This is a record called "To Pimp a Butterfly" by Kendrick Lamar

This is a record called "To Pimp a Butterfly" by Kendrick Lamar.

It topped many "album of the year" lists in 2015, and is already considered one of the best hip hop albums of all time.

Now I don't listen to much hip hop because the subject matter gets old fast, but since this has been praised so much, I decided to give it a listen.

It was literally over an hour of "da white man keepin us down", while still managing to adhere to black rap stereotypes.

Lyrically it was worse than the typical simplistic pop music, it felt like some songs would drag on for minutes with the same phrase repeated over and over.

The production was okay, but nothing special. I can guarantee you this wasn't such a success because of the jazzy sound.

Can someone explain to me how this is critically acclaimed?

Unless I get a good answer I'm going to assume White Guilt is the reason it went platinum.

It was okay but nothing special,I agree that it's overrated as fuck. GKmC is miles better in many aspects,especially the lyrics and the storytelling. It was probably praised so much because of the awful state of maintream hip hop and I suppose white guilt is something that adds to that factor as well

Rodeo by Travis Scott was better than TPAB

>Lyrically it was worse than the typical simplistic pop music, it felt like some songs would drag on for minutes with the same phrase repeated over and over.

That’s kinda autistic user. If you aren’t willing to put in the time to understand and appreciate the lyrical devices used in rap, it’s your own damn fault for being retarded. Beyond that, if the only plot point you take from it is “FUG WHIDEY XDDDDD”, it’s clear that you didn’t even hear the lyrics.

Beyond that, honestly TPAB is overrated as fuck and GKMC is infinitely better, but if you aren’t willing to put an effort into listening to rap beyond “lol sick beats” and “lol repeated words”, you’re no better than the normie tastelets who listen to nuDubstep for “the epic drop”, or indeed the Pitchfork core white guilt faggots you hate so much.

Kendrick does a bunch of pretentious concept album bullshit.

A lot of his songs are satirical and not meant to be taken at face value, some are critical of the black community, hell so many of his songs are veiled in purposefully ironic posturing that I don't even know what parts of these albums I'm supposed to take seriously.

From an artistic and lyrical standpoint I can see the praise these albums get for the whole postmodern ironic writing and storytelling, but musically these albums are straight shit aside from some singles.

TPAB (9) > UU (8) > GKMC (7) > .80 (5) > DAMN. (3)

OP here. The Illmatic was a good hip hop album. I know lyrical devices when I hear them. Do you really think one of the best selling albums of all time is so fucking subtle that the average person misinterprets it?

I still don't understand the argument that this album is solely grounded in the idea of race. It is present, particularly in Alright, Institutionalised, and The Blacker the Berry, but more than anything it's a piece on self-worth and the concept of selling out. It's all about staying true to yourself and since Kendrick happens to be from Compton, he stays true to what he knew there. Even on The Blacker the Berry he actively takes an anti-BLM stance; "Why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street, when gang-banging made me kill a nigga blacker than me." Complexion is similar, not making a statement about racism but rather black relations with other blacks.

I would be able to understand if you found the instrumentation to get old quickly and for the lyrics to be repetitive, but it's definitely not just "da white man keepin us down" for over an hour, that takes up much less time than other themes on it.

what a shitty reply - namedropping another album as better for literally no reason. ew.

I think I understand what you're saying, OP. Outside of the US, or rather at least where I live, there was not much fuss about this record, other than one hit that was on the radio for a few weeks. That could be boiled down to not indulging the needless cries for attention that these artists are searching for in the media by releasing such records in America - It has become cool to be racists towards white people, and it is being almost dismissed as payback or justified as 'you deserve it'. Spawning the culture of 'white guilt'. Can't think of anything more worthy of the word cringe.
Personally I don't think it belongs in the music, or anywhere in the media This is just another pop record that carries a meaningless, shallow pop message for the reason to carry it towards popularity, being misunderstood as a as a real message!
Considering this though, you can't deny the genius of whoever masterminded the themes etc as they hit the nail on the head perfectly to maximise the amount of money the album would generate.
Kudos for making money, Kendrick. Bet that sits well alongside your integrity.

If you had actually listened it you would know that's not what the album's about