Kendrick Lamar’s new album “To Pimp a Butterfly” was released a little over a week early and everyone is freaking out. Lamar’s third album was available on both iTunes and streaming on Spotify. The album has already been taken down from iTunes, but it’s still available to stream on Spotify. Rolling Stone reported that the head of Lamar’s label, Top Dawg Entertainment, had tweeted after stating, “Somebody’s gots 2 pay 4 this.”
However, Lamar’s response to the leak was on the opposite side of the spectrum. Lamar tweeted that “Keep calm. All is Well,” and not too long after this tweet Lamar tweeted out the iTunes link for his new album.
It seems like Lamar doesn’t mind that his music was released much earlier than intended, but things like this never bother Lamar. In an interview with the New York Times, Lamar’s manager discusses if there were any concerns with the album. He is quoted saying, “Of course I’m concerned about commercially, because it’s my job to be concerned about it, but am I worried? No. Because I know what we have.” This is he same attitude that Lamar has, besides the concern for the commercial success since that is never really something Lamar thinks about.
Lamar never concerns himself with materialistic things and rarely smokes or drinks. He lives in a condo near the neighborhood he grew up in, and only wears shirts and jeans that are simple. Compared to almost all other rappers or commercially successful artists, he lives a very modest lifestyle. In Lamar’s previous album “good kid, m.A.A.d. city” Lamar writes about his experiences growing up poor in Compton California and being the son of a gang banger. This leads to Lamar writing “To Pimp a Butterfly” which takes his listeners to his thoughts, feelings, insecurities he has had since becoming successful. He still writes politically and spiritually in his music dealing with racism that he has experienced while growing up, violence, and gang activity.
Listening to the album there are different sounds than one would expect from a rap album. There are jazz and funk elements in the sound and there are sections in songs where Lamar goes from rapper to spoken word poet. The album invokes from the listener an array of different thoughts and emotions. At the end of the New York Times Lamar states, “I want you to get angry — I want you to get happy, I want you to feel disgusted. I want you to feel uncomfortable.”
The album is brave, honest, and strong. All Kendrick Lamar fans can celebrate this piece of art, and can expect to purchase the album on the original release date, March 23. Until then, Spotify will have to curb your Kendrick Lamar needs until you can hear it in your car screaming “I love myself!”
Photo: Credit Comedy Central
