15 Best Albums Of The Decade (So Far)

2. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly

It only takes a few tracks of Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Bufferfly to realise that you're listening to something very special - this is an album which oozes polish and attention to detail from an artist not afraid to venture into new musical territory.

Lamar's progression as an artist on this album is at least in part down to his versatile production collaborators. From Snoop Dogg's input on Institutionalised to the presence of Stephen Bruner (aka Thundercat) on Wesley's Theory and These Walls, Lamar has drawn upon an impressively eclectic range of talents to create an album which refreshingly draws upon jazz, funk, and other disparate styles to add flourishes to the hip hop framework.

Of course, that's not to denigrate Lamar's own input - To Pimp A Butterfly is ultimately an expression of his unique voice and as a concept album there's plenty of food for thought to be drawn from his lyrics. Few hip-hop artists speak to both the personal and universal with such conviction.