Additional Thoughts on 'To Pimp a Butterfly'

Damn Bob. I come back to your reactions of Kendrick like every week cause kendrick is my hero. And it's really fascinating how a grown old metaler can soak in this type of art so well, that it gives the albums much more layers. Bob became my hero too. I love u bob u the best

Robin Schumacher

I always enjoy your additional thoughts because it’s clear you’ve done a lot of relistening, some research, and reading feedback on the channel, but not at the cost of having your own interpretations lost or overridden. Like you hinted at, sometimes it’s helpful to know more about the artist’s real life, but it’s also ok to not dig too deep and just let the art speak for itself. I had a pretty similar feeling from the end of the album, the sudden loss of a hero, the torch no longer being carried by Pac, the need to mourn fighting with the urgency to figure out how to carry on without him, et cetera. I think the glimmer of hope I got from it was how most of the conversation was a pretty balanced back and forth between K and Pac, and then Kendrick pulls out the poem and the complex ideas behind the album. He asks for Pac’s perspective, which is met with silence, but to me it seems like he’s already ready to take up the torch so there’s no need to Pac to say anything at all. I’m sure some words of affirmation would be more comforting or confidence-building, but sometimes our heroes are just gone with no warning, and we have to realize they did their part and we have to do ours. Was Pac ever really there, or was it his spirit, or maybe just an internal dialogue Kendrick was having? Who knows, but the message to me is that the torch was never really dropped, it had already been passed to Kendrick and he’s realizing there is no graduation or getting a blessing from Pac himself, he’s already continuing his spirit and being the hero to a new generation. That’s my take on it anyways.

Tim P

I liked your sidestep into politics about halfway through the video, and I'd like to offer some insight after reflecting on that metaphor between sports teams and politics. This isn't related to the album, but I found it really interesting and it gave me yet another reason I'm a huge fan of the channel! So I agree that people are super critical of sports teams and completely point fingers the other way for politics, and I think that's because of what each of those things represents. With politics, people often (mistakenly) identify the party they support with their own values, and this makes it hard for them to criticize their party as easily because at some level, they feel that it is a criticism of their own values, which people generally avoid. On the other hand, sports teams don't carry as much weight in terms of reflecting on someone's values and in turn their character, so I guess people are more willing to criticize the sports team they're a fan of. I agree that people need to recognize their own hypocrisy, but I'm not sure how to get people to do that. I've struggled with this question too because I've noticed it with a lot of my friends and community not just in politics but in a lot of ways, but maybe when it comes to politics there needs to be more of a push to get people to either 1. stop completely associating their values with a certain party so that criticizing a party doesn't feel like criticizing their values or 2. get people to open up to the idea that you can have a set of values and still be critically evaluating them constantly.

Kendrick is and will always be 1. the reason i have a completely different perspective on the world. and 2. my favorite rapper/lyricist of all time. I still remember how speechless I was, like you were, when i first heard this album. I knew it was something truly special.

Shurikinney

Lucy also could refer to Lucian Grange a music executive

Duane Wright

For as far as you came, die lit is a huge setback. really fun music though

Duane Wright

You're probably the 3rd or 4th reaction to TPAB I've watched over the years and each one is as enjoyable as the last. I recommend doing untitled unmastered before jumping too damn, it's like a bonus section for a movie, extra scenes but can see why some may have been left out. The album came out when I was 18 I think and I'm 25 now and still find new things about the album, even some things you mentioned, so don't worry that you missed stuff the first or second or even third time around. As always love your content!

Dominic Chan

Been waiting on this one, just got off work looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Elijah Jagne