It has been one year since Kendrick Lamar released his major label sophomore album, To Pimp a Butterfly. The rollout was unconventional as the album’s clean version appeared on iTunes the night of March 14, 2015, the 20th anniversary of Tupac’s Me Against the World album. To Pimp a Butterfly‘s explicit version and Spotify link were made available that week and the project broke the streaming service’s record with 9.6 million plays in one day.
Genius celebrates the one-year anniversary of Lamar’s album by having various critics revisit their reviews of To Pimp a Butterfly, which won the award for Best Rap Album at this year’s Grammy Awards.
Craig Jenkins explains how for Pitchfork, he gave To Pimp a Butterfly a 9.3 out of 10 score. His review was inspired by Spike Lee‘s films and he references School Daze and Do the Right Thing, but says he regrets cutting out his original framework around another one of the director’s movies.
“I had this whole spiel in an early draft of this about how the album reminded me of Spike’s 2000 movie Bamboozled,” Jenkins says, “because of the surrealistic and satirical fringe elements and all of the meditation on the obligation of the black artist to create work that edifies the culture at large, but it never made the final draft. I was extra fried when the ‘For Free?‘ video came out and brought all that to the forefront hah.”
Reflecting on her review for The Fader, Rawiya Kameir suggests that she got caught up in the moment when To Pimp a Butterfly was released. The LP followed the release of D’Angelo’s Black Messiah, the singer’s first album in more than a decade.
“In retrospect, a lot of this feels like hyperbole,” Kameir says of her review. “At the time, just a couple of days after its release, I was overwhelmed by the experience of listening to TPAB. That doesn’t happen often. There was something about those few months—going from Black Messiah to To Pimp a Butterfly—that felt significant. A year later, my take on Kendrick as a rapper and TPAB as a record has shifted quite a bit—I’m still a fan but I’m a little bored.”
In his review, Justin Charity gave To Pimp a Butterfly a 4.5 out of 5 for Complex. Looking back a year, he maintains his position that the album is not the anthem that people have made it out to be.
“To Pimp A Butterfly is a deeply personal record about depression,” he says. “I know the insta-narrative that engulfed this album rather insists that it’s a civil rights manifesto, or something so civic and broad, but I maintain that such a reading only effectively applies to a handful of songs on here, chiefly ‘Berry’ and ‘Alright.'”
HipHopDX gave To Pimp a Butterfly a perfect 5 out of 5 rating.
To read the rest of the reviews, visit Genius.
For additional Kendrick Lamar coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
What kinda news is this? Get off his dick already.
I know right? Where was the one year anniversary for IYRTITL? Now THAT’S something worth celebrating. Drizzaveli stay killing the game. Kendrick ain’t shit. #DrakeIsLoveDrakeIsLife
IYRTITL was written by Quentin Miller
Nobody cares about IYRTITL. To Pimp A Butterfly is a landmark in modern hip-hop.
IYRTITL didn’t sweep the 2016 Grammy Awards. TPAB did that and it’s absolutely KILLING you.
Most brilliant album ever heard
Kdot just extended the Suns life 5 billion more years with that shit.?
Kamasi Washington.
Terrace Martin.
Robert Glasper.
Thundercat.
Ambrose Akinmusire.
:wow:
TPAB is oozing with BLACK musical excellence.
I mean, it might’ve been a dope album if it was straight Hip-Hop but once they
dipped into the ideas black musicians have helped to pioneer over the past 100 years.
shyt was over at that point
probably the most imrpessive musical composition in hip hop history, most musicians are right to praise it
I still think it’s a powerful album, it’s such a masterpiece imo… It combines the best of what hip-hop can provide, innovative production and intelligent, thematic bars.
It’s not an easy listen, but I don’t think that was Kendrick’s intention. It’s a rebellious album, he went the opposite direction everyone expected him to go… A lot of people thought he would sell-out
further and cater to the radio, but he straight dropped an album complete with BrainFeeder instrumentation, weird flows, and political lyrics
I wasn’t completely sold on the full album when it dropped but I’ve found myself constantly going back to it and listening in full.
classic
What a masterpiece man…Sonically it was restless, exploring cosmic jazz rap, g-funk, boom bap and everything in between.
THis is easily one of the greatest albums ever…I feel like you have to have a certain appreciation of all different types of music,& sounds to fully understand how great it’s put together
10/10
I’m a drake fan, but I gotta admit joe budden was right when he said drake/cole will never make an album as good as TPAB from a pure objective standpoint
Kendrick has the potential to be the actual GOAT,dude has that major label budget with the musical sensibilities of an indie artist, creative control and artistic integrity is paramount to the evolution of
an musician. Most of the supposed GOATS had none of those, dude came out the hardest on their debut then commerialized and watered down their music shortly after to double their dollars, which is why a dude
like Jay Z can release juvenile weedplates like Magna Carta 20 years into his career with his debut ironically being his most mature work
You jus made the most complete statement ever
Kendrick’s found his niche. The jazz/funk/trap fusion is almost exclusive to him. Also, who better to have in your circle than Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, Flylo and Terrance Martin?
another classic cd
These tracks are amazing. I love the mixture of genres and sounds.
Easily a top 20 rap album of all tiùme, and top 40 album of all time in any genre
I agree Kendrick is on an impressive run. The thing that most impresses me is that both albums are completely different. A lot of people would still be calling Kendrick an amazing artist/rapper/etc if he simply gave us GKMC 2. Instead he took a major risk and dismissed nearly every modern rap convention (trap, bangers, 808s, contemporary features, list of the hottest producers, etc). And the album is fantastic.
album was garbage. I just can’t wait for drake to drop views and make kendrick into the little after thought that he is. This bum kendrick can’t even outsell J Cole yet some of you gas him up like he is on drakes level. No1 bumps that garbage album TPAB. None of the clubs play it, radios don’t play it, the general population hasn’t even heard it or did not like it. Only hipster losers listen to that trash. I hope kendrick gets a big Ego so he can go at drake and then have drake end his carreer
Kendrick Lamar called out Drake on “Control” and he ain’t do shit about it.
There is really no comparing the two. Totally different styles. Let them both be great. I know you’re just trolling but still… Also Kendrick>Drake all day.
Do you ever get tired of spewing the same lies over and over?
Joe budden is right, nobody is ever gonna top TPAB
I hope drake takes note, I love drake but he needs to realize that he ain’t as good as kendrick
As a drake fan, I can be objective enough to admit tpab is twice as good as drake’s entire catalog
Again, why are we even comparing to Drake? Two totally different styles.
arguarbly one of the greatest albums to date
I don’t expect this album to be topped any time soon
The most complete, musically ambitious, musically complex album of the last 10 years in any genre
I’d say its up there with Michael Jackson and Nina Simone’s best work
Kendrick brought us through the streets in GKMC, but TPAB does something even more impressive…With strong influences of soul, bebop jazz, r&b, p-funk, and all sub-categories of hip-hop, Kendrick has
essentially made an amalgam of the beautiful art to be created throughout African-American history. It is a love letter to Black Culture and where it is today.
Not my taste but easily 10/10 album, a true classic
I’m a drake fan but this is the best album of the decade
Dark fantasy, black messiah, channel orange all have better cases imo
I hear you, Fantasy was the worlds intro to black pop and excess; Frank revolutionized RnB with Orange and it’s vivid storytelling; Black Messiah saved black music and was perfectly politically charged; TBAB brought back jazz and funk to a generation… Lol hard for me to decide….. Flying Lotus You’re Dead should be added to this list in my opinion tho, lowkey slept on by the Grammies for album of the year (2014-2015)- but then again, how did all these albums not win album of year in the years they were released. Black artists revolutionize music for a generation – the pop machine celebrates their inventiveness thru getting Rolling Stone and Billboard to critically acclaim – but they never get the recognition on the huge stages when it comes to it. Why yall think Frank been sitting and not releasing, why yall think Kanye jumped right into the heart of the pop machine itself with the Kardashians, why yall think FlyLo joined David Lynch Foundation, Kendrick collaborates with Swift… Its all in the name of breaking into the old world and shit cause these niggas been sleeping on us as a nation. We MUST infiltrate and ILLuminate the minds of our people – no hate to any white people reading this, its just the facts jack in the words of Nasir Jones…. THats my word.
Nigga Dark Fantasy some real hip-hop shit, stop with this black pop shit – it dont exist. LOL… gud points though
This features soem fo the best jazz and funk music in music history… no wonder why bowie was influenced by tpab, no wonder why herbie wants to work with all the musicians involved on the album in order to replicate it
this, is a masterpiece.
Fuck this no-good, lousy ni66er and his nerd rap.