Kendrick Lamar’s third studio album, To Pimp a Butterfly, has enjoyed enormous

success since its release in March 2015. The album received widespread acclaim from critics

due to its expansive social commentary and experimental sound. Funk and jazz dominate the

album’s instrumentals behind Lamar’s rap. The album also showcases various industry

talents, sampling 20th century icons like The Isley Brothers and James Brown while the track

list features current stars like Thundercat and Snoop Dogg. Over this diverse sound, Lamar’s

raps explore a multitude of themes that range from institutional discrimination to his personal

struggles with depression. However, this paper will focus on the theme that lies at the heart of

Lamar’s music, arguably also the most politically charged and socially relevant aspect of the

album: black empowerment. I argue that Kendrick Lamar uses his platform as a globally

recognized black musician in To Pimp a Butterfly by unapologetically championing his

cautionary narratives, powerful poetics and black pride to empower black youth in an honest

celebration of the black experience.

To begin with, Kendrick Lamar’s first song on the album, “Wesley’s Theory”, is

presented as a metaphor for self-acceptance, self-actualization and celebration of black

culture towards which Kendrick himself struggles until the album’s penultimate track “i”,

where Kendrick blossoms into a proud butterfly. Before Kendrick begins his rap on

“Wesley’s Theory”, the crackling sound of a turntable samples Boris Gardiner’s “Every

Nigger is a Star”1. Invoking a sense of positivity, Boris Gardner’s sample repeats the phrase

“every nigger is a star” until it is abruptly cut short by dark instrumentals and a change of

beat. In a stark contrast to the positivity of the sample, the song turns into a dark, fast-paced

piece of self-reflection where Lamar contemplates the limits and hypocrisy of his success as a

1
Kendrick Lamar, Wesley’s Theory, Spotify track, with George Clinton and Thundercat, on To Pimp a Butterfly,
2015, streaming audio. 4:47.
black man. As summarized in Courtney Heffernan’s study, the change in beat and Joseph

Leimberg’s spoken track addresses the “complacency of black artists who have achieved

their financial success, as well as the exploitation of black artists by white record

executives”2. When Leimberg says “(t)ake a deep look inside/ Are you really who they

idolize? / To pimp a butterfly”3, his interrogation launches Lamar into a deep depression.

While the remnants of his depression follow Lamar’s lyricism in every song until “i”, where

he comes to the realization that all black people must love themselves as well as each other,

Boris Gardiner’s sample sets the precedent of black empowerment from the album’s very

first words. As a black man, Gardiner’s use of the “nigger”, which carries a strong racist

connotation, symbolically inverts the negative stereotype in its acceptance. Moreover, he

creates a sense of unity among all black people by equating them to stars. “Whether star

refers to celebrities, talented people, or celestial bodies”, Heffernan points out that Gardiner’s

sample “subverts the negativity of nigger”and unites black people of all nationalities4

Eventually, on the symbolically titled “i”, where the refrain is “I love myself”5, Lamar’s rap

recognizes and promotes self-love. Incidentally, the oral poem he performs at the end of the

song mirrors Gardiner’s sample in subverting the racist implication of “nigger” by re-

defining it as a term that carries a positive connotation for black people. About “the sensitive

N-word”, Lamar’s poem reads “N-E-G-U-S definition: royalty; king royalty- wait listen/ N-

E-G-U-S description: black emperor, king, ruler”6. Later, he concludes the song by

substituting Negus with the “N-word” by claiming that he is “by far, (the) realest Negus

alive”7. Not only does Lamar show his mastery as a storyteller by using Boris Gardiner’s

2
Courtney Julia Heffernan, “‘We Gon’ Be Alright’: Kendrick Lamar’s Criticism of Racism and the Potential for
Social Change Through Love” (MA diss., University of British Columbia, 2016), 48-49.
3
Heffernan, “‘We Gon’ Be Alright’”, 49.
4
Heffernan, “‘We Gon’ Be Alright’”, 48.
5
Kendrick Lamar, i, Spotify track, on To Pimp a Butterfly, 2015, streaming audio. 5:36.
6
Ibid.
7
Ibid.
sample as a foreshadow for his rap, the element of epiphany on “i” through which he

achieves a state of self-love becomes an exemplary celebration of black empowerment and

identity.

Furthermore, “Complexion (A Zulu Love)”8 addresses the issues of colorism and

cultural speech to encourage black youth. Firstly, H. Samy Alim’s study discusses the

backlash faced by black children in American schools because “their linguistic system allows

them more present-tense forms than the school’s language”9. Using the term illiteracy as “ill-

literacy” for ironic purpose, Alim cites the irony and injustice of American educational

institutions in their misreading of the cultural gap as an achievement gap in their definition of

‘standard English’, and their inability to understand their students in “an era of culturally and

linguistically complex classrooms”10. Working against an education system that consider

their cultural speech to be illiterate, Lamar dismisses insecurities of black youth who may

feel that their complexion will prevent their success by leading by example to remind them

that their “complexion don’t mean a thing” in the song’s chorus11. Moreover, on the song’s

third verse, Rapsody directly addresses black youth: “(L)et me talk my Stu Scott, ‘scuse me

on my 2Pac/ Keep your head up, when did you stop loving thy/ Color of your skin?”12. By

referring to both black icons as a language, where 2pac, a rapper from very humble

backgrounds represents the word “’s’cuse”, a slang term for the word excuse, Rapsody

sarcastically asks the listener to excuse her for using slang. The irony of this request is made

explicit in the following line where she uses the word “thy” to make the listener aware that

she is perfectly capable of using forms of Shakespearean speech if she wishes to do so. By

8
Kendrick Lamar, Complexion (A Zulu Love), Spotify track, with Rapsody, on To Pimp a Butterfly, 2015,
streaming audio. 4:23.
9
H. Samy Alim “Global Ill-Literacies: Hip Hop Cultures, Youth Identities, and the Politics of Literacy” Review of
Research in Education, no. 35: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41349014
10
Ibid, 122.
11
Kendrick Lamar: Complexion (A Zulu Love)
12
Ibid.
proving that she is well versed in both slang and the formal speech of the 1600s, she

disproves the implications of colorism for black youth. The concern for the inferiority

complex of black youth is well founded, as a study conducted by Douglas B. Downey

maintains that a “stereotype threat” affects the academic success of black students. Downey

claims that despite “desiring academic success, black students perform less well on tests than

white students because of the fear of potentially confirming stereotypes of black intellectual

inferiority” 13. For example, a study found that black college students who were merely asked

to identify their race before a GRE-like verbal test performed worse than those who were not

asked about their race14. Therefore, when Rapsody raps “light don’t mean you smart, bein’

dark don’t make you stupid”15, her rejection of the stereotypes created by colorism in

America rightfully addresses the need to empower black youth so that they are reassured of

their intellectual abilities.

The significance of using rap as an instrument of discourse for black culture must also

be acknowledged. The legitimacy of rap music as a facet of popular culture is particularly

complicated when it is compared with the authority of academic discourse. Unsurprisingly,

the latter is widely regarded as the superior form. bell hooks points out the sad irony of this

situation, suggesting that the “meaningful connection between black experience and critical

thinking about aesthetics or culture must be continually interrogated” 16because the existing

discourse is “dominated primarily by the voices of white male intellectuals and/or academic

elites who speak to and about another with coded familiarity” (Postmodern Blackness 362).

Admitting that “it has become necessary to find new avenues to transmit the messages of

black liberation”, hooks recognizes the value of rap as an avenue in enabling “the underclass

13
Douglas B. Downey “Black/White Differences in School Performance: The Oppositional Culture Explanation”
Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 34 (2008) p.121
14
Ibid, 122.
15
Kendrick Lamar: Complexion (A Zulu Love)
16
bell hooks, “Postmodern blackness” in Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics, ed. Philip Rice and
Patricia Waugh, 362-368. (Oxford University Press Inc., 2001), 362-363.
black youth to develop a critical voice”, a factor some have called a “common literacy”.

Therefore, as a rap album, if To Pimp A Butterfly is to be legitimized beyond the aesthetic

qualities it possesses as an enjoyable piece of music and instead, studied as an accepted

instrument of discourse then contemporary discourse may become more inclusive of

oppressed voices. It is safe to assume that Kendrick Lamar would have experienced a

significantly different childhood growing up in Compton compared to most people of the

academic elite. On “Institutionalized”, he raps: “Life to me, like a box of chocolate/ Quid pro

quo, somethin’ for somethin’, that’s the obvious/ Oh shit, flow’s so sick, don’t you swallow

it”17. Simplifying the “quid pro quo” to “somethin’ for somethin’”, Lamar translates the

esoteric Latin phrase to what hooks would call “common literacy”. Moreover, in a comment

of self-praise Lamar states that his “flow” (rhythm) makes it easy for the listener to

“swallow” (understand) his message. Unlike most of the educated scholars who are involved

in the academics about social inequality, Kendrick Lamar has learnt through experience. In

another line, he raps: “Me, Scholarship? No, streets put me through colleges”18. Unlike the

discourse of radical postmodernism, which ironically, talks about heterogeneity and declares

breakthroughs that allows the recognition of otherness but directs “its critical voice primarily

to a specialized audience that shares a common language rooted in the very master narratives

it claims to challenge”19, Kendrick Lamar’s rap gives voice to the “otherness”. By discussing

the ways in which his education has evolved out of experience, To Pimp A Butterfly develops

the authenticity of rap as a medium by granting black youth and those involved in academia

with the opportunity to envision oppression from the perspective of the oppressed.

17
Kendrick Lamar, Institutionalized, Spotify track, with Bilal, Anna Wise and Snoop Dogg, on To Pimp a
Butterfly, 2015, streaming audio. 4:31.
18
Ibid.
19
bell hooks: Postmodern Blackness, 364.
 However, it must be acknowledged that Hip-Hop, as a musical genre, was deeply

political at its birth. According to Akhil N. Folmani’s study, Hip Hop was conceived during

the late 1970’s, when New York’s South Bronx was facing a time of significant regression.

Following the death of Malcom X and the decimation of the Black Panther Party, the political

fervor for economic and political equality for lower and urban class had died down. Amongst

the proliferation of gangs and violence, the youth of South Bronx found a way to express

their frustrations through Hip Hop, which “consisted of the beat, b-boying (or break dancing),

graffiti-ing, and rapping”20. Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five released “The

Message” in 1982, making it “rap’s first social commentary on life in the South Bronx

ghetto”21. However, To Pimp A Butterfly directly contextualizes black liberation and black

power for the second decade of the 21st century. As Jeff Chang’s We Gon’ Be Alright: Notes

on Race and Resegregation points out, the album was released in the waning years of a Black

presidency, when “we saw a proliferation of images of Black people killed in the streets and

the rise of national justice movement”: Black Lives Matter 22. However, Barack Obama’s

presidency as a symbol of black power is a substantial theme of To Pimp A Butterfly. In the

album’s cover art, we see Lamar celebrating with numerous black men and boys with stacks

of money in their hands. As seen in the following page, the cover art is colored black and

white and symbolically contrasts the black men with the White House that towers behind

them. Although the album was released in a time of political protest for gun violence against

black people, the album’s cover art reassures black youth by reminding them of the political

significance of USA’s first black president in the insinuation that black people are now

physically inside the White House. This reassuring message is also exemplified in the chorus

20
Akhil N, Folmani “Hip Hop, the Law, and the Commodified Gangsta”. Maurice A. Deane School of Law at
Hofstra University, 144.
21
Ibid.
22
Jeff, Chang “We Gon’ Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation”. Picador (2016), 1
of “Alright”: “we gon’ be alright” 23. In “Alright”, he raps: “We been hurt, been down before/

Nigga, when our pride was low/ Lookin’ at the world like, ‘Where do we go?’”24. In these

lines, Lamar reminds his listeners that black people have been hurt before and that this is

nothing new. The important question, however, asks them where they will go when they are

hurt. In this question, Lamar invites black youth to find solace in his music. If the phrase “we

gon’ be alright” is interpreted as a response to the atrocities black people have encountered, it

suggests that black liberation can only thrive when black people are proud of their identity.

Consequently, To Pimp A Butterfly provides black youth with an avenue to regain and

champion the black identity.

The lyrical content, samples, vernacular poetics and musical style of Kendrick

Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly explore and describe the African-American identity through

Lamar’s personal struggles with fame, responsibility and self-love. By exploring elements of

his own hypocrisy, the narrative of the album follows Lamar’s journey from deep depression

to self-love. Ultimately, by rejecting stereotypes of intellectual inferiority and academic

authority Lamar legitimizes the genre of rap in his insightful exploration of black culture.

Most significantly, he uses his platform and innovative poetics to motivate and empower

black youth, urging them to mobilize their voices as the times are changing for the better.

23 Kendrick Lamar, Alright, on To Pimp a Butterfly, 2015, streaming audio. 3:39.

24 Kendrick Lamar: Alright
 Works Cited

Heffernan, Courtney Julia. “We Gon’ Be Alright’: Kendrick Lamar’s Criticism of Racism and the Potential for Social
Change Through Love.” MA diss., University of British Columbia, 2016.

Alim, H. Samy, John Baugh, and Mary Bucholtz. "Global Ill-Literacies: Hip Hop Cultures, Youth Identities, and
the Politics of Literacy." Review of Research in Education 35 (2011): 120-46.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/41349014.

Downey, Douglas B. "Black/White Differences in School Performance: The Oppositional Culture

Explanation." Annual Review of Sociology 34 (2008): 107-26. http://www.jstor.org/stable/29737784.

Hooks, Bell. “Postmodern Blackness.” Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics, ed. Philip Rice and Patricia
Waugh, 362-368. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 2001

Folmani, Akilah N. “Hip Hop, the Law, and the Commodified Gangsta.” Maurice A. Deane School of Law at
Hofstra University, 2016

Chang, Jeff. “We gon' be alright: notes on race and resegregation”. Picador, New York 2016.

Lamar, Kendrick. From the article “To Pimp A Butterfly”. Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Pimp_a_Butterfly (Photo: David Free and Vlad Sepetov)

Lamar, Kendrick, Wesley’s Theory, Spotify track, with George Clinton and Thundercat, on To Pimp a Butterfly,
2015, accessed 20 March, 2018, streaming audio. 4:47.

Lamar, Kendrick, i, Spotify track, on To Pimp a Butterfly, 2015, accessed 20 March 2018, streaming audio. 5:36.

Lamar, Kendrick. Complexion (A Zulu Love), Spotify track, with Rapsody, on To Pimp a Butterfly, 2015, accessed
20 March 2018, streaming audio. 4:23.

Lamar, Kendrick. Institutionalized, Spotify track, with Bilal, Anna Wise and Snoop Dogg, on To Pimp a Butterfly,
2015, accessed 21 March 2018, streaming audio. 4:31.

Lamar, Kendrick. Alright, on To Pimp a Butterfly, 2015, accessed 21 March, 2018, streaming audio. 3:39.