vocal tone. There was something special about Rapsody: I knew she was going to write a song that would have a female perspective on complexion, vulnerability, and the gratitude that goes with her for your color and complexion.
Rapsody: He said he wanted to talk about the beauty of black people. I told him that everything was clear and that he could not continue. But what really baffled me was that Kendrick didn't originally plan to write a verse for this song. According to his idea, I had to do two verses, and the Prince - to sing the chorus.
Lamar: It's true. Prince liked the recording and the idea of the song, and he invited us to talk. And so we were sitting in the studio and just talking, when we suddenly realized that we hadn’t recorded anything yet, and there was no time left to record. We just ran out of time, the usual situation.
Thundercat: The idea for the album has been in the making for a long time and Kendrick, being an African American, just couldn't help but face many of the social issues he talks about.
sounwave: I didn't expect "Alright" to be a protest song, but I still knew it would make a splash because the very times we live in made it perfect for it.
Martin: One of the greatest moments of my life was when I saw young people marching to "Alright". We wept like children because our efforts were not in vain. This is the form in which we clothe our message. We expressed a personal position, contributed to healing and love through art.
MixedByAli: Working on "U" was extremely inconvenient. Lamar wrote the lyrics while in a recording booth. The mic was on and I could hear him pacing back and forth reciting those super-evil lines of his. Then he started recording with the lights off, and it was extremely emotional. I never asked what kind of demon possessed him that day.
Lamar: I felt out of sorts because I was facing personal problems. I was going through a transitional period between my old way of life and the current one. When you perform on stage and all these people support you, there is a feeling that you are saving lives. But, sitting at home, no one's life can be saved. Then I wondered if I was using my voice in the right place. “Return home to promote your message there or stay on the road?”. These thoughts led me to a small dilemma.
I got on a beat for "The Blacker The Berry" and then another tragedy happened, like those Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown cases. [killings of African Americans by police officers that became the catalyst for the racial issue in the United States - approx. site], and I understood that it was impossible to remain silent about this.
sounwave: The last line, "Being in a gang, I kill a nigga that's blacker than me," was a slap in the face. He wanted you to feel uncomfortable.
Lamar: When you speak out on such topics, you are labeled as a “conscious rapper”. I can't even imagine that this word - "conscious" - exists in only one musical genre. All people are conscious. The ability to pass what is happening through your own soul and continue to talk about it, because at the moment you care, is given to us by God. The message of the artist is more important than the artist himself.
I think that my current activity began from the moment when I saw Tupac at the age of 9. Since he was killed, I had no doubt that someone else would pick up and continue his message. But I was too young and did not imagine that I would become one of these people.
Kendrick Lamar does everything right. As befits a good artist, he does not stop at the achieved success, but continues to boldly move towards true art. The first two albums, and these are impressive records in every sense, presented Kendrick as a talented performer with his own vision and core, who, however, has to work in the conditions of modern music industry. Change it, but at the same time accept its basic rules.
At one time, the pleasant sound of the debut project “ ” helped Kendrick form a recognizable author's style. But, despite the depth of the lyrics and the severity of the topics covered, this album was understandable to everyone and sounded accessible and relevant for its time. The same partly applies to the “ ” that followed him, which became the high point of Lamar's career. A captivating story in which the native of Compotne was both the director and the protagonist. Beautiful conceptually, the album still looked back at the laws of the industry, skillfully combining interesting finds and sharp lyrics with a trendy, mass sound. The hit "Swimming Pools" to a prime example. And there is nothing wrong with that - such an approach only strengthened the position of the record and attracted a wide audience to it. However, this time Kendrick decided to go a completely different way.
The team that Kendrick has gathered around him is not all big names and almost does not contain the guests familiar to a hip-hop album. Bend your fingers. P-funk legend George Clinton, one of the five soul brothers Ronald Isley, excellent bassist of the Brainfeeder Thundercat label (FlyLo himself is also here), neo-soul talent Bilal, the main underdog of modern R&B James Fontleroy. Snoop, Dre, Pharrell Williams and many more interesting characters who together created the amazing mood and sound of “To Pimp a Butterfly”. No more traditional radio hits - only bold and uncompromising decisions, thanks to which the new album is perceived as something solid and monumental at the first listening.
Almost all the huge heritage of black music is combined here. Funky groove straight from the 70s, depth and penetration of soul, jazz improvisations limited only by the authors' imagination, rhythm and blues sensuality, gospel elements and black spoke-word poetry. That is why there are no especially “rocking” tracks so expected by many here. And this is wonderful, because the Music is here - just like that, with capital letter- beyond praise. The album sounds at the same time very old-fashioned and at the same time fresh and modern, thanks to interesting finds and experiments. If you are a big fan of this approach or any of the presented genres, then you have every chance to catch a real buzz from what you hear. Waiting, for example, for the new “Backseat Freestyle”? Then yes, for you everything can end with the most reasoned conclusion - “boring, because it doesn’t pump”.
“To Pimp a Butterfly” cannot be fully understood by clicking on the tracks, and on the basis of a cursory acquaintance - listening to the album in the background will not work - make your own verdict. To judge its inconsistency, as well as genius, just a few hours after the release is just to shake the air. This material is for those who are ready to listen to the songs, let them through themselves, catch their vibe, soak up the mood. If music is more than just pleasant noise or party accompaniment to you, then new job Kendrick you will most likely like it. You will listen with interest to the stories of an intelligent and adult man who came out of a dark and crazy city, and enjoy the amazing harmony between words and melodies.
Otherwise, for you, the new record of Kendrick Lamar runs the risk of being misunderstood. And it's not bad, it's just that this kind of music is not for you. Perhaps you will return to it later, or perhaps forever and remember “To Pimp a Butterfly” as a pile of sounds and incomprehensible mumbling. However, in this way you run the risk of missing a really great Artist, a real artist who, with the help of his talent and life experience, right now writes his name in the history of music.
Kendrick really has something to say. He does not just list the facts or edifying about the problems of good and evil. Unlike the cover, the topics covered at TPAB are by no means black and white. This is a very multifaceted, multi-level structure, in which the themes of racism, equality, violence are closely interwoven, along with the depravity of human nature, its weakness in the face of temptation.
The title of the album itself is a reference to Harper Lee's novel“ To Kill a Mockingbird” (To Kill a Mockingbird) , in which the father of the family, lawyer Atticus Finch, tries to instill in his children a sense of compassion, responsibility for their actions and mutual respect. Such moral values stand in contrast to the cruelty, racial injustice, and general misunderstanding and contempt that Mr. Finch faces while defending black Tom Robinson in court, wrongfully accused of raping a white woman.The image of a mockingbird in the novel is the embodiment of innocence, and therefore it is a great sin to kill such a bird.
" It was the first time I had heard Atticus say anything about sin, and I asked Miss Maudie why it was sin.
“Your father is right,” said Miss Maudie. - The mockingbird is the most harmless bird, it only sings to our joy. Mockingbirds do not peck berries in the garden, do not nest in barns, they only do what they sing their songs for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."
Like this bird, the image of the butterfly on the album personifies the beautiful and fragile creature that every person becomes as they grow up, regardless of skin color and nationality. At birth, many of us are locked inside a cocoon, a certain environment around which we are prisoners. Everyone wants to become a beautiful butterfly and, spreading their wings, fly towards a better life. However, this is not possible for everyone. To pimp a butterfly. To seduce a butterfly, to defame its image. This is what the system will try to do to anyone who breaks out, through constant temptation, imposing false values, stereotyped judgments and conclusions. To pimp a butterfly. It's as sinful as killing a mockingbird.
Performers destroyed by the entertainment industry who care about nothing but money and whose careers are dying the very next year (Wesley's Theory) . Spotlight-blinded friends of Kendrick, who meet reverse side fame and become victims of the enormous power of money (Institutionalized). Hundreds of souls deceived by the devil, who stumbled on the slippery path of life. Black teenagers who fall under the pernicious influence of gangs kill each other, completely forgetting about respect and love for others. And this is not a complete list of stories that Kendrick introduces us to at TPAB.
In the course of the story, he unexpectedly denounces himself. Despite his millions of fans and his status as a kind of hip-hop preacher, it turns out that it is very difficult for him to love himself. It is so difficult that in the heartbreaking “U” Lamar breaks down into a scream and almost hysteria, demonstrating to the listener all his pain and dissatisfaction with his own person, which spilled overis in despair. He does not cope with the role of a leader, is afraid of responsibility, sacrifices friends and values for the sake of money. In pursuit of his dream, blinded by the certainty that he is changing the lives of millions of people, he forgets about saving his loved ones.
“I fuckin" tell you, you fuckin "failure you ain" t no leader / I never liked you, forever despise you I don "t need you / The world don" t need you” Kendrick blames himself with such accusatory and undisguised fury that goosebumps run through his body by themselves. Having got out of a dark and evil place, he was looking for answers and tried to make his life better, but he himself almost became a victim of evil and an executioner, destroying butterflies like him. Confused and desperate, Kendrick returns home to his native Compton and finally realizes how wrong he was. He returns to his roots and, comprehending the true essence of his destiny, becomes ready for his role and accepts it, as well as the fact that he really has the power to change not only his life.
This is fully manifested in the rhythmic and life-affirming “i”, which was changed beyond recognition especially for “To Pimp a Butterfly”. A new version, based on those that we have already heard at some performances, sounds a hundred times more lively, more energetic, and the message contained in it is amplified many times and reaches truly stadium scales. Amazingly played parts, correct work with the voice, crazy vibe and a clear call to love yourself. This is what makes the album version of “i” a striking and incredibly powerful, positive message. A real cry from the heart.
It's also amazing how Kendrick links the songs together this time around. At the end of almost every track (sometimes at the beginning), he reads out an excerpt from a certain poem, gradually adding new lines to it. Each of them contains information about the next song, and put together they perfectly describe the whole range of issues addressed on the album. Catharsis occurs when the story comes to an end and all the pieces of the puzzle fall into place. The poem turns out to be addressed personally to Tupac Shakur. The interview that follows is really discouraging. Yes, that's right, Kendrick Lamar is interviewing Tupac. Pieces torn from an old recording perfectly fit the questions written by our hero, and the whole dialogue sounds so natural and convincing that for a moment it begins to seem as if the legendary rapper did not die at all. It simply blows the mind and involuntarily suggests that Kendrick is quite capable of becoming the voice of an entire generation, just like Tupac was in his time. And become a figure, perhaps much more significant.
“To Pimp a Butterfly” is an incredible record, uncompromising in its sincerity, musical solutions, meaning and, of course, in the way Kendrick Lamar completely goes out of his comfort zone. The album impresses and immediately captivates with its boldness, attention to detail, carefully crafted concept and narrative structure. Ideologically, musically and poetically, TPAB is a real manifesto, a complete and complete statement with a very correct and important message. Out of rules, out of genres, out of time. I would like to believe that these creative work in the power to make our world at least a little better.
After all, even if such a diverse, rich album with excellent live sound seems boring to some, and the whole message goes past the head, then something is clearly wrong with this planet. “Kendrick only reads about poor and oppressed blacks”, “He thinks all whites are racists and hates them in general”, “Why should I delve into the meaning if the music doesn’t even pump?” . The position is rather ignorant and one-sided, and if you suddenly adhere to it, then most likely the problem is not with Kendrick, but with you. Just try to drop all stereotypes, forget about your prejudices for at least an hour and start listen music, try to sample each song. Believe me, it's worth it. Such creations really broaden one's horizons, make one experience strong emotions and can rightfully be called art. It would probably be worth calling this material "How I spent a day transcribing Kendrick's album on Rap Genius - and I still didn't understand a lot." "Why are you all praising him? You don't even really know English," they sometimes write to us in the comments under the posts about the album "To Pimp a Butterfly". There is some truth in their words, of course. Kendrick Lamar has recorded such a contextually rich record that you can drown in its analysis on sites like Rap Genius for a week or two. I spent almost a day decoding this album and writing down the most memorable quotes and interpretations as I listened. It turned out to be an attempt to cover only a small part of everything that the author has laid down in this album. In general, I didn’t just write above that I didn’t understand a lot. Begin! If the title of the very first song "Wesley's Theory" makes you associate with the Hollywood actor Wesley Snipes - you are not mistaken. This actor, who starred in films such as Blade, Destroyer, White Can't Jump, was sent to prison for three years for tax evasion. Kendrick uses his example to illustrate how the entertainment industry and social system exploits all black artists without exception. The word "exploit" in English language can be almost synonymous with the harsh “to get pimped”, that is, an expression that can be used to describe the relationship between a prostitute and her pimp (eng. pimp). It's time to remember that the same word is used in the title of the album. What is this Kendrick up to? And what is this butterfly (English butterfly), which someone there “pimp”. We are interested in the second verse in this song, where Kendrick reads on behalf of capitalist America, immediately introducing himself as Uncle Sam: What are you want you? A house or a car? In the course of the album, Kendrick will reveal the image of Uncle Sam in much more detail. Lamar immediately speaks of him as a person who can seduce with various benefits. Exceptionally material. It reminds me of some character from one Book... And when you hit the White House, do you Kendrick turns Wesley Snipes' last name into the verb "to snipe". That is, Sam will make him a target for all structures under his control. We have seen a lot of such targets in urban music - take, for example, Lauryn Hill and Michael Jackson. A detail that may not immediately be noticed in this quote is the age before which Sam promises to unleash all his power on a black person. Why 35 years? Because this is the minimum age at which a person can be elected President of the United States. So Kendrick is promised that he will be mired in scandals even before he can run. I need forty acres and a mule 40 acres of land and a mule - such was the reparation for slaves freed after the Civil War between North and South. Then it was called "the way to start new life". True, such an undertaking quickly came to naught - US President Andrew Johnson repealed the law shortly after Lincoln's assassination. The tedious moment is over. Note how Kendrick contrasts these "40 acres and a mule" with the usual ghetto trappings of a 40 OZ bottle and a pit bull on a chain. He's asking for the opportunity to achieve a good life through hard work, not a street hustle. Kunta Kinte is a historical personality. This is a slave living in eighteenth century Virginia. The archetype of the rebel slave. Kunte refused to use the name given to him by his master. Refused to integrate into the slave society. Tried to run four times. After another unsuccessful escape, his leg was cut off. Everything is clear here - Kendrick uses the image of Kunte as a symbol of black protest against the infringing power. Looking ahead, this theme will become one of the main ones on the album “To Pimp A Butterfly”. The tracklist's next track, "Institutionalized," begins as a joke: Kendrick invites a friend who lives in Compton to the BET Awards. But the story quickly turns into a nightmare: his friend is shocked by the luxury that he sees around. He is unable to carry on a conversation about yachts and real estate, he is literally blinded by the brilliance of jewelry and, instead of restructuring his own way of thinking in order to strive for a good life, Kendrick's friend immediately decides to rob everyone around. Like a dog. Carry, snatch, run away - and to their own, to Compton. He even tries to justify such an act, calling himself Robin Hood. I could still kill me a nigga, so what? This song is about the mindset of people who grew up in poverty. They are not only limited in means, even their way of thinking is narrow. See this “so what?” in a quote? The guy does not see anything wrong even in killing a person, he is immune to the death of his own kind and is so used to it that he does not perceive it as something illegal. “For those who grew up in the ghetto, this is a common way of thinking,” Kendrick seems to be telling us. Why is the song called “Institutionalized” (there are several translations: “to be legally fixed” or “to be placed in medical institution")? Because people who had to grow up in such terrible conditions are distanced from society, closed, locked up. Not only physically, but also mentally. The metaphor is further developed in the next song, "These Walls". What are these walls? In the first couplet, these are the walls of the vagina, in the second - the walls around the ghetto invisible to the eye, in the third - prison walls. And this is not an end in itself for the song - to read about the homonym with different interpretations - but only a small stylistic element. In the first verse, he makes love (now it's going to be hard!) with a woman who is in love with the prisoner who killed Kendrick's friend on the "good kid m.A.A.d city" album. To make the killer suffer, he asks him to listen to the verse more often, where Lamar has sex with his girlfriend. But that's not enough for Kendrick. He boasts to the prisoner of his wealth, fame, status. The question arises: who is morally more terrible: the person who killed another person, or Kendrick Lamar? Kendrick begins to notice that something is wrong with him. The next song, "u", therefore begins with the mantra: “Loving you is complicated” Why does Kendrick deserve love? He does not know. But the self-torture does not end there: You even Facetimed instead of a hospital visit While Kendrick traveled around the world with concerts, his childhood friend died. And the artist blames himself for not even being able to visit him in the hospital. He only dialed it once on Facetime. Kendrick's voice trembles. It looks like it's about to break. And this is the right moment for the new heroine of this story, a girl named Lucy, to enter the scene. What do you want, you a house or a car She seduces the hero. He advises him not to bathe, to live for today, to eat from her hands. You begin to suspect something was wrong after the line where she calms her three-headed dog: Pet dog, pet dog, pet dog, my dog, that's all
Lucy give you no worries Lucy has a million stories of boring rappers she's come across before. Apparently, here “boredom” means sharply social lyrics, a clearly expressed position of the artists. Lucy has already visited them, and Kendrick is next. And next in line is the track “Hood Politics”. Streets don't fail me now As if shifting the scale of the disaster from personal to general, Lamar makes fun of the government, they say, he heard new gangs in the city that used to live in Compton, and now - in the White House. Their names are "DemoCrips" and "ReBloodlicans". Here the names of the two main gangs in Los Angeles, the Crips and the Bloods, are compared with the names of the two main political parties USA. Deep water, powder blue skies that crack open Kendrick hastily labels the poor man “crackhead” (note the pun on “skies that crack open” and “crack that I knew he was smoking” (crack, which he definitely smoked). keeps begging, but Kendrick doesn't believe him.The beggar begs for ten African rands, which is roughly equal to one dollar, but the pushiness only angers Kendrick.That's how they looked at each other, until the stranger asked a question: Have you ever opened up Exodus 14? “Have you read the book Exodus 14?” - so this question sounds. But what does the story of Moses and the passage through the Red Sea have to do with it? He looked at me and said, "Know the truth, it"ll set you free He looked at me and said, “Know the truth, it will set you free. While one dollar for Kendrick is nothing, dust, he still refuses to share it with a stranger. But that same dollar can be of great value to someone else. What Kendrick wants to say by this is clear: rich people are blinded by greed. Who are these people? Yes, at least the aforementioned DemoCrips and ReBloodlicans. Which doesn't sound like a typical rap story, does it? But Kendrick wants these stories to become the norm. In "You Ain't Gonna Lie", referring to his co-stars, he says: You ain't gotta lie to kick it, my nigga It's like he's saying to all the stereotypical rappers, those gangsters and the rich and the womanizers, "Maybe you're good? Stop being a parody of yourself." Do not look for a message here, as in the very same verse “Control”. Lamar is not challenging the competition here. It's more like, "You don't have to lie to us and pretend to be someone you're not in order for me to love you." According to him, it turns out that all the tinsel only destroys black culture, as shown in the song “Blacker The Berry” (which I intentionally skipped, because it has already been talked about so much that it’s easier to just send the reader to our material entirely dedicated to this song). The expression “To pimp a butterfly” will sound at the very end of the album, in the key monologue for his understanding about a caterpillar and a butterfly. "The caterpillar is a prisoner to the streets that conceived it “The butterfly is a metaphor for the talent, thoughtfulness and beauty that the caterpillar carries in itself, What is Kendrick trying to say here? That the cocoon of the caterpillar is the conventions of the rap industry, these are schools, the government. These are all institutions that can limit a person, his course of thinking (remember “Institutionalized”). "Pimping" a butterfly is an exploitation of talent. Exploitation of those who have managed to reach their potential. Monetizing their beauty, their success, turning art into a commodity is "pimping". The music business has made millions using this formula. This is a working marketing scheme. It's even more than music - it's one of the founding principles of capitalism. But Kendrick believes that great ideas can come from even those trapped in this cocoon. The system not only suppresses, but also inspires. No apartheid, police brutality, low social mobility If there was no Tupac, there would be no Kendrick. Beauty is in everything. A butterfly is growing in a caterpillar. Parsing the lines from the album into quotes
Forty acres and a mule, a piano, a guitar?
Anything, see, my name is Uncle Sam, I "m your dog
Motherfucker you can live at the mall
But remember, you ain't pass economics in school
And everything you buy, taxes will deny
I "ll Wesley Snipe your ass before thirty-five
Let's move on to the second song of the album. The introductory monologue of the hysterical young lady, which we hear in the first minute of the track, is interpreted on Rap Genius as “a metaphor for how America has been humiliating black people for years, undermining their self-esteem and emphasizing a dysfunctional financial situation". This "girl" reminds Kendrick that in the States, a successful black American is either an athlete or a musician. There is no third. This is only the second song, and I'm already starting to understand that I don't understand anything. But he wrote a quote:
Not a forty ounce and a pitbull
Kendrick refers to the slave as "King Kunte" - a graceful contrast between high and low classes. This, if you will, is an oxymoron - Kendrick is both oppressive, like a slave, but also majestic like a king. In other words: this is how any wealthy black American feels.
Bitch you thought he would recover well
Third surgery couldn't stop the bleeding for real
Then he died, God himself will say "you fuckin" failed"
You ain't try
40 acres and a mule, a piano, a guitar?
Anything, see my name is Lucy, I "m your dog
Motherfucker, you can live at the mall
Pick back and chat, I trap the back for y'all
Well, yes, a trilogy. That is, Cerberus. That is, it turns out that Lucy is Lucifer. Kendrick survives her first outing, but in the next song, she is already rushing with all her might, letting Lamar know what unlimited power she has.
Lucy got million stories
About these rappers I came after when they were boring
They tell me it's a new gang in town
From Compton to Congress
Set trippin' all around
Ain't nothin' new but a flu of new DemoCrips and ReBloodlicans
Red state versus a blue state, which one you governin'?
Critics want to mention that they miss when hip hop was rappin'
Motherfucker if you did, then Killer Mike"d be platinum
What really shocked me the most was the next song, “How Much A Dollar Cost”, in which a beggar hits Kendrick in the parking lot.
A piece of crack that he wanted, I knew he was smokin'
He begged and pleaded
Asked me to feed him twice, I didn't believe it
Told him, "Beat it"
Contributin' money just for his pipe, I couldn't see it
A humble man is all that we ever need
Kendrick becomes ashamed of his own selfishness, he does not understand what is happening. Why is this beggar asking for one buck asking such questions?
You"re lookin" at the Messiah, the son of Jehovah, the higher power
The choir that spoke the word, the Holy Spirit, the nerve
Of Nazareth, and I"ll tell you just how much a dollar cost
The price of having a spot in Heaven, embrace your loss, I am God"
Before you is the Messiah, the son of Jehovah, the Holy Spirit.
And I will answer what is the real value of your dollar.
This is the price that cost you your place in heaven. Take your punishment. I am God."
You ain't gotta lie, you ain't gotta lie
You ain't gotta lie to kick it, my nigga
You ain't gotta try so hard
Its only job is to eat or consume everything around it, in order to protect itself from this mad city
While consuming its environment the caterpillar begins to notice ways to survive
One thing it noticed is how much the world shuns him, but praises the butterfly
The butterfly represents the talent, the thoughtfulness, and the beauty within the caterpillar
But having a harsh outlook on life the caterpillars the butterfly as weak and see figures out a way to pimp it to his own benefits".
But to the caterpillar, which has not seen anything good in its life, it seems that the butterfly is fragile. And so the caterpillar comes up with a way to exploit it for its own needs”LAMAR DAY AT THE FLOW
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