To Pimp A Butterfly, By Kendrick Lamar

Kendrick Lamar is an American rapper and songwriter from Compton, California. Lamar has been releasing music since 2004 and has won several awards, including 17 Grammys and a Pulitzer Prize. Many of his songs touch on political issues and the black experience.” The song, “Alright,” featuring Pharrell Williams and Thundercat, was included in his album “To Pimp A Butterfly” which was released in 2015. This song has over 48 million streams on Spotify and Lamar has performed it live many times. Kendrick Lamar was inspired to write the song following his trip to South Africa where he visited Nelson Mandala’s prison cell.1 When writing the song, he was thinking about the history of slavery in America and the systematic oppression we still see today,2

A piano, a guitar?” When he says, “40 acres and a mule,” he is referencing a promise made to black people towards the end of the Civil War. Field Order 15 was made by Union General William Sherman which took away around 400,000 acres of land from Confederate landowners and divided it among formerly enslaved individuals.3 The land would be split up so every family would get 40 acres of land along with a mule.4 At the very end of the song, Lamar recites a poem, which is included in other songs of his, such as “Another [N-word].” I think that the absence of music playing as he is reciting allows for his words to really be heard, and not overlooked because of the background

In his live performances, he was forced to censor and change parts of the song, which I think impacted the power of the song. During the Superbowl Halftime Show, Lamar had to censor “po-po” when he rapped “and we hate po-po.” Instead of saying this, two drumbeats took its place. I think that replacing this statement with the two drumbeats, as opposed to nothing, could be seen as Lamar protesting them by not allowing him to say it.
When performing at the BET Awards, Lamar did not have to censor “po-po,” but did have to censor other parts of the song. In 2015 when he performed it, he was not allowed to say, “40 acres and a mule.” I found this very interesting because he did not have to censor it during the Superbowl. In addition, I did not realize that it was so controversial that he could not say it when performing. I believe Lamar not being able to say, “and we hate po-po" and “40 acres and a mule” takes away from its level of power because police brutality and the 40 acres and a mule promise are important parts of black