To Pimp A Butterfly (2015) was a seminal recording. It ventured farther from the gangster and street survival tropes of Good Kid, Maad City (2012) both with it’s lyrics, themes, and sonic backdrop. There was jazz, soul, funk, and even a bit section of freeform beatnik poetry in the interlude “For Free?”. The album showed confidence in making an unconventional album with less popular appeal than previous albums. This was due in large part to the aforementioned departure from themes like street violence and gang mentality and an exploration of greater human themes and more diverse sounds.
However, one clear theme that has extended throughout Kendrick Lamar’s career has been hypocrisy, both as an individual, a community of his peers, and as a society. Kendrick’s most driving and aggressive song from To Pimp A Butterfly, “The Blacker the Berry”, was considered one of the strongest and most influential tracks on the album. It’s content was abrasive to say the least. It was a song more akin to a cut on Good Kid, Maad City, with a pulsating sound less centered in groove than other cuts on To Pimp. However, I think what makes this song so unique, and powerful, is the way it follows an arc in the lyrics from beginning to end. Early in the song, Kendrick remarks, “I’m the biggest hypocrite in 2015, Once I finish this, witnesses will convey just what I mean”. By the end of the song you understand he is referring to the fact that he is lamenting the death of Trayvon Martin and other racial violence in the country when he has inflicted similar violence on black people in his own community.
Kendrick appears to reflect this hypocrisy not only in the lyrics of his songs but also in some of his dealings with the media. There was some controversy surrounding his girlfriend and her light-skinned complexion- a critique tying back into lyrics from songs like “The Blacker the Berry”. And now enter Kendrick Lamar’s new, viral, and sufficiently controversial new music video for the track “Humble” off his forthcoming fourth album. He’s obviously preaching “humility” when a society like ours is steeped in vanity (the commentary on airbrushed women in the media and the use of photoshop was particularly contentious this week). However, hypocrisy rears it’s ugly head again when you read quotes from Kendrick Lamar like this one from a Rolling Stone interview, where he was quoted as saying, “just putting the word ‘pimp’ next to ‘butterfly’… It’s a trip. That’s something that will be a phrase forever. It’ll be taught in college courses—I truly believe that.”
Not very humble. At least he acknowledges that he suffers from the same hypocrisy that is as natural a human trait as any other. We’re all guilty, myself included. However, the key is to recognize and make the effort day in and day out to become more estranged from hypocrisy.
