Part of doing these reviews was not only to discover music that may be less known, but also to listen to music that I probably should have already. And "To Pimp A Butterfly" definitely fits into the latter. Just from what I've heard, it's often referred to as a modern-day classic, and one of the greatest albums to have come out in the last 5-10 years. So to have not heard it, but to consider myself a big Hip-Hop fan, is kind of embarrassing.
Going into the album I had obviously heard the biggest songs already, such as; Alright, King Kunta and I. Apart from that, there were plenty of new songs to listen to.
Weirdly though I have heard "DAMN". And that album was amazing for me, easily one of the best albums of 2017. And from what I heard, TPAB is considered better than that, so I had huge expectations going in - it also makes it even odder that I never went back to hear Kendrick's earlier albums after hearing DAMN.
So the concept and the story of the album is crazy, the way it all connects together and the way it wraps up at the end with the Tupac interview is brilliant. It took me a lot of listens to really understand and get my head around it all and to appreciate that side of things. Also, that is something I wouldn't want to spoil for anyone. And even though the concept is really strong, I'm still basing most of my opinions on what the music sounds like and the rapping skills. Like you can have sick concepts but whack rapping. Luckily Kendrick ain't a whack rapper, obviously.
From the get-go some proper head-bopper music. The way the beat kicks in on Wesley's Theory is such a sick intro, King Kunta continues the similar sort of vibe. Really empowering stuff throughout as well. The way he's riding the beats is so good too. He's versatile with it, so he can flow like a demon, a bit quicker and back that up with hard, aggressive deliveries, on tunes like Blacker the Berry. But then he can also do the smoother, more melody focused flows and deliveries. And those pockets are the ones where I think he is the strongest, like on These Walls, I and You Ain't Gotta Lie.
He has like a natural catchy-ness to his voice when he raps and sings like this. At first I thought all the hooks were dead, but they definitely grew on me over time.
The features were worked in really well, my favourites were Snoop Dogg and Rapsody. Rapsody's verse was fire, again really smooth flow and delivery. The way she moved over the bars made them really potent and significant.
Beats were great, couple nice switch-ups in there too. Favourite beats were on These Walls and I.
I didn't really care too much for the For Free skit, that was a bit annoying to listen to every time. The For Sale skit was much more entertaining though.
I think this is something that I'll re-visit a lot. It took me a little while to get into, it didn't have obvious bangers like DAMN did. I don't think it's as good as DAMN. I think the concept of it and what it means to so many people is probably why it is spoken about in such a high regard. Obviously, I am not saying the music is bad, I've just above explained so many things I enjoy about the album, but the music on DAMN is easily better. And there's other albums where the beats and bars are just as strong, but may not have that same high regard as TPAB because they aren't there on a conceptual level.
The replay-value isn't as strong as DAMN's but I can see myself still listening to enough tracks from TPAB again. I'm going to listen to Good Kid Mad City in a few weeks so we'll see how that measures up.
From what I've heard, Kendrick is easily one of the most skilled and talented artists about at the moment. His lyricism is something that I can definitely get behind and be passionate for. Kendrick has songs that make you wanna start writing bars straight away, but then sometimes he'll be flowing so sick that you'll hear it and be like there's no way I could compete with that - some rappers are just capable of that.
Star Track - These Walls
8/10
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