10 Albums That You Need To Listen To More Than Once

As Kendrick Lamar was coming off of Good Kid Maad City, there was no real answer to where he should go next. He had already created one of the greatest concept albums in the history of hip hop, and now he was being looked at as one of the greatest of his peers, rivaled by only the greatest to ever do it. And while it’s easy to say that To Pimp a Butterfly just capitalized on that promise, it actually took Good Kid that much further when you start to break it down.

Going through every single track, it’s easy to get swept up in the raw sound of the record, and Kendrick brings in the best in the business to help craft this record, from going to toe to toe with people like Snoop Dogg to having legends of the jazz world contribute to the record like Thundercat and Robert Glasper. That’s just what’s going on in the music, but the Kendrick that turns up on this album is a lot less self assured than he was the first time around. He had already been known as the rough and tumble kid to make it out of Compton, and now he’s starting to see the way that the hip hop world works outside of his old neighborhood.

Here we have a man that’s struggling to come to terms with who he is as a person, from struggling with his mortality on u to eventually questioning his faith after being paid a visit from Jesus on How Much a Dollar Cost. All Kendrick is left with here is family who see him as one of the biggest stars in the world, and a business behind him that’s looking to bankrupt him at every opportunity they get. That’s not an easy tightrope to walk, but Kendrick doesn’t claim to have all the answers. He’s just rolling with the punches, and like Tupac before him, he’s willing to do everything in his power to beat the odds.