Is Kendrick really about to drop another classic?
Earlier this morning, Kendrick Lamar took to Instagram to finally reveal details on his upcoming official second album, previously [Untitled]. With his new album To Pimp a Butterfly arriving this March 23rd, the Compton rapper has already shook up the music world into a complete frenzy, as Rolling Stone publication has a first listen to the project – which the six tracks have surpassed expectations thus far.
While a sophomore slump isn’t something we’re assuming has never crossed the mind of K. Dot, he opens up on the concept-driven project being a roller coaster ride. After you watch the cover shoot video above, take a look at some excerpts from the interview, including Rolling Stone’s reaction to hearing some of project.
Lamar is vague about what specifically the title To Pimp a Butterfly means “That will be taught in college courses someday,” he says). But he describes the album as “honest, fearful and unapologetic.” “You take a black kid out of Compton and put him in the limelight, and you find answers about yourself you never knew you were searching for,” he said. “There’s some stuff in there, man. It’s a roller coaster. It builds.”
The songs range from the intensely personal to the swaggeringly aggressive – like “King Kunta,” which could be the theme song from a Seventies blaxploitation flick. When Pharrell Williams first heard the track, he praised it by calling it “unapologetically black.” “It’s just him expressing how he’s feeling at the moment,” says Lamar’s longtime producer Mark “Sounwave” Spears. “And right now, he’s mad.”
Sonically, Lamar’s new album is adventurous, incorporating elements of funk, spoken-word poetry, and free-jazz, augmented by lots of live playing. (Lamar says he was listening to a lot of Miles Davis and Parliament while making it.) “It’s a unique sound,” says Sounwave. “Every producer I’ve ever met was sending me stuff [for the album], but there was a one-in-a-million chance you could send a beat that actually fit what we were doing.” Lamar’s longtime engineer, Derek “MixedByAli” Ali, says the rapper would often talk in moods: “He would say, ‘I want it to sound eerie,’ or ‘I want it to sound like you’re driving past something.’ Or he talks in colors: ‘Make it sound purple. Make it sound light green.’”
Read the entire interview HERE
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OS REWIND: Kendrick Lamar Reveals Artwork For “To Pimp A Butterfly”