mar 15, 2015 - Kendrick Lamar releases "To Pimp a Butterfly"

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The opening introduction to this album is title "For Free?" and the video published to accompany it contains much symbolism of what many would call the American Dream. However, it also contains some parallels to biblical events like the Israelites captivity in Egypt. The intro can be summarized by the final lines

"Oh America, you bad bitch, I picked cotton and made you rich
Now my dick ain't free" (Duckworth, 2015)

Now some may be adverse to more crude language, however, this language can serve to show the seriousness of the topic at hand. The Isrealites were slave work force that kept the Egyptian people in prosperity. When that was threatened by Moses demanding they be set free, the Isrealites made their value known. In these final lines of the intro, Lamar proclaims that his ancestors made America prosperous, but the time has come to pay the price for mistreatment.

The album also contains a story about coming to God via an evolving soundbite that grows in length with each song.

"I remember you was conflicted
Misusing your influence
Sometimes I did the same
Abusing my power, full of resentment
Resentment that turned into a deep depression
Found myself screaming in the hotel room
I didn’t wanna self destruct
The evils of Lucy was all around me
So I went running for answers
Until I came home" (Duckworth, 2015)

Kendrick's apparent obsession with the Old Testament of the Bible is a reminder of another individual who sometimes misused his power: King David. King David was a wise man brought into the kingdom from a young age and promised to one day rule all of Israel. He even was referred to as "the Bible's Renaissance Man, the great warrior-king-poet" (Emerson, 2006, p. 63) His anointment happens in 1 Samuel 16:13 which says:

"13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah."

But, despite David's wisdom and zest for faith, he was infamous for misusing his power despite being God's chosen King. A famous example is his use of this power for personal gain in the story of Bathsheba. In 2 Samuel 11, David has sex with Bathsheba and impregnates her, leading him to feel a need to dispose of her husband Uriah to cover his guilt... So David does the unthinkable, he sends Uriah, the war hero to be slaughtered. 2 Samuel 11:15 says -

"15 In it he wrote, 'Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.'”

Perhaps Kendrick feels he has abused his own power in a similar fashion, making decisions for personal gain that negatively affect those around him. He certainly felt the the need to repent just like David did in 2 Samuel 12:13. This repentance is the parallel to Kendrick's line "I came home." It is a symbol of coming back to God.

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