To Pimp a Butterfly (2015)

To Pimp a Butterfly

• I hate rap. Period. In fact, the only reason I listened to this was because of a request. So me liking this album is the equivalent of Brian Wilson wanting to finish SMiLE. However: despite the fact that I didn’t like it, I will say that it’s actually a decent piece of work. There were several songs that had an actually decent beat and melody to them. The opening of “Wesley’s Theory” was actually really good, and I thought for a second I might actually enjoy some of this. However, once the rap began, it totally lost me. I also thought the two interludes were placed really nicely, and even though I didn’t like them, they were a good addition. One of the reasons I hate rap so much is because of all the use of electronic beats and synthesizers, and to me, music is music when actual instruments are used. However, several of the songs on here were able to use the electronic sounds to make a pretty good rhythmic beat. I’d honestly say that if all of these songs were just instrumentals, I might actually like this album. But the lyrics were so full of explicit content, and I had a really hard time sitting through it. Some of the songs had a good message to them, but the use of all the swear words always feels really unnecessary. But as I said, despite me mostly hating this album, the music is decent. The only rapper that I’ve ever actually liked is Eminem, and even though I don’t listen to rap, or Kendrick Lamar, he made a pretty good rap album. I personally wouldn’t recommend it, just because I’ll never listen to it ever again in my life, but if you enjoy rap, then this is definitely an album for you.