Kendrick Lamar spit an unreleased verse from To Pimp A Butterfly in the booth with Power 106.
“It was a second verse on this record Soundwave and Terrace Martin did and I was just talking about the transition from being a kid in Compton to actually being at an after party with industry politics,” Kendrick Lamar says in a Power 106 interview published today. “ I made a video out there so the homies could see to let ‘em know it’s more than parmalee/ He said good looking pause the video, the moment his phone ring the fast dollar was his only problem / No matter how many times I showed the Eiffel Tower the block was home and Africa was too far for power…It was a few brutal bars after that I can’t say…It’s just for me.”
Lamar says that he had the name How Much A Dollar Cost in mind for his album, but decided on something deeper.
“[To Pimp A Butterfly means] taking something beautiful and pimping it out and the metaphor for me is looking at my talent and celebrity and using it for good or for bad,” Kendrick Lamar says.
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He says that his album took years to create because he needed to truly feel something to be inspired. Lamar says a trip inspired his album.
“The actual creative process for the album actually came from a trip in South Africa where I’m looking at all these different skin complexions,” Kendrick Lamar says in the interview. “It was something totally different from what I expected it to be from what the school books taught me. What’s different is all you know is poverty and how bad Africa is, that’s what they teach you in school. But it’s actually a beautiful place that you don’t want to leave. Obviously you have some poverty-stricken places. That’s all they teach us. They don’t teach you the spirit the walks of life and how shapes and faces still come from the same place but have different skin tones. They don’t tell you that a kid could have blue eyes and a complexion like me. Now we have this colorism, but we all come from the same place which is Africa.”
He also described the meaning behind the album artwork.
“The initial one for me is taking the homeboys from my area and taking them around the world,” Kendrick Lamar says. “Really taking a group of people that hasn’t seen the workd and putting them in places they haven’t seen, and getting them excited.”
For additional Kendrick Lamar coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
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