When Kendrick released the Grammy-winning track i last year, with its sunny Isley Brothers guitar loop and self-affirming chorus of вЂњI love myselfвЂќ, some fans worried that heвЂ™d gone soft, but on To Pimp a Butterfly itвЂ™s revealed as a necessary counterweight to the brutally self-lacerating u, in which he tells himself вЂњeverything is your faultвЂќ. This is hip-hop with a capacious sense of history, influenced by George Clinton and Miles Davis, James Brown and Sly Stone, Ralph Ellison and Alex Haley. What lifts the album out of that charmless category of musicians moaning about fame is the depth of KendrickвЂ™s insight and the way he relates it to the broader African-American experience. On the album he labels himself a вЂњfucking failureвЂќ and a вЂњhypocriteвЂќ who suffers from вЂњsurvivorвЂ™s guiltвЂќ, before describing how he rediscovered his equilibrium. For him, success is a minefield of temptation and responsibility that he didnвЂ™t foresee. Kendrick is interested in interrogating what вЂњitвЂќ means. But the hard part is keeping it,вЂќ he misses the point. When KendrickвЂ™s mentor, Dr Dre, pops up on the first song to say, вЂњRemember, anybody can get it. If good kid, mAAd city was a bildungsroman then To Pimp a Butterfly (among other things, itвЂ™s a riff on Harper Lee and a metaphor for art versus commerce) is a morality play. It also triggered a profound spiritual crisis. The album earned him a platinum disc, four Grammy nominations, fans including Kanye West, Chris Rock and Taylor Swift, and guest verses for everyone from Eminem and 50 Cent to Imagine Dragons and Dido.

With 2012вЂ™s good kid, mAAd city, an audacious concept album about his dicey adolescence, Kendrick brought a leftfield sensibility to a mainstream platform and became hip-hopвЂ™s new hero: tough, agile, erudite and questioning. ThatвЂ™s the place IвЂ™m putting the listener in.вЂќ I had to roll with this record for two years but it was a fun experience. The process of me making it is the same process the listenerвЂ™s going to have to deal with, and thatвЂ™s rolling with it. вЂњI know itвЂ™ll be challenging for a listener who doesnвЂ™t know my music. I wonder what a listener who discovers him that way will make of an album as dense, relentless and discomfiting as To Pimp a Butterfly. When we meet, Kendrick heads the Billboard top 100 via a guest verse on Taylor SwiftвЂ™s single Bad Blood. Recently, Kendrick visited a New Jersey high school where the album was being used to teach students about вЂњthe dichotomy of black culture in AmericaвЂќ and accepted a Generational Icon award from the California state senate. One critic called it вЂњThe Great American Hip-Hop AlbumвЂќ. On the review aggregator website Metacritic it is one of the most acclaimed albums ever with a 96% score.

When it came out in March, it felt like the album hip-hop had been waiting for. But nobody has unpacked the implications of that transition as thoroughly as Kendrick does on his remarkable third studio album, To Pimp a Butterfly. The ambitious MCвЂ™s path from violence and deprivation to fame and wealth is the genreвЂ™s ur-narrative. Hip-hop is obsessed with the distance between Then and Now. IвЂ™m sure itвЂ™s real for a lot of artists who grew up in neighbourhoods like that.вЂќ вЂњThe instinct to get out the way when you hear a popping sound, thatвЂ™s real for me. вЂњI donвЂ™t know if somebody threw a rocket at a trash can or what, but it made a loud-ass popping sound and everybody who was in the car with me ducked,вЂќ he remembers. In a split second the successful 28-year-old rapper disappeared and the wary teenager from the streets of Compton, California resurfaced. When I mention this to Kendrick Lamar, he nods and says: вЂњThatвЂ™s real.вЂќ Recently, he was making the video for his new single, Alright, when he was startled by a loud bang. The report estimates that 30% of young people in urban вЂњcombat zonesвЂќ suffer from some form of PTSD. L ast year, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention presented research demonstrating that вЂњyouth living in inner cities show a higher prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder than soldiersвЂќ.

Am i worth it song