Kendrick Lamar Talks “To Pimp a Butterfly” with Rolling Stone

Kendrick just recently revealed the album title and cover for his highly anticipated album “To Pimp a Butterfly,” which sparked quite a few discussions around the inter-webs regarding his creative direction as well trying to connect the dots with the singles that have already been released.

With his new album 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.

Even though the sophomore curse isn’t something that would be of concern to Kendrick, he did open up about the journey leading up to this imminent release being a roller coaster ride.

Below he dives into some of the details regarding the album with Rolling Stone magazine.

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.’”

This is the most anticipated project of the year without a doubt, it’s almost as if fans are looking to Kendrick to tell them what the next step in Hip Hop should.

I’m also looking forward to the project and hoping that it will live up hype.