{"id":23551,"date":"2015-03-16T06:42:38","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T14:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/?p=23551"},"modified":"2015-03-26T22:49:54","modified_gmt":"2015-03-27T06:49:54","slug":"kendrick-lamar-releases-new-album-to-pimp-a-butterfly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/2015-03\/kendrick-lamar-releases-new-album-to-pimp-a-butterfly\/","title":{"rendered":"Kendrick Lamar Releases New Album “To Pimp A Butterfly”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"kendrick-cover\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We agree with Kendrick Lamar who tweeted:\u00a0 “Yesterday. March 14th<\/strong>. Was a special day.”\u00a0 Wait, what!?\u00a0 Over the weekend, Kendrick Lamar<\/strong>, one of this generation’s leading artists, surprised the world and released his highly anticipated new album, To Pimp A Butterfly<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 The album is now available HERE<\/strong><\/a> and is streaming on\u00a0 Spotify<\/strong>.\u00a0 And cataclysm ensued across the land.\u00a0 Even The Swiftness<\/strong> (Taylor) vamped verklempt on Twitter: “KENDRICK PUT HIS ALBUM OUT EARLY. NO ONE TOUCH ME.”\u00a0 If the walls could talk indeed.<\/p>\n

A first listen reveals high-density and musical evolution (his collabs with Flying Lotus<\/strong> and Thundercat<\/strong> paying huge dividends) since his highly-acclaimed last album, good kid, m.A.A.d city.\u00a0<\/i><\/strong> Guest collaborators included\u00a0Flying Lotus, George Clinton,\u00a0Pharrell,\u00a0Thundercat, Snoop Dogg<\/strong>, and more.<\/p>\n

One of the most impressive cuts on first listen is How Much A Dollar Cost<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 It’s got it all, combining Radiohead<\/strong> chord progressions, Smokey Robinson<\/strong> references, FlyLo\/Thundercat<\/strong> production elements, etc. into a completely mesmerizing track.\u00a0 The album’s general heaviness is leavened only occasionally (the previously released uplifter track, i<\/strong>, <\/em>the obvious exception).<\/em><\/p>\n

But the closing track, Mortal Man<\/strong><\/em>, is the album’s masterpiece\/centerpiece.\u00a0 Inspired by Lamar’s<\/strong> 2014 trip to South Africa, at twelve-minutes long it’s a tour of African-American reality, a musical\/spoken-word\/interview (spliced in Tupac <\/strong>from a ’94 interview) tour de force, and an answer to the mindless Azealia Banks<\/span><\/strong> and her ilk.\u00a0 I remember when you was conflicted.\u00a0 Butterfly.\u00a0 Let music and love be the answer.<\/p>\n

Human Advisory<\/strong>:\u00a0 Not for the weak of heart, but that’s life.<\/p>\n

The full tracklist is as follows:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Wesley’s Theory (ft. George Clinton & Thundercat)<\/li>\n
  2. For Free? (Interlude)<\/li>\n
  3. King Kunta<\/li>\n
  4. Institutionalized (ft. Bilal, Anna Wise & Snoop Dogg)<\/li>\n
  5. These Walls (ft. Bilal, Anna Wise & Snoop Dogg)<\/li>\n
  6. U<\/li>\n
  7. Alright<\/li>\n
  8. For Sale? (Interlude)<\/li>\n
  9. Momma<\/li>\n
  10. Hood Politics<\/li>\n
  11. How Much A Dollar Cost (ft. James Fauntleroy & Ronald Isley)<\/li>\n
  12. Complexion (A Zulu Love) (ft. Rapsody)<\/li>\n
  13. The Blacker The Berry<\/li>\n
  14. You Ain’t Gotta Lie (Momma Said)<\/li>\n
  15. i<\/li>\n
  16. Mortal Man<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    We agree with Kendrick Lamar who tweeted:\u00a0 “Yesterday. March 14th. Was a special day.”\u00a0 Wait, what!?\u00a0 Over the weekend, Kendrick Lamar, one of this generation’s leading artists, surprised the world and released his highly anticipated new album, To Pimp A Butterfly.\u00a0 The album is now available HERE and is streaming on\u00a0 Spotify.\u00a0 And cataclysm ensued […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23551"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23616,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23551\/revisions\/23616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}