“We Gon’ Be Alright”: The Ideology of Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly

Molly Catherine Turner

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

degree of Master of Arts

Northeastern State University

May 2017 ii

“We Gon’ Be Alright”: The Ideology of Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly

______Cari Keller, Graduate College Dean

ii iii Abstract

Rap is an important rhetorical expression in that it privileges voices that have been otherwise marginalized. Certainly, a rap album is not a traditional artifact, but it is nonetheless rhetorical and worth studying. In fact, rap scholarship is important because rap as an art form is so easily dismissed by white establishment (Howard, 1999).

Following this argument, this paper uses ideological criticism to explore the rhetorical function of Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 rap album To Pimp a Butterfly. Ideological criticism can be seen “as a means of critiquing Western culture itself” (Cyphert, 2001, p. 380).

According to Rose (1994), “Rap music is a black [sic] cultural expression that prioritizes black [sic] voices from the margins of urban America” (p. 2). To Pimp a Butterfly is not merely critically and commercially successful, debuting at the number one spot on the

Billboard Albums chart (Yenigun, 2015); it is also a rhetorical tool for education, empowerment, and empathy. More than just a rapper, Lamar is elevating the discourse within and outside of the Black community and deserves the scholarly attention he is lacking.1 Lamar has used rap to empower and educate his listeners about the Black

American experience. The criticism will show that To Pimp a Butterfly serves as an extension of Kendrick Lamar’s ideology to empower and educate both within and outside of the Black community.

Keywords: rap, rhetoric, ideology

1 Following standard conventions of critical race scholars, Black will be capitalized throughout this paper in reference to racial identity. See Pitner; Tharps; Visconti.

iii iv Acknowledgments

This thesis was greatly encouraged and supported by my family, especially my brother who proofread and sister who guided and edited it for me, as well as my parents who have always advocated for their children to be as educated and ambitious as possible. I would also like to thank my chair, David K. Scott, and committee members,

Bill Wallace and Kristopher D. Copeland, for challenging and inspiring me to do my best work.

iv v Table of Contents

Abstract iii

Acknowledgments iv

Table of Contents v

I. Introduction 1

II. “Tell the Homies What I Learned:” Literature Review 3

A. A Brief Definition of Rap 3

B. Socially and Politically Conscious Rappers 4

C. A Need for Rap Research 7

III. “I Remember You Was Conflicted:” Limitations 10

IV. “Straight From the Bottom:” Method 10

V. “I Went Running for Answers:” Analysis 13

A. Wesley’s Theory 14

B. For Free? (Interlude) 15

C. King Kunta 17

D. Institutionalized 18

E. These Walls 19

F. u 21

G. Alright 23

H. For Sale? (Interlude) 29

I. Momma 31

J. Hood Politics 31

K. How Much a Dollar Cost 33

v vi L. Complexion (A Zulu Love) 34

M. The Blacker the Berry 35

N. You Ain’t Gotta Lie (Momma Said) 37

O. i 38

P. Mortal Man 40

VI. “If These Walls Could Talk:” Discussion 44

VII. “Breaking the Cycle:” Conclusion 48

VIII. References 51

vi

“We Gon’ Be Alright”: The Ideology of Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly

On July 26, 2015 in Cleveland, Ohio, Black Lives Matter protestors confronted police after an altercation with a Black youth in a video that went viral (Gordon, 2015).

Black Lives Matter protests have become increasingly common as police brutality has become more of a public issue. Young Black Americans carrying signs with the name of their movement is a simple plea that conjures up images in the public memory of the

1960s Civil Rights Movement. However, what made this viral video different was that it was not violent, shocking, or sad, but instead joyful and jubilant. The protesters were no longer chanting the words of the oppressor—“Hands up. Don’t shoot.”—but instead, hopeful and consoling words of the oppressed—“We gon’ be alright,” the chorus from

Kendrick Lamar’s song “Alright” from his 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly (Lamar,

2015a). In short, the video was proof positive that music can transcend and serve a greater purpose in the everyday lives of its listeners.

As a rhetorical artifact, To Pimp a Butterfly is situated directly within the Black

Lives Matter movement, which was founded in 2012 after George Zimmerman was acquitted in the murder of Trayvon Martin (Black Lives Matter, n.d.). Since the death of

Martin, documented police violence has escalated, resulting in the highest number of confirmed police killings of young Black men ever in 2015 (Swaine, Laughland, Lartey,

& McCarthy, 2016). Even more, in July 2016, police extra-judicially killed Philando

Castille and Alton Sterling within 48 hours (Donella, 2016). While he may be a “Hip-hop superstar” (Rolling Stone, 2015, para. 1), Lamar’s work has directly commented on police brutality (Lamar, 2015a), Martin’s death (Lamar, 2015k), and other issues facing 2

Black Americans today like systemic economic inequality (Lamar, 2015f).

Before the age of 30, Lamar released two mixtapes, two albums, was nominated for 20 Grammys and won seven. His parents were from the south side of Chicago, Illinois and raised him in Compton, California, hoping to avoid the conflict and gang wars they left behind (Hopper, 2012). Yet “the lifestyle” was inescapable. They arrived in Compton just seven years before the height of its most violent stage (Allen, 2014) and Lamar was 5 years old when he witnessed his first murder (NPR Staff, 2015). He was on his way to joining a gang himself until his father told him he did not want him to follow suit. He has since used his music to give legitimacy to his background, one common to many young

Black men and women in America, and to help those outside the community to empathize and understand (Hopper, 2012). To Pimp a Butterfly has not only been critically and commercially successful, debuting at the number one spot on the Billboard

Albums chart (Yenigun, 2015); it is also a rhetorical tool for education, empowerment, and empathy.

Lamar, as a rapper, seems uniquely connected to the Black community and to

Compton. For example, the album cover pictures Lamar with his “homeboys” in front of the White House, representing his choice to take them with him on his journey so they can see the world with him (Mass Appeal, 2015). While not all hip hop is socially and politically conscious, much of hip hop is (Aldridge, 2005) and highlights many of the issues facing the Black community today. Contrary to the popular image of rappers with money, cars, and pretty women glamorized in music videos and the popular culture at large, Lamar acknowledged that his music relates to people on a deeper level. He said,

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“…it really ain’t that important when you meeting somebody that’s still in the struggle.

These the people that live their lives in dark spaces, every day, you know, and they use my music as some sort of tool to keep going” (as quoted in XXL Staff, 2015, para. 4). In essence, Lamar subordinates his commercial success to the personal triumphs of the individual listeners and fans he meets.

Though Lamar has said it was initially difficult to accept the role of leader and role model (XXL Staff, 2015), he has since embraced it. In June 2015, Lamar visited a

New Jersey high school to help mentor students who had learned about To Pimp a

Butterfly in conjunction with Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye in their English class

(Yenigun, 2015). He met with President Obama at the White House in January 2016 to discuss youth mentorship and promote the President’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative

(Goodman, 2016). On February 13, 2016, Lamar’s hometown of Compton gave him a key to the city (Mejia, 2016). More than just a rapper, Lamar is elevating the discourse within and outside of the Black community and deserves scholarly attention.

“Tell the Homies What I Learned:” Literature Review

The literature illustrates how To Pimp a Butterfly, Kendrick Lamar, and rap function as rhetorical artifacts within the larger academic literature. Three different areas of the literature will situate this context: a definition of rap, the history of socially and politically conscious rappers like Lamar, and the distinct need for more academic research on rap music.

A Brief Definition of Rap

Scholars have defined rap in many different ways. Calhoun (2005) defined

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gangsta rap as, “…a politically charged style of rap that challenged government authority and exposed the sociopolitical realities of inner city life” (p. 268). According to

Smitherman (as cited in Cummings & Roy, 2002), “Rap music is rooted in the Black oral tradition” (p. 61) and employs many customary African communicative practices. It has also been defined as, “an oppositional form of expression that emerged in the United

States in the late 1970s from postindustrial poverty, gangs, and violence” (Rap, 2007).

According to Rose (1994), “Rap music is a black [sic] cultural expression that prioritizes black [sic] voices from the margins of urban America. Rap music is a form of rhymed storytelling accompanied by highly rhythmic, electronically based music…” (p. 2). For further clarification, Rose (1994) also noted that hip hop refers to the entire culture that contains rap, graffiti, and breakdancing, among other forms of art, while rap is a specific type of music within the hip hop culture.

What all of the definitions have in common is a thread of connection between the music and the Black community, and a challenge of the dominant voice. The focus of this paper will not be on the musicality or history behind rap, but rather on the ideology, requiring an emphasis of studying the dominant and marginalized voices present within rap. This paper will build off of Rose’s definition and define rap as a modern form of music that privileges Black voices and often incorporates socially and politically conscious messages. I will next discuss the pre-existing research on socially and politically conscious rappers.

Socially and Politically Conscious Rappers

There is a long history of socially and politically conscious rappers who use

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music to discuss relevant issues with their audience (Alridge, 2005; Brown, 2005;

Dagbovie, 2005; Delgado, 1998). Socially and politically conscious rappers “…must devote the majority of his/her lyrics to discussing…social change and/or non-superficial aspects of black [sic] history, and the problems facing the black [sic] communities in critical areas” (Dagbovie, 2005, p. 304). Dating back to the beginning of rap, from Afrika

Bambaataa’s afrocentric raps to Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel’s “The Message,” rap has educated the Black community about their history as well as empower those in low circumstances (Bascunan & Wheeler, 2016). Furthermore, like Lamar, there are many rappers who consider education to be a core part of their music (Morrell & Duncan-

Andrade, 2002).

Socially and politically conscious rappers serve as a bridge between the past and the present, specifically connecting audiences of today with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, “…but in a language that resonates with many black [sic] youth of the postindustrial and post-civil rights integrationist era” (Alridge, 2005, p. 226). These rappers serve as a way to link the gap between the past and present by helping modern youth understand complex cultural ideas. This is reflected directly in the music of Lamar, through references to current topics and older rappers. Lamar’s biggest inspiration was

Tupac Shakur. Shakur’s mother was a Black Panther (Brown, 2005) and is frequently mythologized in rap, an organization with its own ties to music and culture (Corrigan,

2009).

For the millennial generation, activism looks different, whether it starts through social media (Black Lives Matter, n.d.) or uses music to engage in a discourse. While

6 music has always been important for the Black community (consider the role of spirituals during slavery as an example), rap serves a different function and allows for different emotions to be expressed. According to Corrigan (2009), “Rap music expresses the frustration of urban black [sic] America following the decimation of the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s…” (p. 5). Rap also serves an important function for youth specifically. “…hip hop culture is a manifestation of the ways that young people reflect and act upon their world in order to find their place in it and, ultimately, to transform it” (Rodríguez, 2009, p. 22). Thus, rap is an acknowledgment of the changing nature of activism and activist youth. “Hip Hop has rejected and now replaced the pious, sanctimonious nature of civil rights as the defining moment of Blackness” (Todd as cited in Alridge, 2005, p. 228). While the Civil Rights movement has a concrete place in our history, it is not over. However, it is often intangible and hard to interface with for those who did not live through it. Rap serves as a way for people to understand the ongoing struggles of Black people that were not solved by the Civil Rights Movement while allowing for new dialogues and discussions.

While rap music tends to have a negative reputation in society at large (Rose,

1994), it does not purely promote negative things like violence and misogyny.

Additionally, violence and misogyny are not present in rap alone, but in country, pop, rock, and all music. Yet, the criticism seems to be disproportionately present in rap music

(Dagbovie, 2005). While rap has its issues, it is, “…a reflection of contemporary urban life” (Cummings & Roy, 2002, p. 60). According to Sulé, “discrete elements of hip hop culture…reflect ways of rearticulating marginal identities” (2016, p. 183). Additionally, rap is an important reflection of and influence on modern, young Black people (Sullivan,

7

2003). Because of this, it is important to understand why rap music, and thus urban life, is the way it is. As a result, much of socially and politically conscious rap music seeks to bring systemic injustices to light. “The psychological and physical pain and anguish coupled with a sense of injustice and oppression and the need to vent anger and release some of the frustrations have helped spawn the lyrics of rap” (Cummings & Roy, 2002, p.

60). While hip hop culture has often been read as violent or even dangerous (Kitwana,

2002; Rose, 1994; Sullivan, 2003), a closer analysis reveals a common thread: widespread pain due to systematic oppression. Rap is one of the few mediums that voices oppressive pain through a large platform.

A Need for Rap Research

2016 saw a renewed significance of rap in mainstream culture with the Broadway musical Hamilton, the story of founding father Alexander Hamilton told through rap and portrayed by people of color, winning 11 Tony Awards (Broadway.com Staff, 2016), and a Grammy (Wilstein, 2016). Rap also has significance beyond a single moment in time.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries commemorated the twentieth anniversary of the Notorious B.I.G.’s death on the House floor with a speech quoting lines from the rap song “Juicy” in March

2017 (Zaru, 2017). Furthermore, President Trump criticized married rappers Jay-Z and

Beyoncé for performing at a Hillary Clinton campaign rally, specifically citing their language as offensive (Rosen, 2016) thus emphasizing rap’s political power. Rap has long been the object of white political criticism, further complicating the Black public space (Rose, 1994; Sullivan, 2003). White politicians will likely continue to use rap as a way to delegitimize Black voices, which is even more important in light of the Black

8

Lives Matter movement.

Rap is also a profound artifact worth studying simply due to its economic and social impact within varying cultural groups (Morrell & Duncan-Andrade, 2002; Brown,

2005; Dagbovie, 2005). “Estimates of its contribution to the U.S. economy range to the billions” (Butler, 2004, p. 985). Rap was the third most consumed genre in 2014 but the most streamed genre overall (Ingham, 2015). According to Krims (as cited in Calhoun,

2005), “the single largest purchasing group of rap music may well be middle class white teenagers” (p. 271) yet it is still largely a Black cultural artifact. In other words, simply because white people listen to rap does not negate its function as a Black medium.

Furthermore, “To suggest that rap is a black [sic] idiom that prioritizes black [sic] culture and that articulates the problems of black [sic] urban life does not deny the pleasure and participation of others” (Rose, 1994, p. 4). In fact, “It is the most diverse form of

American popular culture” (Butler, 2002, p. 985). Music like jazz and the blues have also stemmed from Black culture before they became widely popular due to white participation; rap may be the latest iteration of this phenomena.

Thus, there is a cross-cultural tension between the creators and consumers of the product (Calhoun, 2005; Delgado, 1998). While rap music is largely made by and for the

Black community, the invasion of white consumers creates a tension that creators must consider (Rose, 1994). The paradox of rap also allows for rap to exist in the first place:

“…much of rap’s critical force grows out of the cultural potency that racially segregated conditions foster. However, the same segregated conditions, whether by choice or by design, have been instrumental in confining and oppressing African Americans” (Rose,

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1994, p. xiii). This tension is suitable for rhetorical research but not much has been done as, “There is a distinct paucity of research that looks at the rhetorical dimensions of

African American creative expressions…” (Cummings & Roy, 2002, p. 59) and rap music in particular needs more attention (Perkins, 1996). The association of rap research with anti-intellectualism has contributed to its historical marginalization (Akom, 2009).

Sulé (2016) also found that rap research could promote intercultural learning in higher education.

Furthermore, rap itself is a counter-hegemonic form of discourse that is often subordinated to whiter forms of music like country, pop, rock, and even white rap

(Aldridge, 2005; Calhoun, 2005). Rap is also inherently political and its continual challenging of white supremacy and the government leads to a more open criticism by the state than other less political forms of popular culture (Butler, 2002). The political and dialogic nature of rap has cemented itself as a touchstone in the Black community as it fundamentally shapes Black youth culture (Kitwana, 2002; Morrell & Duncan-Andrade,

2002) and “has given young Black males a primary avenue through which to access public space—something that they have long lacked” (Kitwana, 2002, p. 87). As a result, according to Kitwana (2002), Black youth culture has influenced mainstream popular culture. Because rap is such a dominant force in the communication of today’s youth, both white and Black, it is all the more vital for academics to incorporate it into their classrooms and studies (Morrell & Duncan-Andrade, 2002; Akom, 2009).

Much research has been done on earlier, more formative rappers such as Public

Enemy (Avorgbedor, 2009; Caplan, 2012; Danielson, 2008), Run-D.M.C. (Caplan, 2012;

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Wahl, 1999), and Tupac Shakur (Brown, 2005; Edwards, 2002; Howard, 1999; Iwamoto,

2003; Keeling, 1999), as well as Eminem (Calhoun, 2005; Dawkins, 2010; Thaller &

Messing, 2014; White, 2006), Jay-Z (Caplan, 2012; Neal, 2016; Perice, 2012; Rice,

2013), and Kanye West (Curry, 2014; Daws, 2007; Neal, 2016; Rice, 2013; Richardson,

2011). However, there is little research about younger, current rappers like Drake (Singh

& Tracy, 2015), Nicki Minaj (Schoppmeier, 2015; Smith, 2014), Childish Gambino and

Vince Staples. While there has been research done on Lamar (Dover & Pozdol, 2016;

Blum, 2016; Love, 2016; Fulton, 2015), this author could not find communication or rhetorical research done on Lamar or To Pimp a Butterfly.

This paper will answer the following research questions:

• How is Kendrick Lamar’s ideology revealed through To Pimp a Butterfly?

• How does Lamar’s ideology reflect this specific moment in time?

“I Remember you was Conflicted:” Limitations

The most notable limitation in this study is that I am white. This could provide some useful insights, as outsiders may sometimes be able to see things from a different perspective. Yet, while not every rapper is Black (Eminem and Macklemore are some famous exceptions), the medium was created for and by the Black community (Rose,

1994). Thus, it is important to acknowledge that the author of this study is looking from the outside in, and may have limited insights compared to a study conducted by a member of the community.

“Straight From the Bottom:” Method

Lamar is a socially and politically conscious rapper and, thus, it is important to

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choose the appropriate method to analyze his text. Rhetorical criticism is a qualitative approach to understand symbols as rhetorical artifacts (Foss, 2009) and is inherently political because of the way critics interrogate social constructions (Poulakos, 1987).

Rhetorical criticism serves an important function by determining the link between rhetorical artifacts and the outside world (Poulakos, 1987). In other words, texts do not exist in a bubble. In the case of To Pimp a Butterfly, this is especially important considering the real-life instances in which the music has functioned in real-world environments and referenced real-world environments.

Certainly, a rap album is not a traditional rhetorical artifact, but it is nonetheless worth studying. In fact, rap scholarship is important because rap as an art form is so easily dismissed by the white establishment (Howard, 1999). According to Rose (1994),

Even as rappers achieve what appears to be central status in commercial culture,

they are far more vulnerable to censorship efforts than highly visible white rock

artists, and they continue to experience the brunt of the plantation-like system

faced by most artists in the music and sports industries. (p. 3)

Thus, scholars must interrogate why some artifacts are deemed traditional or worthy in the first place. According to Sellnow (2013), “popular culture is comprised of the everyday objects, actions, and events that influence people to believe and behave in certain ways” (p. 3) and simply because these artifacts are so ubiquitous, they are important. Popular culture is rhetorical in that it communicates messages to audiences.

Additionally, music has long been used as a form of communication (Sellnow & Sellnow,

2001). Rappers like Lamar “…present an illusion of life, amplifying a particular

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perspective of a situation” (Sellnow & Sellnow, 2001, p. 399). Thus, To Pimp a Butterfly easily functions as a rhetorical artifact under Foss’s definition (2009) because it exists within the popular culture.

Additionally, an artifact must be regarded as “the ground of confrontation among social groups” (Poulakos, 1987, p. 39) due to the critic serving as an interrogator of the social constructs surrounding it. In the case of To Pimp a Butterfly, the groups in question are Black and white Americans. When discussing social issues such as race, or “…a cultural group’s perceptions about the way things are and assumptions about the way they ought to be” (Sellnow, 2013, p. 6) ideology is important to consider. In the case of To

Pimp a Butterfly, Lamar serves to bring these conflicting ideologies to light, showing the audience the differences in how Black and white Americans assume things ought to be.

This paper conducted a rhetorical criticism of To Pimp a Butterfly using an ideological framework. According to McGee (1980), “…ideology in practice is a political language, preserved in rhetorical documents, with the capacity to dictate decision and control public belief and behavior” (p. 5). Considering the inherent politics of Lamar’s work, the ideological framework is an appropriate method; ideological criticism interrogates existing power structures and the values and beliefs that go into maintaining them, particularly when considering issues such as race. According to Lipsitz (as cited in

Calhoun, 2005), “nearly every social choice that white people make is shaped by considerations involving race” (p. 272). These choices include economic decisions to

“…invest in whiteness, to remain true to an identity that provides them with resources, power, and opportunity” (Calhoun, 2005, p. 272). Thus, ideological criticism can be seen

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“as a means of critiquing Western culture itself” (Cyphert, 2001, p. 380). Because rap is a subordinated form of communication, it is a valuable artifact for ideological criticism as the framework allows for insight into values and beliefs that structure culture.

While McGee is just one of many scholars to contribute to the “development of ideological criticism in the communication field” (Foss, 2009), this paper will use

McGee’s ideograph as a unit of analysis. According to McGee (1980), words that have intrinsic, obvious meanings are known as ideographs, or “…the basic structural elements, the building blocks, of ideology” (p. 7). McGee argued that ideographs hold specific cultural and political beliefs for the speaker and audience (Cyphert, 2001). In colloquial terms, an ideograph might be known as a trigger word. Thus, I used ideographs as a unit of analysis to identify Lamar’s ideology. The ideographs were chosen based on the critical approach of personal interpretation of the data (Foss, 2009). In other words, another critic may find other ideographs in the artifact to be more salient. Because reality is a symbolic construction, ideographs are personally relative to every individual critic.

However, throughout the analysis, I justify and defend the relevance of the ideographs based on “frequency and intensity of use” (Britten, 2010, p. 357).

First, I contextually identify the ideographs within each song. Then, I explain and describe the particular rhetorical phenomenon within the artifact (McGee, 1980). Finally,

I analyze the function that the ideology serves (Foss, 2009). The criticism reveals the ideology or ideologies present within the artifact and how it reflects this moment in time.

“I Went Running for Answers:” Analysis

To Pimp a Butterfly chronicles the metamorphosis of its narrator, Kendrick

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Lamar, beginning as a caterpillar (living life in the ‘hood) and ending as a butterfly

(living as a successful rapper). The tension of leaving the cocoon (Lamar’s hometown of

Compton) forces Lamar to confront the cost of success and what will happen to his loved ones he has left behind. This analysis will go through every track on the album in chronological order as well as the official music videos that are available. Additionally, the analysis will explore the long-form poem that is revealed throughout the album.

Wesley’s Theory

The first song, “Wesley’s Theory,” started with a record scratch and the sample of

Boris Gardner’s “Every Nigga is a Star,” a thesis for the album (Lamar, Clinton, &

Thundercat, 2015). After the sample ended and the beat dropped, a deep voice foreshadowed the story of the album: “When the four corners of this cocoon collide, you’ll slip through the cracks hopin’ that you’ll survive. Gather your wit. Take a deep look inside. Are you really who they idolize? To pimp a butterfly” (Lamar, Clinton, &

Thundercat, 2015). Overall, this song was like a prologue in a novel and described what happened when someone who has lived in poverty comes into money, and how they can be “pimped” by those in power.

Throughout the first verse, Lamar rapped about all of the things he would do with his money when he got signed to a record contract. The second verse introduced the character of Uncle Sam and the role he played in the Black man’s financial success.

Lamar (as Uncle Sam) rapped, “What you want? A house or a car? Forty acres and a mule? A piano, a guitar? Anything, see my name is Uncle Sam, I’m your dog” (Lamar,

Clinton, & Thundercat, 2015). Throughout the album, Uncle Sam served as an ideograph,

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the meaning of which changed to inform the meaning in the given song. In “Wesley’s

Theory,” the ideograph of Uncle Sam represented the vivid, yet abstract, mythical idea of the American Dream. This could be seen in Uncle Sam’s promise of “forty acres and a mule,” the first proposed reparations to be given to former slaves during Reconstruction

(Gates, Jr., 2013). The song laid out the real difficulties Black people in poverty face when they attempt to escape it, and reflected Lamar’s ideology that Black people have been promised something by America, but denied it.

For Free? (Interlude)

The second song, “For free?” began with a saxophone and jazzy escalation and continued the economic discussion started in “Wesley’s Theory.” In the music video, the camera began in a tight shot of a man playing saxophone out a window then zoomed out to reveal essentially a live painting of the scene with Lamar and the woman in the front left and right respectively, and a white man in an Uncle Sam costume dead center. The ideograph of Uncle Sam was repeated, this time visually. The setting of the video appeared to be a beautiful California mansion.

After the title card, the conversation began as the woman paced around a balcony talking into a cellphone. The song was a conversation between Lamar and an unknown woman. The woman started the song off by basically telling Lamar he was unworthy because he did not have any money. Suddenly, Lamar appeared in a somewhat comical manner smashed up against the screen door to respond to her: “This dick ain’t free”

(Lamar, 2015e). He then appeared on the other side of the balcony and danced in.

The scene shifted. The woman was taking a bubble bath and he appeared in the

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bathroom to flash her. She looked bemused (Lamar, 2015e). The scene shifted again. She did dishes at the kitchen sink. He threw the windows open and pushed his head through to rap at her, “Hell fuckin’ naw” (Lamar, 2015e). As it escalated, she became more flustered and frightened. There were then quick flashes of African statues in close-up. As she walked past one, it turned into Lamar who rapped again, “This dick ain’t free”

(Lamar, 2015e). This visual ideograph showed the diunital orientation present in Lamar, a Black man, and his African past. “A diunital orientation is the result of the African worldview's emphasis on harmony, where complementary opposites are interdependent and function dynamically to create a unified reality” (Brown, 2005, p. 562). The diunital orientation means that Black people are more likely to view the world as coexisting dichotomies at once rather than in absolutes. For example, the world can be both good and bad, not just one or the other. In this case, Lamar worked to reunite pieces of himself that have long been disconnected and disjointed due to white supremacy.

Lamar then jumped off the statue base to walk behind her and say, “I need 40 acres and a mule, not a 40 ounce and a pit bull, bull shit” (Lamar, 2015e). This repeated phrase from “Wesley’s Theory” echoed the ideological sentiment that American society has denied something it owes to Black citizens. He continued to chase her around the property until she found him shoveling coal dressed as Uncle Sam. She retreated, but he followed her in a Willy Wonka-esque sequence with flashing montage juxtapositions of his smiling Uncle Sam face with stereotypical imagery of slave figurines, Sambo dolls, and monkeys. These visual ideographs served to align Uncle Sam with the racist imagery of Sambo dolls and monkeys, arguing that America is truly racist.

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On a literal level, the song was about a man refusing to be taken advantage of for his status and money in a relationship with a woman. On a deeper level, which was clearly represented in the video with a visual ideograph of Lamar dressed as Uncle Sam, the song was about what has been denied to Black people throughout history. The woman represented America’s continued ignorance and lack of respect for Black men. One of the last lines of the song was, “Oh America, you bad bitch, I picked your cotton and made you rich, now my dick ain’t free” (Lamar, 2015d). Lamar used the ideograph of Uncle

Sam, turning it on its head, to stand up for himself, and symbolically, for other Black people, by refusing to continue the legacy of slavery.

King Kunta

At its simplest, this is a classic rap “diss track” where the rapper showed how much better he was than all the other rappers out there. Lamar used the chorus to establish his authority and credibility on multiple levels: “Now I run the game got the whole world talkin’, King Kunta. Everybody wanna cut the legs off him” (Lamar, 2015j).

The song powerfully resonated for several reasons, most of which was the primary ideograph of Kunta. In the book Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley, the slave Kunta Kinte’s foot was cut off after he tried to escape from his owners (1974).

In Lamar’s own words, “King Kunta” is about, “…taking that negativity and being proud of it and making it to your own. Saying I am a king no matter what you call me” (Markman, 2015a, para. 5). By ascribing the title of King to the ideograph of Kunta,

Lamar showed that even though he was imprisoned by slavery, Kunta’s African heritage could not be denied. Furthermore, this held an ideological mirror up to today’s society by

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showing that while slavery is no longer legal, many people today are still enslaved.

Lamar accomplished this by functioning as King Kunta within the song. The phrase and ideograph King Kunta doubled as a way to elevate his status within the rap game while also elevating the mythical status of Kunta Kinte, who represented all slaves, to a king.

Just when Lamar started to be successful, society tried to cut the legs off him, which was further discussed in “Institutionalized.”

The video for “King Kunta” was not particularly narrative but reflected Lamar’s desire to show his neighborhood to the world and close the gap between his community and the rest of society, further exemplifying his ideological view of empathy and understanding. The video was set in Compton and mostly consisted of his friends and neighborhood dancing, driving around, and partying in the Compton streets. They even had a house party where pictures of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Barack

Obama hung next to each other on the wall (Lamar, 2015k). This further emphasized

Lamar’s passion for authenticity and connecting his neighborhood and his Blackness to his music career.

The first line of the long-form poem is revealed at the end of “King Kunta:” “I remember you was conflicted, misusing your influence” (Lamar, 2015j). This line explained the setting and worldview of Lamar at this point in the album. He identified a young man who was not living up to his potential and saw more. This theme was further explored in “Institutionalized.”

Institutionalized

“Institutionalized” was, in short, about the systems that keep people down.

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Throughout this song, and the album, institutionalized functioned as an ideograph. As an adjective, it described the state of someone. But institutionalized also sounded like institutional lies. Lamar played with the changing ideographical meanings throughout the album as he attempted to explain why people could not or did not know how to escape the systems that kept them in poverty with the line: “I’m trapped inside the ghetto and I ain’t proud to admit. Institutionalized, I keep running back for a visit” (Lamar, Smith,

Halldin, & Barsh, 2015). The chorus of the song, “Master, take the chains off me!”

(Lamar, Smith, Halldin, & Barsh, 2015), furthered the power of the ideograph as Lamar compared social constraints like lack of education and mounting financial pressures

(Kitwana, 2002) to modern-day slavery.

The song was overall about how difficult it is to get out of the lifestyle once someone was already in it. Even then, there were other mechanisms in place to metaphorically and sometimes literally imprison Black people due to the institutional lies in society at large. Additionally, the mindset of Lamar and his community was also institutionalizing them and holding them back from fully transforming themselves and leaving the walls of Compton.

These Walls

A bit more of the poem was revealed at the beginning of “These Walls:” “I remember you was conflicted, misusing your influence. Sometimes I did the same”

(Lamar, Bilal, Dogg, & Wise, 2015). By adding to the previous line, Lamar recontextualized his earlier statement, turning an introspective testimony into a dialogue.

He explored this interpersonal conflict throughout “These Walls.” While some of the

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song and video could be read as misogynistic, it is important to note that it took place before Lamar’s transformation that occurs throughout the latter half of the album.

The music video began with the title “Behind the Walls: A Black Comedy” and a short vignette of Black men in prison (Lamar, 2015o). One of them told the story of how another prisoner ended up behind bars. As he talked, the video transitioned into the song, which is a flashback. “These Walls” started out with snaps, moaning, and a section of the overarching poem from the album: “I remember you was conflicted, misusing your influence. Sometimes I did the same” (Lamar, Bilal, Dogg, & Wise, 2015). The song was closer to a ‘90s R&B song in theme and style, reflecting on the way a couple uses each other for better or worse. Lamar was also earlier in his journey at this point in the album and was mostly using women for sex rather than recognizing them as unique individuals.

The camera did one long take of a motel party. People were drinking, dancing, doing drugs, and Lamar, who is clearly in a different form than we have seen him before, was shooting a sex tape. After he was interrupted (by a wall literally falling down), he meets up with his crew (one of whom is Terry Crews) to plan a job. However, it was not a robbery or drug deal. Lamar and Crews perform in a talent show, perhaps representing modern day minstrelsy and the acts that Black people put on to get by in life.

After this, the video cut back to the narrator. He hit a police car as he arrived at the party where Lamar has returned. Everyone was having a great time until the police showed up to arrest the narrator. The video ended with him starting to have dug a tiny hole from his cell, but he was still literally imprisoned, and so was Lamar metaphorically

(Lamar, 2015o).

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In the video, walls were a visual ideograph, closing people in and inhibiting their futures, whether or not they are in jail. In the song, walls also functioned as an ideograph.

Lamar drew a comparison to prison, both literally and metaphorically. “Wall telling you that commissary is low. Race wars happening no calling C.O. No calling your mother to save you, homies to say you’re reputable, not acceptable” (Lamar, Bilal, Dogg, & Wise,

2015). This described literally the experience of being in a prison, but also the feeling of being trapped by circumstances in life.

“These Walls” also ends with the poem, revealing more lines that set up the next track: “I remember you was conflicted, misusing your influence. Sometimes I did the same. Abusing my power, full of resentment. Resentment that turned into a deep depression. Found myself screaming in a hotel room” (Lamar, Bilal, Dogg, & Wise,

2015). Lamar earlier used the poem to recognize his feelings of internal conflict were universal, but then turned the lens back on himself once again. His self-hatred and inner turmoil is expressed in these lines and investigated in “u.” u

Throughout “u,” Lamar spoke to himself, venting his frustrations, hatred, and shame based on experiences he has had. According to Lamar (as cited in Hale, 2016), “I was making a transition from the lifestyle that I lived before to the one I have now. When you're onstage rapping and all these people are cheering for you, you actually feel like you're saving lives. But you aren't saving lives back home. It made me question if I am in the right place spreading my voice” (para. 27). These thoughts fueled the inspiration for

“u.” You functioned as an ideograph within the song as Lamar channeled his own

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emotions and anger toward himself, and also what he believed his friends and family felt about him. The song began with Lamar screaming over a building jazz interlude before going into the main hook of the song: “Loving you is complicated” (Lamar, 2015p).

Again, Lamar used the ideograph of you to both speak to himself and speak as his friends and family.

The next interlude was a “skit” with a woman speaking Spanish, knocking on a hotel room door saying, “Housekeeping.” This provided a clear setting for the song where Lamar had locked himself in a hotel room and is drunk and suicidal, refusing to leave the room despite outside interactions. This was also depicted in the “God is

Gangsta” video. The camera was jittery with frequent jump cuts as Lamar drank and screamed in a small room full of mirrors and liquor bottles, forcing himself to reflect on what had happened. The mirrors in the room reflected the visual ideograph of you, forcing Lamar’s inner demons to come to light (Lamar, 2016). The mirrors exemplify how Lamar was haunted by his past as he reckoned with his burgeoning fame.

Lamar’s vocal quality changed throughout the song. He began the song in his

“normal” rap voice. After the housekeeping interlude, Lamar’s voice became much more craggy, frequently breaking. It sounded like a different person entirely, or like he had been screaming and crying. Throughout the verses with this voice, the clink of the glass liquor bottle and Lamar swallowing the alcohol was present.

The main issue Lamar dealt with in the song was the burden of leaving his home while becoming a far-reaching inspirational figure. This conflict is something Lamar grapples with throughout all of To Pimp a Butterfly. In the song, Lamar used the

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ideograph of you to channel his community’s outrage at him and also to his own self- hatred. “You ain’t no brother, you ain’t no disciple, you ain’t no friend. A friend never leave Compton for profit, or leave his best friend little brother. You promised you’d watch him before they shot him” (Lamar, 2015p). Here, Lamar reckoned with the true event in his life of a friend dying while he was on tour. Because he left Compton, and his loved ones, Lamar questioned his integrity and identity.

Additionally, Lamar was explicitly suicidal in the song, rapping, “Shoulda killed yo ass a long time ago” (Lamar, 2015p). The song importantly depicted multiple aspects of Black male identity. While stereotypically, Black men who lived in “the ghetto” and were in gangs appeared to love what they were doing, they also had to face the consequences of their actions. Lamar did just this, using the ideograph of you to reflect his ideology of empowering his audience by letting them know that emotion was normal and necessary.

Alright

Perhaps the most relevant song off the album, “Alright” also provided an encapsulation of Lamar’s ideology in a few lines with the repeated ideograph of alright:

“Alls my life I has to fight, nigga…But if God got us then we gon’ be alright” (Lamar,

2015a). This was the simple, yet protesting refrain of “Alright” that Pharell repeated throughout the song, “We gon’ be alright. Do you hear me? Do you feel me? We gon’ be alright” (Lamar, 2015a). In its simplest terms, the song was about hope in the face of ongoing, daily despair for the Black community.

Lamar took it a step further, though, by contextualizing it in the world of ever-

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relevant police killings of Black Americans through the bridge of “Alright:”

Wouldn’t you know we been hurt, been down before, nigga, when our pride was

low, lookin’ at the world like where do we go, nigga, and we hate po-po wanna

kill us dead in the street fo sho’, nigga, I’m at the preacher’s door, my knees

gettin’ weak and my gun might blow but we gon’ be alright. (Lamar, 2015a)

While police brutality was a significant issue with the Black Lives Matter movement,

“…it has a long history in Black communities…police brutality serves as a constant reminder of the days of Black enslavement in America” and is a defining characteristic and theme in rap music as a result (Kitwana, 2002, p. 39). Lamar reminded his listeners that this was not the first time that Black people have been put through pain and oppression in this society. Slavery and Jim Crow were also despairing times when Black people might have felt there was no way out or looked “at the world like where do we go” (Lamar, 2015a). Systematic and institutionalized oppression and racism trapped people and could lead them to pursue behaviors they may not otherwise in a free society, yet they still look for a way out in their community, symbolized by Lamar’s line about knocking on the preacher’s door with a gun in his hand. Yet, despite all of this, “we gon’ be alright” (Lamar, 2015a). The fight must carry on and would as it had for centuries.

Lamar’s ideology of empowerment may have been reflected best through the ideograph of alright.

The music video was in black and white and had a short introduction before the song played. The black and white photography could be interpreted in a literal sense to highlight the distinctions between Black and white culture as depicted in the video. From

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a filmic perspective, though, it looked more cinematic and allowed the day-to-day experiences of these people to be elevated and perhaps better understood through art.

This further emphasizes Lamar’s ideology of using rap to educate and empower.

Next, there were shots of a city and bits and pieces of “u,” played like screams and “Loving you is complicated” (Lamar, 2015b). The first minute of the video was shot such that we were led to believe that what was shown was a day in the life of this city— from skyscrapers to a steamboat on the water; from a small Black boy laying seemingly dead on the ground to kids riding their bicycles. What may seem sad and gruesome was simply normal. As the images played, Lamar read a bit of the poem from the album. As he said, “Resentment that turned into a deep depression,” there were shots of a helicopter flying overhead and a police officer getting out of his car (Lamar, 2015b). The police functioned as an ideograph visually in the music video and also in the song. The ideograph of police served to show how systemic and integrated police brutality was in this community. As Lamar said, “Lucifer was all around me,” a woman looked up, her mascara streaked, wiping her face, and there was a quick shot of a church (Lamar,

2015b). Lucifer also functioned as an ideograph throughout the album as Lamar sought to warn his listeners of the devil and compare his circumstances to hell itself. In short, these were snapshots of people “fighting a war” day in and day out.

Then, there was a montage of a riot or protest of what looked like a gang, throwing liquor bottles against a wall, lighting cars on fire, breaking glass, and money flying through the air while Lamar said, “I was trying to convince myself of the stripes I got” (Lamar, 2015b). A small child in a hoodie threw his hand at the camera while Lamar

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said, “Making myself realize what my foundation was” (Lamar, 2015b). These visual ideographs served Lamar’s ideological purpose to educate his audience about what life in his community was like. The final sequence of the introduction of the song showed a man resisting arrest and running from police only to be shot. The bullet exited the gun in slow motion. As these images played, Lamar’s voice said, “But while my loved ones was fighting a continuous war back in the city, I was entering a new one, a war that was based on apartheid and discrimination” (Lamar, 2015b). By combining the poem and visual elements, Lamar displayed his ideological values to educate those outside of the Black community. A white viewer may be more likely to understand what life is like in the community depicted in the video and be more empathetic.

After a brief title card, the video cut to a sequence of Lamar and his friends in a car joyriding through their neighborhood. The camera zoomed out and revealed that four police officers are carrying the car. This image could be read several ways, but one possible reading was that because the white male police officers were carrying the car, they control the literal direction the car was going in, and thus, the fate of the men inside the car. Even when Lamar and his friends were having a brief moment of freedom and joy, they were still hindered by fear and control of the police.

The screen faded to black and the song “Alright” began to play. Lamar was driving the car again as he rapped the opening line of “Alright”: “All’s my life I has to fight, nigga” (Lamar, 2015b). He was clearly addressing his community, a moment of solidarity and understanding. However, this line again also served as an ideological tool of education by enlightening white audiences with regard to his lifelong struggle to

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simply survive. The child from the introduction was with him throwing cash out the window. There were more shots of the city throughout and we saw glimpses of feet floating off the ground.

For the chorus in the video, there were three of Lamar’s friends dancing on a police car as he and the child drove around it. The next image was particularly powerful—Lamar was literally flying. He ran and glided through the air as he rapped, a symbol that he could rise above the oppressive cages society had trapped him in. Like other elements of To Pimp a Butterfly, he worked to bring his community with him throughout the video. A smiling man below reached up for him, trying to touch him so he might fly, too. This imagery also tied into some of the heroic and religious ideographs explored later in the album of Lamar imagining himself as today’s Nelson Mandela and conversing with God. As the first verse started, Lamar and a huge group of people (his community) behind him rapped and danced together. All of this was in stark contrast to the bleak opening of the video. As the song noted, despite everything, this community would thrive and have joy (Lamar, 2015b).

The next few sequences were joyful, cutting between: the car Lamar and the child were in driving around the police car on the roof, which now also had a speaker stack that people danced in front of; Lamar flying through the streets; Lamar rapping and dancing with his community on the street; and people generally hanging out and having fun.

Notably, someone danced wearing a shirt that says “100% Real Negus” which tied into

Lamar’s spoken-word sermon on “i” later on the album (Lamar, 2015b).

Additionally, the second verse of “Alright” mirrored the same ideas in “Wesley’s

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Theory,” but were voiced by Lucy (i.e. Lucifer, the Devil) rather than Uncle Sam, though to Lamar, the two might as well be synonymous. In “Alright,” Lamar (as Lucy) once again rapped, “What you want you? A house or a car? Forty acres and a mule? A piano, a guitar? Anything, see my name is Lucy, I’m your dog” (Lamar, 2015a). This repetition revealed Lamar’s ideological belief that Uncle Sam and Lucifer are in fact the same.

However, unlike “Wesley’s Theory,” in “Alright” Lamar could “see the evil”

(Lamar, 2015a). He was fully aware of the double standards and injustices at his feet and all around him. In the video, he literally rose above his circumstances as he flew through the streets. He acknowledged that though he may be working within a corrupt system, he was aware of Lucifer and thus more able to fight evil and would use rap to do so. “I rap, I

Black so rest assured, my rights, my wrongs, I write till I’m right with God” (Lamar,

2015a). In other words, Lamar would rap until he has made things right, for himself and those around him.

As the song climaxed in the video, Lamar flew onto a traffic light to rap above the traffic. Young children in white shirts and jeans ran through a park and rode their bicycles. Despite the oppression, people were allowed to feel free and express themselves. There was purity and freedom in the human experience and all were happy.

For the last verse of the video, Lamar stood on a streetlamp in the park where the children played. The setting appeared to be a bit more remote, but the city was visible behind him. A police officer approached and got out of his car with a shotgun, but simply made a gun gesture with his finger at Lamar. The police officer “shot” Lamar with his hand. He fell in slow motion off the post, repeating the poem from the beginning of the

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video. This again emphasized the ideograph of police, showing they are the enemy for needlessly and easily ending Lamar’s life. As he hit the ground, the screen cut to black, then showed a close up of his face. Lamar briefly smiled and opened his eyes. Even in

“death” he could still experience joy (Lamar, 2015b). The end of the song revealed a more united Lamar who sang, “Loving me is complicated” (Lamar, 2015a). While just one track before, he was talking to himself as “you,” in “Alright,” he said “me.” This showed he had fully embraced his inner diunital orientation, complicated and flawed, and was ready to confront everything head on.

While a bit of the poem is revealed in the opening of the music video, in the song, it is not recited again until the end.

I remember you was conflicted, misusing your influence. Sometimes I did the

same. Abusing my power, full of resentment. Resentment that turned into a deep

depression. Found myself screaming in the hotel room. Didn’t wanna self-

destruct. The evils of Lucy was all around me. So I went runnin’ for answers.

(Lamar, 2015a)

This section of the poem clearly marked a new chapter in Lamar’s journey. He was no longer a caterpillar trapped in his environment. He was beginning to transform into a butterfly and ready to change.

For Sale? (Interlude)

The ideograph of Lucifer returned again as a recounting of how Lucy seduced

Lamar. “For Sale?” was a conversation between he and Lucy, almost like a love song. For example, Lamar referred to Lucy as “baby.” Lucy made promises to him of wealth and

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security in exchange for “trust and loyalty” (Lamar, 2015f). The music sounded dreamlike and spellbinding. In the “God is Gangsta” video, this portion cut between two sequences—Lamar being baptized and Lamar walking entranced through a party. Words flashed on the screen too quickly to read them upon first glance. Some examples included: “If I blame you for a loss, I’ll be giving you all the credit;” “Time is change.

Your friend or foe.” “Tracee Ellis Ross is vibrant” (Lamar, 2016). Many of these quotations were ideographs that represented and signified the Black community. For example, Tracee Ellis Ross is the daughter of Diana Ross and stars on the landmark sitcom Black-ish. These ideas also represented the themes of the album, such as Lamar’s reckoning with his past.

The visual juxtaposition represented the choices Lamar made to leave Lucifer behind and move forward (spiritually and otherwise) in his journey. As the video neared its end, Lamar stood on a bridge at night by himself and walked alone. He was at peace.

This internal resolution allowed Lamar to bring new messages to his community.

The song also ended with more of the poem:

“I remember you was conflicted, misusing your influence. Sometimes I did the

same. Abusing my power, full of resentment. Resentment that turned into a deep

depression. Found myself screaming in the hotel room. I didn’t wanna self-

destruct. The evils of Lucy was all around me. So I went runnin’ for answers.

Until I came home” (Lamar, 2015f)

This section of the poem reiterates Lamar’s return to and embrace of his community, as noted in the next song, “Momma.”

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Momma

Before recording To Pimp a Butterfly, Lamar traveled to South Africa in 2014, a visit that impacted much of the album (Hale, 2014). “Momma” spoke more explicitly about this journey, both literally and metaphorically. The first verse reflected on how far he came in his rap career: “Now I can live in a stadium pack it the fastest” (Lamar,

2015l). However, this verse also showed where rap took him. As a kid in Compton, he never had the financial capabilities or opportunities to travel and see the world.

Throughout this song, Lamar expressed gratitude for his status, career, and rap itself:

“Thank God for rap…it brought me back home” (Lamar, 2015l). Home also served as an ideograph with two meanings in this song: Compton and Africa. At the end of the first verse, he was thankful for the resources his rap career gave him to visit Africa and also to be able to return to Compton.

The second verse expressed how much knowledge he gained as a result of his lived experiences. The hook of the song was a chorus of voices singing, “We been waitin’ for you, waitin’ for you, waitin’ for you, waitin’ for you” (Lamar, 2015l). The chorus of voices was his ancestors in Africa as well as his loved ones in Compton who he had to leave to start his career, an implicit repetition of the ideograph home; the chorus recalled home in Compton and Africa. By the end of “Momma,” Lamar was fully ready to embrace his role as a leader in the community and to educate and empower his peers.

Hood Politics

Like the skit in “u,” “Hood Politics” started out with a voicemail from a friend back home to provide a setting for the song. Presumably, this call prompted Lamar to

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muse on his time in Compton. Mostly, he provided a description of “hood politics” quite literally, or what the rules of the street were when he was king. Lamar also used this song to establish credibility and authority again, reminding his audience that he was “A-1” while everyone else was “boo boo” (Lamar, 2015g). In other words, he was the best while everyone else was the worst.

Perhaps the most intriguing section of the song dealt with Lamar’s ideographic comparison of Compton to the federal government, comparing the notorious gangs

Bloods and Crips to the Democratic and Republican Parties. “From Compton to

Congress, set trippin’ all around. Ain’t nothin’ new, but a flu of Demo-Crips and Re-

Blood-icans” (Lamar, 2015g). Through the ideographs of Demo-Crips and Re-Blood- icans, Lamar showed the similarities between Compton and the white establishment.

These ideographs were reminiscent of his earlier comparison of Uncle Sam and Lucy, serving to draw the groups closer together by forging bonds through identified similarities.

As the album continued, Lamar overtly explored more complex themes. This could be seen with the further unraveling of the poem at the end of “Hood Politics:”

I remember you was conflicted, misusing your influence. Sometimes I did the

same. Abusing my power, full of resentment. Resentment that turned into a deep

depression. Found myself screaming in the hotel room. Didn’t wanna self-

destruct. The evils of Lucy was all round me. So I went runnin’ for answers. Until

I came home. But that didn’t stop survivor’s guilt. Going back and forth trying to

convince myself the stripes I earned. Or maybe how A-1 my foundation was. But

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while my loved ones was fighting a continuous war back in the city, I was

entering a new one. (Lamar, 2015g)

Lamar used this portion of the poem to set up the rest of the album, clearly noting his

“survivor’s guilt” due to his newfound fame and the consequent “war” he faced. Lamar began to discuss these ideas in “How Much a Dollar Cost.”

How Much a Dollar Cost2

This song drew on an experience Lamar had with a homeless man outside a South

African gas station. The homeless man asked Lamar for a dollar and Lamar was outraged, insisting the man was on drugs and would simply use the money for his addiction. In turn, the homeless man became angry at Lamar and they stared at each other until the homeless man quoted Exodus 14 to him, a Bible verse about Moses parting the red sea.

He also said, “A humble man is all that we ever need. Tell me how much a dollar cost”

(Lamar, 2015h). The ideograph of cost forced Lamar to reckon with the true price of his fame and fortune. Essentially, the homeless man was asking Lamar to give him one small thing in exchange for Lamar humbling himself and Lamar was unable to do it.

After this exchange, Lamar began to feel guilty rather than angry. “Guilt trippin’ and feelin’ resentment. I never met a transient that demanded attention. They got me frustrated, indecisive and power trippin’. Sour emotions got me lookin’ at the universe different” (Lamar, 2015h). At this point, the homeless man forced Lamar to reevaluate his position and status. Lamar decided that his selfishness had helped him achieve his career. While he felt uncomfortable, he still thought the homeless man was an addict and

2 Incidentally, this was President Obama’s favorite song of 2015 (McAfee and Westerfall, 2015).

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that giving him money would only feed his habit, but acknowledged that this position was shortsighted and “lacks empathy” (Lamar, 2015h). The final exchange of the song fully displayed this lack of humility and grace:

He looked at me and said ‘Your potential is bittersweet.’ I looked at him and said

‘Every nickel is mines to keep.’ He looked at me and said, ‘Know the truth it’ll

set you free. You’re lookin’ at the Messiah, the son of Jehovah, the higher power,

the choir that spoke the word the Holy Spirit, the nerve of Nazareth, and I’ll tell

you just how much a dollar cost, the price of having a spot in Heaven, imburse

your loss, I am God. (Lamar, 2015h)

While this could be interpreted literally, that the homeless man was God and that Lamar failed a test to get into heaven, the song could be interpreted metaphorically as Lamar stating that grace should be extended to everyone as though they were God, further emphasizing Lamar’s ideological belief that all should extend empathy to those around them. In this case, the ideograph of cost showed Lamar’s ideology of empathy. A dollar bill is small enough to a successful rapper and meaningful enough to a homeless person that he should be willing to extend it to anyone who needs it and humble himself.

Complexion (A Zulu Love)

Through this song, Lamar touched on perhaps the most visibly explicit aspect of

Black identity, skin color. According to Lamar (as cited in Hale, 2016), “There's a separation between the light and the dark skin because it's just in our nature to do so, but we're all black [sic]. This concept came from South Africa and I saw all these different colors speaking a beautiful language” (para. 18). Due to his ideology behind the song,

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complexion functioned as a reclamatory ideograph within it. While complexion was all about skin color, and had been used to divide people, “Complexion don’t mean a thing”

(Lamar, 2015c). The song was somewhat structured as a love song from Lamar to an imaginary girl, but also to his community.

Sneak me through the back window, I’m a good field nigga. I made a flower out

of cotton just to chill with you. You know I’d go the distance. You know I’m ten

toes down. Even if master listenin’, cover your ears, he ‘bout to mention,

complexion. (Lamar, 2015c)

Using the allusion of slavery, Lamar described the ways that Black people have been divided based on their skin color and station. According to Malcolm X (1963), a field

Negro would have been the type of slave to have actively resisted and resented slavery in contrast to the house Negro who was more like the Uncle Tom archetype. House Negroes were also typically light skinned while the fieldwork was delegated to darker skinned slaves. This division produced centuries of self-hatred and division (Cannick, 2007).

Thus, Lamar painted imagery of a slave who was asking his lover to resist his master’s tools of oppression through a class system of complexion. Overall, the song was celebratory and about loving not only one’s self but others for the way they look and are.

The Blacker the Berry

In contrast to “Complexion,” “The Blacker the Berry” was about internalized hatred within Lamar himself, but also within the Black community. Throughout the album, Lamar preached self-love, yet expressed self-hatred, a recurring theme in both hip hop and the Black experience (Dagbovie, 2005). This opposition reinforced Lamar’s

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exploration and embrace of the diunital orientation. The music was suspenseful and contained heavy drumbeats throughout. Lamar’s voice was deeper and angrier than in most of the other tracks. Throughout the track, Lamar pointed out long-held stereotypes about Black people, and Black men in particular, including physical aspects. Speaking to white oppressors, Lamar yelled, “You hate me don’t you? You hate my people. Your plan is to terminate my culture” (Lamar, 2015n). Lamar also stated that while society hated him for these reasons, he was nonetheless “a proud monkey” (Lamar, 2015n), evoking and reclaiming an old and common racist label. Lamar showed that these stereotypes were used to oppress and erase Black culture: “I mean it’s evident that I’m irrelevant to society” (Lamar, 2015n). However, Lamar argued that his culture could never be erased as long as the community fought and spoke out for themselves. By confronting his oppressors, Lamar allowed his community to be empowered. In this song, he stood as a leader and representative for the Black community, while acknowledging that he himself is inconsistent.

Each verse opened with the line “I’m the biggest hypocrite of 2015” (Lamar,

2015n) a thesis statement for the song, with hypocrite functioning as an ideograph in the song. While the song defied the hatred and oppression Black people face from white society, Lamar also faced his own hypocrisy. The last few lines of the song, noted significant with the end of the drumbeats, looped back to the thesis statement of the song.

So don’t matter how much I say I like to preach with the Panthers, or tell Georgia

State ‘Marcus Garvey got all the answers,’ or try to celebrate February like its my

b-day, or eat watermelon, chicken, and Kool-Aid on weekdays, or jump high

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enough to get Michael Jordan endorsements, or watch BET ‘cause urban support

is important. So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street when

gang banging made me kill a nigga Blacker than me? Hypocrite! (Lamar, 2015n)

With these lines, Lamar somewhat undid the entire song. While he preached pride, he revealed his own self-hatred. Further reinforcing the rhetorical impact of Lamar’s words,

Pulitzer-prize winning author Michael Chabon annotated these lines, stating,

This revelation forces the listener to a deeper and broader understanding of the

song’s ‘you,’ and to consider the possibility that ‘hypocrisy’ is, in certain

situations, a much more complicated moral position than is generally allowed, and

perhaps an inevitable one. (Genius, 2015b)

It should also be noted that Lamar was forced to answer for these lines by critics who thought he was blaming gun violence and Black-on-Black violence on the community via respectability politics, the idea that if Black people would simply behave better, they would be treated better (Young, 2016). However, Lamar countered that he was not calling the Black community hypocritical, but instead speaking to himself while talking about a real experience he lived through, using music as catharsis (Markman, 2015b).

Lamar’s ideological embrace of hyprocrisy may have also empowered others to also embrace their own catharsis, too.

You Ain’t Gotta Lie (Momma Said)

Throughout the song, Lamar essentially offered advice to those who may “front”:

“You ain’t gotta lie to kick it my nigga. You ain’t gotta try so hard” (Lamar, 2015q).

Lamar argued that if one could simply show what they have to offer instead of working

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so hard to impress him, they would get further. This is another song that established

Lamar’s credibility and authority as a leader in his community. People tried to impress him, but Lamar wanted people to be themselves. Additionally, the song showed that

Lamar was coming into his role as a leader, encouraging his community to embrace their own diunital orientation by speaking less and listening more in order to turn inward. i

The version of the song on the album was recorded as a live track. It began with someone testing the mic and introducing Lamar. The music was funky and celebratory, appropriate for a song that was very literally about self-love. I functioned as an ideograph within this song, serving to allow Lamar to speak for himself and his audience. Lamar’s first verse started with, “I done been through a whole lot, trial, tribulation, but I know

God” (Lamar, 2015i). As he neared the end of his journey, Lamar looked back on his transformation. Despite everything, he still had God and had grown to love himself. The hook of the song was a repeated chorus of, “I love myself” (Lamar, 2015i). The song acknowledged the reality that both Lamar and his community faced, though. The first line of the third verse repeated a major theme of the album: “I went to war last night” (Lamar,

2015i).

After that verse, the music slowly dropped as the noises of the crowd overwhelmed the performance. Sounds of a fight began to emerge. Lamar then took the mic back saying, “Not on my time. Kill the music” (Lamar, 2015i). He redirected their attention by asking them how many people died that year alone, then responding,

“Exactly. So we ain’t got time to waste…” (Lamar, 2015i). The rest of the song was an a

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capella spoken word sermon to his audience and community about the “n-word.” Lamar dedicated the verse to Oprah who has said multiple times that the colloquial use of the n- word reflects poorly on the Black community as a whole (The Critical Media Project,

2013). He then presented an alternate perspective: “N-E-G-U-S definition: royalty; King royalty; wait, listen. N-E-G-U-S description: Black emperor, king, ruler” (Lamar, 2015i).

The word Negus indeed originated from the Ethiopian name for King before it was distorted into a term of oppression and hate. According to Shifferaw (2016), Lamar’s argument, and the album as a whole, presented a needed unity between African

Americans and Africa, “…that is not only possible but necessary for our collective fight for our humanity, justice, and liberation” (para. 29). Aldridge (2005) also argued that rap has the unique ability to achieve this unity. By offering an alternate history, Lamar did not shame anyone’s language choices but simply empowered his community further and showed another way in which society has oppressed the Black community through language, reifying the song’s message of self-love.

The opening of the video moved through a club. People were dancing and talking.

A woman twists Lamar’s hair. A fight broke out and someone pulled the plug on the music and a man in a white suit, possibly a preacher, shouted down the fight (similar to what happened at the end of the track on the album). “i” then began as Lamar stood up, started singing and dancing as he made his way out of the club and onto the nighttime streets.

As he moved through the neighborhood, more people began to join with him and dance. They passed a man drinking by himself, a homeless camp, a man being arrested, a

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man beating his wife, and a man about to shoot himself, who hesitated as he saw the crowd go past his window. Despite all this, as Lamar said, “I still smile,” and the crowd simply grew bigger until they reached a rooftop to all dance and party together (Lamar,

2014). Visually, the ideograph of I was reinforced as both Lamar and his audience smiled together. Once Lamar brought them to the roof, he snuck away and got into a car with someone who drove him through the streets. He hung out the window and rapped, “I went to war last night” (Lamar, 2014). His eyes were completely black, perhaps a visual representation of his Blackness, and the effects of his journey on his soul. He let his arms and head lull out of the window and felt the air. After everything he had faced, he could fight evil for his community and still feel free. He got out of the car and danced by himself (Lamar, 2014).

Mortal Man

To Pimp a Butterfly culminated in Lamar accepting his place as a leader, albeit with some reticence. Overall, he wanted the role of being his generation’s Nelson

Mandela, but questioned whether his followers would stick with him through everything.

The main hook of the song laid out his hopes and concerns: “The ghost of Mandela, hope my flows stay propellin’. Let these words be your earth and moon you consume every message. As I lead this army, make room for mistakes and depression” (Lamar, 2015m).

He simultaneously asked for his followers’ devotion and patience. With the ideograph of

Nelson Mandela, Lamar sought to unite his own identity as a leader with that of

Mandela’s in his community’s mind. When rappers speak of oppression and offer

“…solutions to these conditions by invoking the name of God, truth, history, or the

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ancestors” (Cummings & Roy, 2002, p. 70) they use the rhetorical device of mythication.

In “Mortal Man,” Lamar offered Mandela as a mythical ideograph whose modern day heir is Lamar.

Throughout the song, Lamar vacillated from being skeptical of his followers’ devotion to comparing himself to Nelson Mandela: “Want you to love me like Nelson, want you to hug me like Nelson. I freed you from being a slave in your mind, you’re very welcome” (Lamar, 2015m). Again invoking the Nelson Mandela ideograph, Lamar thought of himself as a socially and politically conscious rapper who had the ability to make change for his generation, but was unsure they would follow along.

This was further expressed in the second half of the song, when he first said the entire poem that had been slowly revealed throughout the album. Small pieces of the poem were slowly revealed throughout the album. More and more lines were read until the final track:

I remember you was conflicted, misusing your influence. Sometimes I did the

same. Abusing my power, full of resentment. Resentment that turned into a deep

depression. Found myself screaming in the hotel room. Didn’t wanna self-

destruct. The evils of Lucy was all around me. So I went runnin’ for answers.

Until I came home. But that didn’t stop survivor’s guilt. Going back and forth

trying to convince myself the stripes I earned. Or maybe how A-1 my foundation

was. But while my loved ones was fighting the continuous war back in the city, I

was entering a new one. A war that was based on apartheid and discrimination.

Made me wanna go back to the city and tell the homies what I learned. The word

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was respect. Just because you wore a different gang color than mine’s doesn’t

mean I can’t respect you as a Black man. Forgetting all the pain and hurt we

caused each other in these streets. If I respect you, we unify and stop the enemy

from killing us. But I don’t know. I’m no mortal man. Maybe I’m just another

nigga” (Lamar, 2015m).

This allowed the listener to follow along with Lamar’s journey, rhetorical argument, and ideology as it progressed and unfolded throughout To Pimp a Butterfly. The poem basically summed up the entire album and Lamar’s journey from beginning to end on the album while also reigniting his respectability politics. While attempting to inspire his audience to end gang violence, Lamar—at times—ignored the systemic issue at play, like easy access to firearms and a distrust between Black communities and police (Bieler,

Kijakazi, La Vigne, Vinik, & Overton, 2016).

After he finished the poem, he said, “That’s all I wrote” (Lamar, 2015m) and began an imagined conversation with Tupac Shakur using an old, unheard interview. This conversation allowed for an imagined “passing of the torch” from Tupac to Lamar as socially and politically conscious rappers and leaders of Compton. This lineage not only inspired Lamar’s creation of the album, but his entire career. “When Tupac was here

[Compton] and I saw him as a 9-year-old, I think that was the birth of what I'm doing today. From the moment that he passed I knew the things he was saying would eventually be carried on through someone else. But I was too young to know that I would be the one doing it” (as cited in Hale, 2016, para. 31). Lamar posed questions that Shakur answered and the conversation upheld many themes throughout the album. They discussed class

43

divisions, how to resist oppression, the way that society beat down Black men, and the role of rap in activism. Notably, the idea of Lamar as a socially and politically conscious rapper was upheld as Shakur acknowledged his roots as the son of a Black Panther, and

Lamar called himself one of Shakur’s offspring.

Lamar finished by reading Shakur one last poem that tied together the transformative butterfly metaphor of the album. In part, the poem read,

The caterpillar is a prisoner to the streets that conceived it… One thing it noticed

is how much the world shuns him, but praises the butterfly. The butterfly

represents the talent, the thoughtfulness, and the beauty within the caterpillar. But

having a harsh outlook on life, the caterpillar sees the butterfly as weak and

figures out a way to pimp it to his own benefits. Already surrounded by this mad

city, the caterpillar goes to work on the cocoon, which institutionalizes him…

He’s trapped. When trapped inside these walls, certain ideas take root, such as

going home and bring back new concepts to this mad city…Finally free, the

butterfly sheds light on situations that the caterpillar never considered, ending the

internal struggle. Although the butterfly and caterpillar are completely different,

they are one and the same. (Lamar, 2015m)

The poem emphasized Lamar’s ideological perspective of educating listeners about what

Black people in poverty’s lives were like while also empowering and empathizing with the people who were living those lives. Through the poem, he offered hope and inspiration that the caterpillars in the “hood” may all one day become butterflies. Overall, the poem, and the metaphor of the album at large, represented Lamar’s ideology that

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educating his community, or bringing “back new concepts to this mad city” (Lamar,

2015m) was the main way to develop as a person. Thus, the butterfly cannot exist without the caterpillar.

The comparisons Lamar drew to Shakur and Nelson Mandela were important as rap has the unique ability to link present day activism with social change of the past

(Aldridge, 2005), much like the transformation of the caterpillar into the butterfly. Rap has a legacy of building bridges to the social movements of the past and allowing for new public memories to be forged. According to Corrigan (2009), “Martyrs are important black [sic] cultural icons because they are the very definition of self-sacrifice in the name of social change” (p. 3). For Lamar, and the rap world at large, Shakur was a martyr within the political sphere of hip-hop whose untimely death elevated him to mythical status. Throughout To Pimp a Butterfly, Lamar established himself as Shakur’s successor, and thus, his generation’s leader. With the death of Shakur at the end of the album,

Lamar fully metamorphosed into the butterfly and was ready to accept his role.

“If These Walls Could Talk:” Discussion

The following ideographs were identified in To Pimp a Butterfly: Uncle Sam,

Kunta, institutionalized and institutional lies, walls, you, alright, police, Lucifer or Lucy, home, cost, complexion, hypocrite, I, and Nelson Mandela. I use McGee’s (1980) definition of ideology as rhetoric to show how Lamar’s ideographs reveal his ideology:

“…a situationally-defined synchronic structure of ideograph clusters constantly reorganizing itself to accommodate specific circumstances…” (p. 14). Under McGee’s view, in order to understand ideology, one must understand the socially constructed

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ideographs at play both in the past and present. Throughout my analysis, I provided a contextual map for understanding Lamar’s use of ideographs in order to discover his ideology. Based on McGee’s (1980) belief that ideographs expose the ideology of the rhetor, in this section, I will discuss how the ideographs show Lamar’s successfully used rap to employ his ideology of empowerment, education, and empathy in the era of the

Black Lives Matter movement.

Uncle Sam and Lucifer are used almost as characters on the album, both appealing at times, but revealed to be working against Lamar’s best interest. Lamar repeated lines in different songs while changing the ideograph to show the ideological closeness of the government and the devil. For example, the second verse of “Alright” used the same lines in “Wesley’s Theory,” but were voiced by Lucy (i.e. Lucifer, the Devil) rather than Uncle

Sam. In “Alright,” Lamar (as Lucy) once again rapped, “What you want you? A house or a car? Forty acres and a mule? A piano, a guitar? Anything, see my name is Lucy, I’m your dog” (Lamar, 2015a). This repetition revealed Lamar’s ideological belief that Uncle

Sam and Lucifer are in fact the same, educating his white listeners that the government was harmful and empowering his Black listeners who knew this to be true.

Lamar also used the ideographs institutionalized, institutional lies, and walls to communicate the trappings of systemic poverty throughout the album. All at once, Lamar described a state of being (institutionalized), a setting (walls), and an action (institutional lies) that occurred in his community. These ideographs empowered Black listeners who were or have been in similar circumstances as what Lamar described. Lamar also relayed empathy to those who could not escape these circumstances for living their day-to-day

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lives. Additionally, these ideographs expressed Lamar’s ideology of educating those outside the Black community, primarily white audiences, about what communities like

Compton, were truly like.

Lamar also used the ideographs you and I as a way to speak to his audience.

These ideographs allowed him to speak to his audience in two ways: as his community speaking to him and as a leader speaking to his community. This bidirectional dialogue exemplifies Lamar’s ideology of empowerment as well as Lamar’s diunital orientation.

In the case of To Pimp a Butterfly, Lamar can express both self-hatred and self-love, allowing him to empower and empathize with his community.

The ideograph of Kunta also highlighted Lamar’s ideology of education and empowerment. By referencing an outside text, Lamar forced listeners to further their knowledge regarding the Black community. Black listeners likely already knew the name

Kunta Kinte, but many white listeners may not have. Additionally, Lamar empowered listeners with the line: “Now I run the game got the whole world talkin’, King Kunta.”

(Lamar, 2015j). Lamar’s use of this ideograph allowed all of his listeners, many of whom may be enslaved in a modern sense, to feel like kings.

Lamar’s diunital orientation also revealed his ideology through his ideographs of alright and police. By preaching “We gon’ be alright” (Lamar, 2015a) to his listeners regarding police brutality, Lamar showed that in the face of devastation there is still hope, further proving his ideology of empowerment.

Lamar’s community and Compton were clearly of great importance to him while crafting the rhetorical messages in this album. Through the ideographs of home and

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Nelson Mandela, Lamar showed his personal journey through rap from gang member to hopeful leader: “Thank God for rap…it brought me back home” (Lamar, 2015l). Home served as an ideograph with two meanings: Compton and Africa. Additionally, his journey to his home of Africa, allowed him to recognize what he believed to be his future as the next Nelson Mandela. These ideographs again showed Lamar’s ideology of empowerment as he struggled to discover himself and his potential.

Lamar also employed an ideology of empathy with the ideographs of cost and hypocrite. Both of these terms were used to discuss Lamar’s own hatred, including his inability to humble himself and come to terms with having killed a man. These were experiences any person could potentially experience or relate to and Lamar’s ideology allowed for listeners to experience a personal catharsis.

Lamar’s ideology of empowerment was also present in his use of complexion.

While discussing complexion, Lamar preached self-love and acceptance of all skin tones:

“Complexion don’t mean a thing” (Lamar, 2015c). Furthermore, the use of complexion likely educated white listeners who were unaware of the experiences of the Black community due to their complexions.

Based on the critical grounding of personal interpretation of text (Foss, 2009) as well as McGee’s philosophy of the synchronic ideograph, future studies on rap, Lamar, or

To Pimp a Butterfly, may find entirely different ideographs in the work. Additionally, this study is contributing to the body of knowledge by discussing multiple ideographs at a time while most ideological criticisms focus on a single ideograph in an artifact. Future research could focus on the ideograph or ideographs present in Lamar’s earlier work and

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compare it to To Pimp a Butterfly or compare Lamar’s ideology to other socially and politically rappers.

“Breaking the Cycle:” Conclusion

Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly served as an extension of his ideology that rap is a rhetorical tool for education, empowerment, and empathy both within and without the

Black community in the era of the Black Lives Matter movement. In his own words, “It’s impossible to fight the title of role model” (XXL Staff, 2015, para. 3). After a reluctant embrace of leadership, Lamar embraced his position in the community, a journey that was examined on To Pimp a Butterfly. This was reflected throughout the songs that showed Lamar’s personal progress as an individual, thus encouraging others to do the same, as well as tracks written specifically to empower the Black community.

To Pimp a Butterfly also represented Lamar’s overall efforts to bring his community along with him on his journey to fame. Because of this, it was always important to Lamar to tell his story and his community’s story:

…when you hear these stories in To Pimp a Butterfly, it’s a little deeper than just

the music….Let me tell other stories out here who wanna do somethin’ different

but can’t because you in an environment where you just gotta adapt. And what

happens is it invites people in to get another perspective. It brings a whole ‘nother

side of the world to Compton to this backyard right here to say, ‘Oh these are

actually people.’ (as cited in Capper, Moses, and Silmser, 2015)

Lamar’s effort to empower individuals in Compton by sharing their story has also educated those who live elsewhere. By consistently shooting most of his videos with his

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real “homies” and in his real neighborhood of Compton, Lamar did not paint a fairytale version of the ghetto, but rather, an authentic narrative that allowed those who lived through it to be empowered, and those who did not to be educated.

The songs on To Pimp a Butterfly ranged from bleak to pompous to rousing, each personifying a different experience of Black America. While Lamar was certainly not the first rapper or singer to discuss racism in his music, the album served as a snapshot of this particular moment in time and can enlighten those within and without the academy to better understand how rap functions as rhetoric and can be used to better examine the

Black experience as a whole. While Lamar’s experience did not represent every Black person’s lived experience, more representations of Black culture in art will allow for a greater understanding of diversity.

Furthermore, Lamar’s ideology affected real individuals in Compton. Since

Lamar’s rise to fame, makeshift music studios have popped up all over Compton with more and more people turning to music, rather than crime, as a way out of poverty and a path to success (Capper, Moses, & Silmser, 2015). These studios are visual proof of

Lamar’s rhetorical success. His message directly affected people in Compton to achieve their full potential and further emphasizes the rhetorical power of rap to change communities economically and socially. Lamar “…has carried on the tradition of calling for African Americans to take control of their education and to obtain the educational tools that will enable them to improve their lives” (Aldridge, 2005, p. 241). Furthermore, the music business “…offers the broadest array of opportunities for a diversity of skill areas while remaining focused in a particular economic sector…” and “…is one of the

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few segments of the modern American economy in which [African Americans] have any significant leverage” (Ya Salaam as cited in Kitwana, 2002, p. 215). Due to Lamar’s ideological rhetoric, the community of Compton may soon be transformed from a caterpillar to a butterfly.

Research has shown that rap has real power to not only educate and empower

(Morrell & Duncan-Andrade, 2002; Rodríguez, 2009), but also potentially reform the criminal justice system (Butler, 2002). After the election of Donald Trump, a target of uplifting “Alright” protests (Associated Press, 2016), whose efforts to dehumanize Black people have included privately discriminating Black citizens, propagating the Birther movement, refusing to denounce David Duke’s endorsement (O’Connor & Marans,

2016), and an apparent lack of knowledge about inner-cities (Harper, 2017), Lamar’s work is more important than ever. Lamar showed his community it is possible to escape the circumstances of poverty and violence, “the continuous war” (Lamar, 2015m). In

January 2017, To Pimp a Butterfly was one of the first albums to be added to Harvard’s

Hiphop Archive and Research Institute (Anthony, 2017). Through Lamar’s music and ideology of education, empowerment, and empathy, countless caterpillars will transform to butterflies for years to come.

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