Kendrick Lamar emerges as a leader for hip-hop

Hip-hop sensation Kendrick Lamar dropped his second major label album this past month entitled “To Pimp a Butterfly” a week earlier than the focused released date. In this album, he took on the task of redefining hip-hop and its motives as he digs deep into the African-American culture, hip-hop, and politics.  Lamar is the Spike Lee of music production.

He shapes his albums similar to Lee’s movies exhibiting; unbearably high stakes, unclear character motives, and Knotty morality, but there is a central force you can feel steering every moment as you listen to the album.

The album’s title “To Pimp a Butterfly” correlates with the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. The butterfly is similar to a mockingbird in the book. In the book, it talks about killing a mockingbird as a sin because they do nothing but sing. They’re innocent and beautiful, so you shouldn’t be afraid of them. Suggesting the same for black men, expounding on how it’s a misdeed to characterize black men as gangsters and hustlers rather than extraordinary human beings. In the opening of the album, the song titled “Wesley’s Theory” portrays the pimping of the butterfly. The song is an extended metaphor describing how successful black artists are pimped by the entertainment industry. The first verse is from the perspective of the black entertainer, while the second verse is from the perspective of capitalist America, personified by Uncle Sam.

Lamar manifests skits in the album that materialize events throughout African-American history and recent court rulings today. Exhibiting in songs like “King Kunta,” “I,” and “Blacker the Berry” displaying the importance of unity in the community. These songs are powerful symbols of black resistance against oppressive institutions. He then creates a song called “Institutionalized” where he discusses wealth’s corruptive powers, and how many people are negatively affected, almost brainwashed, by the idea of getting rich. Lamar also fated violence and envy. Explaining these are brought on by the institution of money.

“We are all at some level institutionalized. The poor and disenfranchised are institutionalized by prison, racism, classism, and the rich and the powerful are institutionalized by fear, dogma, and the almighty dollar,” Lamar said. “Everyone is a loser in this game, perspective is the only answer.”

  His final song of the album entitled “Mortal Man” displays the man Lamar is becoming, with a mix of a poem and interview with the last King of Hip-Hop, Tupac Shakur about how he dealt with his fame and image. In the song coming to the realization that he’s a new voice in a long line of leaders similar to Nelson Mandela, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and Tupac Shakur. Understanding that he has a limited time, and when speaking with 2Pac he knows that he has to reach out to the teenagers and recruit them to change the world. The portions of 2Pac’s conversation with Lamar were taken from a 1994 interview with the Swedish radio show P3 Soul, hosted by Mats Nileskar.

In one’s eyes, you can say Lamar is attempting to fill the great shoes of the late Tupac Shakur and pick up where he left off in the hip-hop game. This album illustrates Lamar’s personal growth from being in the hood, to the present day major voice in hip-hop. He is an emerging leader of west coast rappers.