Me, I’m about to let my hair down on hoes Move in silence, yeah, we juggin’ like thatĪct of violence, yeah, we juggin’ like thatĪlmost thought I’d seen another plane crash Slideshow for the night show, ten bitchesįine hoes with a blindfold, King Kendrick (Hello Billy)Ī father figure fuck with him, you get killedįuck with me and he will kill you himself On Untitled 02 he uses color and imagery to speak on his undying love and loyalty to his crew.Īll morning with the mixed dashboards triple digits This project’s color is that of Purple and the canvas with which he paints is to use imagination as the eye of his soul. Kendrick, as the Creative, uses music as color and lyrics as pictures. As a collection of unreleased jewels, there is no unifying concept to this project, but there are consolidating themes. The Creative is at once a slave and disciple to THE Creator, and as a compliment to To Pimp A Butterfly‘s internal struggle, Kendrick strives for understanding amongst chaos. Kendrick’s verse is apocalyptic in tone fierce, paranoid, frustrated with a sense of incompletion and forsaken deliverance. I guess I’m running in place trying to make it to churchĮvery Kendrick Lamar project beginning with 2012’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D City has incorporated God and Kendrick’s reverence for the Most High. Our days been numbered Revelation greatest as we hearing the last trumpetĪll man, child, woman, life completely went in reverse Never would you lie to me Always camaraderie, I can see, I tithed for you, I pushed the club to the side for youĪnytime I need, I’mma start jotting everything in my diary Say I didn’t try for you, say I didn’t ride for you To use my vocals to save man-kind for you I made To Pimp a Butterfly ‘fore you told me Geez Louise I thought you said that I excel Some of us never did wrong but still went to hell For those of you in the know, the pleas have been answered in the form of Untitled Unmastered, a collection of eight previously unreleased songs that speak to not only Kendrick’s continued usage of the mask of lyrical visionary, but also that of the Black Creative. Fans clamored for these lost songs, reaching a fever pitch when Kendrick’s emotionally charged and fiery performance at the 58th annual Grammy Awards unleashed a lyrical barrage so potent and powerful that Lebron James himself publicly demanded proper release of these gems from TDE’s vaults. On several television performances, beginning with a show-stopping turn on one of the final episodes of The Colbert Report, Kendrick debuted never before heard verses. Ironically, or perhaps by design, some of the most inspired, exciting, and downright genius glimpses of Kendrick’s lyrical acumen were NOT displayed on the album itself, but by performances leading up to and following the release of the album. It combined a story so personal with themes so universal to the uniqueness of the black experience that it was able to permeate many generations, viewpoints, and emotions. To Pimp A Butterfly was a masterpiece of funk, jazz, Spoken Word, Hip Hop, and blackness. These stories have helped propel him to the top of Hip Hop’s pantheon of new class MC’s, heralded as a lyricist who wears the mask of master craftsman. The poet, as much a product of Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and the Harlem Renaissance as he is the streets of Compton that raised and inspired him, has often cited his desire to write and perform with purpose, responsibility, and an attention to detail that plays across the mind’s eye as short stories and vignettes. Kendrick Lamar, long considered a master storyteller, has worn the mask of each of these men, and many others on his never ending quest to weave thought into the tapestry of mainstream black artistry. A thief has the right to honesty, A pastor has the right of Heaven’s voice. A boy has the right to dream, A man has the right of choice. African man, creator of masks that tell us to this day of joy and rage in his land, also released his spirits into dance and other motion that designed to explore all realities within the human being.” Once, black life and the ceremonies that punctuated it birth, rites of passage, the praising of natural forces or gods, these and other efforts all found channels of expression in many forms. “Somewhere near the center of this cosmos we occupy, the creative black personality lives and maintains itself, moving through time, unlocking mysteries, producing reflections and legend.