Black History Music Pt. 29
In celebration of Black History Month, the Ear Candy Update intends to celebrate landmark recordings by black artists that have shaped the collective consciousness, mentality, and sense of cool the world over. Next, Kendrick Lamar's "To Pimp a Butterfly."
29 albums for 29 days. This brings us to Kendrick Lamar. It's fitting we close this run with a 32-year-old Compton kid who's absorbed all of the previously mentioned 28 albums and emerged on the other side with a voluminous education.
Reaching maturity requires reflection, acknowledgment of mistakes, and willingness to grow beyond them. With "To Pimp a Butterfly" hip hop reached fine art. It incorporates essentially the entire history of black music in America. Yeah, it's like that.
Kendrick doesn't merely give shout outs or name drop significant artists. He incorporates lyrics, snippets of jokes, and one-liners into his lyrics. He samples many of the artists I've mentioned previously. A bar here, and a bar there, he demonstrates his comprehensive knowledge of his art's origins and influences. It's more than an exercise. It's both a testimony and a prayer.
There's reverence in this, clearly. There are also heavy doses of irony brought about as only self-reflection can. There's hood strength here, theatrical and chaotic. Kendrick realized early that he wasn't going to be defined by the constraints of an ordinary rap album. Here he positions himself as the next generation of genre busters in the glowing line of The Roots, Common, Outkast, and A Tribe Called Quest. The difference is Kendrick is all-encompassing.
Some of the material here sounds as if it was realized while in a heavy moment of quiet reflection, but rapped with aggression and certainty when a mic is in front of him. That makes it intimate. Other tracks are classic boasting, but with a hilarious twist. That makes it timely. Kendrick has come face to face with his own mortality, mistakes, and unimportance, but he continues to strive for higher ground. That makes it immortal.
Reaching maturity requires reflection, acknowledgment of mistakes, and willingness to grow beyond them. With "To Pimp a Butterfly" hip hop reached fine art. It incorporates essentially the entire history of black music in America. Yeah, it's like that.
Kendrick doesn't merely give shout outs or name drop significant artists. He incorporates lyrics, snippets of jokes, and one-liners into his lyrics. He samples many of the artists I've mentioned previously. A bar here, and a bar there, he demonstrates his comprehensive knowledge of his art's origins and influences. It's more than an exercise. It's both a testimony and a prayer.
There's reverence in this, clearly. There are also heavy doses of irony brought about as only self-reflection can. There's hood strength here, theatrical and chaotic. Kendrick realized early that he wasn't going to be defined by the constraints of an ordinary rap album. Here he positions himself as the next generation of genre busters in the glowing line of The Roots, Common, Outkast, and A Tribe Called Quest. The difference is Kendrick is all-encompassing.
Some of the material here sounds as if it was realized while in a heavy moment of quiet reflection, but rapped with aggression and certainty when a mic is in front of him. That makes it intimate. Other tracks are classic boasting, but with a hilarious twist. That makes it timely. Kendrick has come face to face with his own mortality, mistakes, and unimportance, but he continues to strive for higher ground. That makes it immortal.
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