Interpretation of a kendrick song section.

To Pimp a Butterfly

In 2015 artist Kendrick Lamar released his album “To pimp a butterfly”. The album was produced by countless established producers including the likes of Dr Dre, Thunder Cat and Pharrell Williams. This is his second studio released album following Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City. With features from artists ranging from George Clinton and Snoop Dogg making this album all the more musically diverse and different from anything else out at the time, the fusion between jazz, funk and hip-hop leaves listeners with a euphoric sensation upon listening. I have chosen to write about this album as I am just simply a massive fan of everything about this record from the instrumentation to the videos and art-work that goes along with it. I have this album framed on my bedroom wall and I look forward to diving into my thoughts and opinions on the album

Instrumentation

The album makes an amazing and creative use of what could be considered as being the “core” instruments (drums,bass,guitar,keys) that perfectly combines the rap and funk/jazz genre together perfectly. With tracks having simple yet up beat and energetic hip-hop styled beats and drums mixed with funky bass lines and jazz chord progressions layed down on the keys or guitar. Also throughout the record a more complex rarer collaboration of instruments are use , this ranges from saxophone, to an extremely clever use of backing vocals. Track 15 on the record 'i' which also doubles up as being the second to last track. Opens the instrumental on two chords on the guitar (.              ) these two chords are played throughout the track with a few exceptions off the breakdown and ending speech on the track. I believe that it’s these two select chords that give the track such an upbeat and positive feel. In the track “i” Kendrick uses the sound of an love audience as instrumentation

Another example of great instrumentation and just a general use of sound is how Kendrick uses vocals on the track ‘institutionalised'. Kendrick uses vocals in order to shift the entire of dynamic and feel of a song that almost feels like an entire new track is done with such a smooth and effortless fashion that makes it work so well. All Kendrick does is record a sample of who I believe is Snoop Dogg saying “zoom”. What’s interesting about this one use of vocals is that Kendrick uses (that English technique) which keeps the song with an more earthy human made noise rather than something electronic which would break the conventional ideas of funk/jazz music. This is great as I believe it’s Kendrick’s dedication to this that makes the album so great.

Features

The features on the album really help build the identity of both Kendrick as a artist and person and the album its self. The album opens up with “Wesleys theory” a track that features both George Clinton; one of the world’s most renounced funk artists being the front man and driving force  of “funkadelic”and “parilment”. And thundercat, an incredible bassist and funk song writer. Thundercat has been described by rolling stones as “the son of bootsy collins” these two great artists working with Kendrick Lamar and his extraordinary rapping abilities results in an jaw dropping, dark and heavy way to open 'To pump a butterfly'. Not to much in Kendrick’s earlier work you can also hear heavy influence of George Clinton and funkadelic.One of the most significant example of a feature that it’s pretty much a sample just cut up intelligently. Is on the end of the final track “mortal man” where Kendrick chops up an old tu-pac interview as if him, him self is the one conducting the interview. This is also where Kendrick completes the speech he keeps adding lines too throughout the record. There will be more about that under lyrics and meaning.

Inspiration

A lot of kendrick’s inspiration is shown  the artists he works with and the samples he uses. For example Kendrick Lamar has on multiple occasions talked about the inspiration and impact that the work of George Clinton and more particular with funkadelic has had on life. Straight away the record opens with goerge clinton. This is also shown through the album with artists like Bilal, Anna wise, snoopdogg, rapsody. More importantly though kendrick’s use of sampling perfectly, shows off his the supply of influences he has. To start off the third track of the album and the first released single 'king kunta' has 6 samples. Ranging from Michael Jackson’s “annie are you ok” to Curtis Mayfield’s line “i can dig rapping”. Although for me I’m much more intrigued by him using Michael Jackson lyric because this isn’t the last time he mentions and pays a tribute to Michael Jackson throughout the LP. There are probably more references that I don’t know about although towards the end of “Mortal Man” Kendrick Lamar makes a comment on the paedophilia accusations on Michael Jackson when he says “that n**** gave us Billie Jean, you say he touched those kids?”. This line really hit hard for me as it’s clear to see through the pure emotion in his voice when he says the like let alone the line it’s self that shows how much Kendrick idolised Michael Jackson and how seeing his hero be acused of such a disgusting thing would hurt him and almost break Kendrick. Kendrick also adds a hook to the song that demonstrates his dedication to the artists that have influenced him; the hook is “when shit hits the fan, are you still a fan?”. This is amazing as we can see just from his use of sampling how much he adores and respects his influences. Another great example of how Kendrick samples is in the track “i” he samples the lead guitar lick the same two chords I mentioned before from a track by the Isley brothers called 'that lady' this guitar piece goes on to be the centre piece of the entire track and what the track is based around   

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Lyrics and meaning

Throughout the album as I have briefly discussed before Kendrick Lamar begins to recite a poem/speech he has written. He starts the poem at the end of track 3 (King Kunta) and the poem opens with the line “i remember you was conflicted, misusing your influence”. He doesn’t conclude the poem till the very end of record with 'Mortal man'. After he concludes the poem he reveals he was reciting it to tu-pac. (By this I mean a cut up interview Kendrick edited to suit his own words). During this  poem Kendrick goes on to discuss the thoughts running through his mind on dealing with his fame, thoughts of depression, the loss of loved ones, his comparison of him self to his idols (which is a common theme discussed through the song the poem ends), his opinions on racial discrimination with the usa, life of being a Blackman in a country so racially divided and finally him dealing with his on mortality

Production

One amazing way that shows the creativity of kendrick’s producing techniques is the transition from 'these walls' to 'u'. As a majority of the tracks end with Kendrick reciting his poem 'these walls' follows this pattern. At the end of these walls the new line of the poem is “found my self screaming in the hotel room” to which 'u' then straight away opens into with Kendrick screaming “ahhh”. It’s just a cool trick that makes the album feel like a complete piece of art rather than a series of singles and although it’s simple it’s highly effective and just overall satisfying to listen to. Also at the end of the album when kendrick is doing the tu-pac interview there are three sections in the interview where he adds little jazz instrumentals low down in the mix. The jazz instrumentals sound amazing and definitely add a mix to what is a dominantly a funk record. My person opinion and explanation to why he does this is so he can emphasise certain point of what tu-pac is saying. A great example of Kendrick using classic production techniques is the use of. Pan in the break section of “u”. In this part of the song Kendrick flickers the pan between  let and right over a woman speaking another example of kendrick’s production abilities is the sampling he uses mentioned above when i was discussing his influences. Finally having an incredible strong team of producers from Pharrell Williams to Dr Dre definitely gave him an extra push to  his art

Videos + artwork promotion

One of the key ways that Kendrick Lamar promotes his music is through his music videos and on this album there’s two specific videos that stand out for me the first being the video for 'alright' and the second being 'god is gangsta'. What really sticks out to me about alright is that Kendrick put a verse on the song that wasn’t on the album that had never been released before and as of today still hasn’t be released and the verse and instrumental behind it is amazing, it was thought to be a teaser for a track on the album and built up hype for the album but it was never placed on the album. Also it’s just fucking rad init. Now although alright was an amazing use of promotion for me the real artistic capabilities of Kendrick stand out for me in the video for one of my favourite tracks, “u”. The title of the video is 'god is gangsta' and the pure simplicity of the video that makes this video stand out so much. First of all throughout the whole video there is only a single camera angel of the same setting, but it’s kendrick’s use of having a restriction that makes it so creative. For example the first third of the track is very calm and although it sounds great there’s not much to connect to lyric wise and through the tone of his voice and the instrumentation. And to demonstrate this Kendrick keeps the video calm to demonstrate this point, he is seen sat at a desk just rapping then it becomes more the interesting. The next part of the song is the part o discussed during the influence part of the essay where he flicks the pan between left and right over the sample, although this part of the song is short Kendrick does a great job of making the most of it. Throughout this section of this song Kendrick is seen to be drinking and throwing him self around the room with the image on the screen almost feeling distorted. This does an amazing job of brining us into the final and most impactful part of the video. The next part of the song is an intense and dark section of the song, featuring eary instrumentation and almost crying like rapping from kendrick. It’s breath taking. The video then cuts to the same camera angle that as stayed consistent throughout the video however now kendrick’s face is right up to the camera to display the pure emotion coming from him and his connectivity to his verse. Also in the background still on the table you see the bottle that Kendrick was drinking from continuously spinning around the table, there’s been many theories to what this represents however my personal theory is that it represents the thoughts playing on repeat in his mind on him feeling guilty about leaving Compton and the people he came up with, but then the next track opens up into alright and everything feels alright.