Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly (2015)

I feel like the listener makes it all the way through this complex and knotty and pretty dense music and instead of capping it off with a proper closing track - something with some breathing room, or a sense of closure or release - but instead we get this half-interview thing that feels clumsy and lazy

I feel like Mortal Man song was a pretty solid closing track...the 2Pac thing and the final poem aren't amazing the way most of the album is amazing but even though it fails on some levels to sum everything up the way it seems to tryto, I wouldn't call them terrible, and I do think they do offer some resolution to the threads that had running through the entire LP...

I don't mind the ending here that much, I can always skip it but it is a little annoying I guess bc I feel like I'm ending the album prematurely if I skip but whatever

I've been listening to GKMC a lot and tbh what is much more annoying than the TPAB ending is that GKMC doesn't end after "sing about me". that would've been a major fucking album closer and imo "real" and "Compton" are great but not really necessary

I don't particularly like Real but in rounding out born again narrative it's definitely necessary.

"Compton" a worse closer than "Mortal Man," imo.

The postscript to Compton where he yells to his mom that he's borrowing the car before running out the door brings the story back to the beginning of the album, highlights the hubris of the song's appearance after the hard-won lessons of the album, and reinforces that Kendrick's journey is an everlasting learning process with setbacks as well as advancements. Removing it weakens and Disneyfies the album's narrative.

i always forget "compton" is the official closer bc "collect calls" and "black boy fly" are such strong bonus tracks (and "cartoon & cereal" which is in my itunes after GKMC and is still maybe kendrick's best ever song for me)

i haven't listened to the interview since the day this album dropped

The interview is very self-indulgent but it has made for good listening when walking from the bus to my house; almost makes me understand why people listen to podcasts.

ha i don't get podcasts either at all, i guess i just don't like hearing to people talking outside of a social context?

http://pitchfork.com/news/61137-kendrick-lamar-performs-to-pimp-a-butterfly-medley-on-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/

Amazing performance, but my main takeaway from this is, "so the vinyl exists now?!"

I don't particularly like Real but in rounding out born again narrative it's definitely necessary.

― tsrobodo, Saturday, September 5, 2015 8:17 AM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The postscript to Compton where he yells to his mom that he's borrowing the car before running out the door brings the story back to the beginning of the album, highlights the hubris of the song's appearance after the hard-won lessons of the album, and reinforces that Kendrick's journey is an everlasting learning process with setbacks as well as advancements. Removing it weakens and Disneyfies the album's narrative.

― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Sunday, September 6, 2015 1:14 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ok yea i totally get this, i guess for me the narrative of GKMC has always been secondary, i don't think about it a lot, and i was thinking more that musically that "sing about me" is a powerful closer

would be is a powerful closer

but yea i won't push this bc yes the narrative is important i realize

anyways i just listened to "momma" this morning from TPAB and that tune is amazing

whole album is amazing

TPAB is fucking incredible, as is the medley cryptosicko just posted

I also agree that "Sing About Me/Dying of Thirst" is an incredibly strong musical statement; I see it more as a climax/resolution with "Real" as the postscript and "Compton" an epilogue that restarts the cycle. Ending with "SAM/DOT" feels like the equivalent of slamming on the brakes at 90 MPH to me.

perhaps an unnecessary reminder but for those that haven't taken the time to listen to Overly Dedicated or Section.80, they are both absolutely excellent albums and readily available on all the streaming platforms.

http://pitchfork.com/news/61137-kendrick-lamar-performs-to-pimp-a-butterfly-medley-on-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/

Amazing performance, but my main takeaway from this is, "so the vinyl exists now?!"

― The New Gay Sadness (cryptosicko), Thursday, September 10, 2015 9:14 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

is there a better vid available? video quality is shitty and there is definitely syncing issues w/ the sound

nah nevermind, even the one on the cbs website is like that, too bad

anyways that was fucking crazy good, amazing performance

i dig rapsody's verse on complexion but otherwise i kind of feel like it is the weakest track on here

(WASHINGTON)—Kendrick Lamar, “the most talented rapper of his generation” (Rolling Stone) and multiple Grammy-winner, will appear for the first time with an orchestra when he performs with the National Symphony for one night only in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Principal Pops Conductor Steven Reineke will conduct the program, featuring selections from Lamar’s second studio album, To Pimp a Butterfly, in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, October 20, 2015, at 8 p.m.

http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/event/NQPSG

Tickets go on sale Wednesday

I am seriously considering buying some

Why wouldn't you?

sounds awesome, i would totally go.

i imagine this will show up on pbs eventually?

Why wouldn't you?[

I live in Boston and I have twins at home that aren't quite 2 so I'm not sure if the logistics can be worked out

OTOH I could buy tickets and give them to my brother, at least he's local

Just noticed that Kennedy Center "members" (those who donate at least $60 to the Center, can buy tickets on Tuesday

i've worked in the kennedy center a few times, wish i knew the people there better to try and sneak in. definitely gonna try to buy a ticket.

Well those sold out quick. Did not get one through my K Ctr contact (a separate person handles NSo classical stuff) or via online this morning

Tickets were gone in 7 min. A friend has a friend who MIGHT be able to get some but I'm not holding my breath; it would have been a massive stretch anyway.

Kendrick playing with a symphony is cool, but has he even done a show where he's played with a bunch of the musicians he recorded the album with yet?

Who played with him on Colbert?

a lot of his band on colbert was also on the album afaik

https://soundcloud.com/victorylaptop/kendrick-lamario-bros

i sometimes find myself singing my "king koopa" lyrics to myself when i listen to kunte; i have sabotaged my own enjoyment of that song

When the fuck is he going to stop pissing around with random festival appearances and tour Europe properly?

according to forks he's going to confine the bulk of his touring to europe in the future so you're in luck

lol, u really wanna keep that conversation going huh
quick poke around suggests he's only done about thirty shows this year, 75% of those look to be festivals and a third of them were outside the us
he's got a run of eight shows coming up at the end of the year including the kennedy center show, chicago, atlanta, brooklyn, inglewood and oakland
it's an unconventional "tour" by most any estimate, he appears to be doing exactly what he wants to do and getting well paid as a festival headliner

Tonight's the show with the National Symphony Orchestra at Kennedy Center in DC. Wasn't able to get ticket or press to this; or to the upcoming show with his band at D.C.'s even smaller Lincoln Theatre.

I went! he's finally doing TPAB deep cuts live!

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/kendrick-lamar-national-symphony-orchestra-unveil-butterfly-anthems-20151021

jealous.

Great piece, some dude! Sounds like it was a fantastic show!

Wish my friend's Kennedy Center contact had been able to come through, would have been AMAZING

so cool

songs sound great in this context and it doesn't at all seem like a way to make kendrick more presentable or w/e, he remains a firebrand

good writeup SD, i too am jealous

thanks!

the symphony thing was a cool one-off although really Kendrick and his band nail the material so well that the whole tour is gonna be fire.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/the-sound-and-the-fury-of-kendrick-lamar-at-the-kennedy-center/2015/10/21/c4497e56-77f0-11e5-a958-d889faf561dc_story.html?wprss=rss_story-style-lateststories&tid=sm_tw_st

Chris Richards review of NSO gig in Washington Post offers praise, and then nitpicks a bit

But just as the march of time has made “To Pimp A Butterfly” feel more consequential, the album’s flaws continue to chafe in equal measure. Lamar obviously shouldn’t be punished for his ambition, but his music often feels like it’s doing everything in its power to impress you with its technicality, its thoughtfulness and its deep-deep depth. It can sound like music that’s trying to be important instead of just being.

Is that a Kendrick problem or a virtuoso problem? Virtuosity gives an artist great power over the listener, but it also leaves him exposed. Tremendous skill can extinguish the ambiguity in music, making everything visible — and everything visible can be scrutinized.

And while Lamar does plenty of self-scrutinizing in his lyrics, he often comes across as an artist weighed down by the burden of his own greatness. Or maybe he’s just shouldering the impossible expectations of those who see him as rap’s lone savior, fighting the good fight that Drake, Kanye West and other celebrity-minded rap stars appear unfit for.

...“Loving you is complicated,” he knowingly declares into the mirror on “u,” a song he performed on Tuesday with an almost frantic intensity. “I place blame on you still, place shame on you still,” Lamar rapped. “Feel like you ain’t s---, feel like you don’t feel.”

This was a powerful moment, but a difficult one to actually hear. More often than not throughout the performance, the music swelled into a vague, high-decibel fog, with the symphony — conducted by Steven Reineke — forfeiting its nuance to Lamar’s way-too-loud backing quartet and a series of pre-recorded supporting tracks that should have been left at home

i went to this as well (like 2 hours before the show i checked the kennedy center box office online & a few available tickets popped up. still expensive.. worth it)
thought it was amazing.
the lyrics are so dense and went by so fast live it was hard to make out everything, sure, but i didn't really think the music was too loud. seemed like a lot of the crowd literally knew all of them word for word (though not so much in the most expensive seats front and center). he did change out some of the curse words some of the time (iirc said something else instead of "bitch" in 'king kunta')
crowd was really into it & show went by way too fast. would definitely go to the next one at lincoln theatre if i can get a ticket for that

e’s just shouldering the impossible expectations of those who see him as rap’s lone savior, fighting the good fight that Drake, Kanye West and other celebrity-minded rap stars appear unfit

some classic projecting by the writer. Why would Richards care about those people who think Kendrick is "fighting the good fight" against celebrity-minded rap stars?

I do think there's an interesting schism btwn Kendrick's breezier (but still technically dazzling) guest verses and his albums, but Richards' ideas on Kendrick there don't feel complete

he did change out some of the curse words some of the time (iirc said something else instead of "bitch" in 'king kunta')

yeah there was a little of that (also dropped a lot of n-words out of "Alright") but it seemed more like ad libbing that censorship considering what words he DID let fly throughout the night.

And while Lamar does plenty of self-scrutinizing in his lyrics, he often comes across as an artist weighed down by the burden of his own greatness.

I think maybe if this dude goes back and reads through some of Kendrick's lyric sheets, he might get a clue as to what burdens are in play here.