To Pimp a Butterfly

## **Singles from *To Pimp a Butterfly***

1. "I"
Released: September 16, 2014
2. "The Blacker the Berry"
Released: February 9, 2015
3. "King Kunta"
Released: March 24, 2015
4. "Alright"
Released: June 30, 2015
5. "These Walls"
Released: October 13, 2015

***To Pimp a Butterfly*** is the third studio album by Kendrick Lamar. It was released on March 15, 2015, by Top Dawg Entertainment, Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records.

## Artwork and title

The original title was going to be *Tu Pimp a Caterpillar*, an backronym for Tupac, who appears on the final track of the album. This was to represent "the brightness of life". Lamar added that "the word 'pimp' has so much aggression and that represents several things. For me, it represents using my celebrity for good. Another reason is, not being pimped by the industry through my celebrity ... It gets even deeper than that for me. I could be talking all day about it."

## Critical reception

*To Pimp a Butterfly* was met with widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 96, based on 44 reviews, meeting "worldwide acclaim". Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 9.3 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.

*Spin* magazine's Dan Weiss regarded *To Pimp a Butterfly* as the "Great American Hip-Hop Album" and an essential listen, while Neil McCormick from *The Daily Telegraph* called it a dense but dazzling masterpiece that positions Lamar ahead of the prog-rap resurgence led by Kanye West and Drake. Writing for *Entertainment Weekly*, Kyle Anderson found the record twice as substantial as Lamar's debut major label album and more comprehensive of African-American music styles, with supremely "cinematic" production qualities but "the freedom of a mixtape". *Irish Times* journalist Jim Carroll deemed it "a record for the times we're in," in which Lamar transitioned from his past narratives about Compton to fierce but precise reflections on "black America". In *Rolling Stone*, Greg Tate deemed *To Pimp a Butterfly* "a masterpiece of fiery outrage, deep jazz and ruthless self-critique" that along with D'Angelo's third album *Black Messiah*, made 2015 "the year radical Black politics and for-real Black music resurged in tandem to converge on the nation's pop mainstream." Robert Christgau wrote in his review on *Cuepoint* that not many artists were as passionate and understanding as Lamar, who offered "a strong, brave effective bid to reinstate hip hop as black America's CNN" during an era of social media.

While the album's reception was almost universally positive, there were still a few reviews at release that offered minor critiques. For instance, *New York Times* critic Jon Caramanica was less enthusiastic than others, feeling Lamar still struggled in reconciling his density as a lyricist with the music he rapped over: "He hasn't outrun his tendency towards clutter [and] still runs the risk of suffocation." In *The Guardian*, Alexis Petridis found the music somewhat erratic and lamented "moments of self-indulgence" such as the twelve-minute "Mortal Man" and Lamar's reflections on fame. However, Petridis still ultimately awarded the album four stars out of five.

## Track listing

### Sample credits

* "Wesley's Theory" contains elements of "Every N\*\*\*er Is a Star", written and performed by Boris Gardiner.
* "King Kunta" contains interpolations of "Get Nekkid", written by Johnny Burns; resung lyrics from "Smooth Criminal", written by Michael Jackson; elements from "The Payback", written by James Brown, Fred Wesley and John Starks; and samples from "We Want the Funk", written by Ahmad Lewis.
* "Momma" contains elements of "Wishful Thinking" written by Sylvester Stewart and performed by Sly and the Family Stone; and elements of "On Your Own", written by Lalah Hathaway, Rahsaan Patterson and Rex Rideout; and samples from "On Your Own", performed by Lalah Hathaway.
* "Hood Politics" contains a sample of "All for Myself", written and performed by Sufjan Stevens.
* "I" contains portions of "That Lady", written by Ronald Isley, Christopher Jasper, O'Kelly Isley, Jr., Ernie Isley, Marvin Isley and Rudolph Isley.
* "Mortal Man" contains excerpts from "I No Get Eye for Back", written by Fela Anikulapo Kuti and performed by Houston Person; and featuring parts from the music journalist Mats Nileskar's November 1994 interview with Tupac Shakur for P3 Soul Broadcasting Corporation.

## Personnel

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* Kendrick Lamar – vocals; art direction
* George Clinton – vocals (track 1)
* Thundercat – vocals (tracks 1, 5); background vocals (tracks 7, 12, 14); bass (tracks 3, 13, 15, 16); additional bass (track 5); producer (tracks 10, 12); additional production (track 1)
* Anna Wise – vocals (tracks 4, 5); backing vocals (tracks 1, 2, 10)
* Bilal – vocals (tracks 4, 5); backing vocals (6, 8–10)
* Snoop Dogg – vocals (track 4)
* James Fauntleroy – vocals (track 11); background vocals (track 16)
* Ronald Isley – vocals (track 11); additional vocals (track 15)
* Rapsody – vocals (track 12)
* Flying Lotus – producer (track 1)
* Ronald "Flippa" Colson – producer (track 1)
* Sounwave – producer (tracks 3, 7, 10, 12, 16); additional production (tracks 1, 5, 6, 8, 10); keyboards (track 14); string arrangements
* Terrace Martin – alto saxophone (tracks 1, 2, 6–9, 11, 13, 14, 16); horns (track 1); keyboards (tracks 5, 6, 8–12); producer (tracks 2, 5); additional production (tracks 3, 8, 12, 13); vocoder (tracks 9, 14); string arrangements
* Rahki – producer (tracks 4, 15); percussion (track 15)
* Fredrik "Tommy Black" Halldin – producer (track 4)
* Larrance Dopson – percussion (tracks 5, 11–14); keyboards, producer (track 5)
* Taz Arnold aka Tisa – background vocals (tracks 4, 8, 9, 15); producer (tracks 6, 8)
* Whoarei – producer (track 6)
* Pharrell Williams – producer, vocals (track 7)
* Knxwledge – producer (track 9)
* Tae Beast – producer (track 10)
* Lovedragon – producer (tracks 11, 14)
* Boi-1da – producer (track 13)
* KOZ – producer (track 13)
* Dr. Dre – executive producer; background vocals (track 1)
* James Hunt – engineer (tracks 1–7, 13–16); mix assistant
* Derek "MixedByAli" Ali – engineer (tracks 1–6, 8–16), mixer
* Katalyst – additional drum programming, additional engineering (track 13)
* Mike Bozzi – mastering engineer
* Ash Riser – background vocals (track 1)
* Josef Leimberg – trumpet (tracks 1, 5, 8, 11, 12, 14, 16), vocals (track 1)
* Whitney Alford – background vocals (tracks 1, 3)
* Robert "Sput" Searight – drums (track 2); keyboards (track 10)
* Robert Glasper – piano (track 2); keyboards (tracks 5, 12, 13, 16)
* Brandon Owens – bass (tracks 2, 16)
* Craig Brockman – organ (track 2)
* Marlon Williams – guitar (tracks 2, 5, 6, 11, 14, 16); additional guitar (track 3)
* Darlene Tibbs – background vocals (track 2)
* Matt Schaeffer – additional guitar (track 3); engineer (tracks 3, 6, 11–16)
* Sam Barsh – keyboards (tracks 4, 15)
* Pedro Castro – clarinet (track 4)
* Gabriel Noel – cello (track 4), upright bass (track 11)
* Paul Cartwright – violin (tracks 4, 11, 16)
* Gregory Moore – guitar (track 5)
* Kamasi Washington – tenor saxophone (track 6); string arrangements
* Adam Turchan – baritone saxophone (track 6)
* Jessica Vielmas – background vocals (track 6)
* SZA – background vocals (tracks 6, 8)
* Candace Wakefield – background vocals (tracks 7, 15)
* Preston Harris – background vocals (tracks 8, 10, 14)
* Lalah Hathaway – background vocals (tracks 9, 12, 13)
* Dion Friley – background vocals (tracks 10, 15)
* Talkbox Monte – background vocals (track 12)
* JaVonté – background vocals (tracks 12, 14, 16)
* Pete Rock – background vocals/scratches (track 12)
* Ronald Bruner Jr. – drums (track 13)
* Wyann Vaughn – background vocals (track 14)
* Keith Askey – guitar (track 15)
* Kendall Lewis – drums (track 15)
* Chris Smith – bass (track 15)
* William Sweat – background vocals (track 15)
* Devon Downing – background vocals (track 15)
* Edwin Orellana – background vocals (track 15)
* Dave Free – background vocals (track 15)
* Junius Bervine – keyboards (track 16)
* Ambrose Akinmusire – trumpet (track 16)

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## References

1. ↑ Markman, Rob (March 31, 2015). "Kendrick Lamar Reveals To Pimp a Butterfly's Original Title And Its Tupac Connection". *MTV*. March 31, 2015.

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