Analysis Of To Pimp A Butterfly By Kendrick Lamar

The idea that there should be a distinction between white and black culture is inherently racist. Because of the idea that this distinction is necessary, racial tension in the United States has been on a constant rise. In Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly, Lamar explores racial tension in modern American culture by creating a loose narrative that follows Lamar’s life in Compton and beyond. In Kendrick Lamar’s song “For Free? An Interlude,” Lamar incorporates dark comedy and vulgar elements to satirize gender roles within the black community thereby exposing the negative impacts of these stereotypes as well as serving as an extended metaphor for the relationship between white America and black culture. The release of Kendrick Lamar’s To

There should be a sense of pride in being black (Lamar). To Pimp A Butterfly is also an album about the stereotypes that are ingrained in black culture, and in the song “For Free? An Interlude” Lamar explores the role of man and woman inside black culture. The song starts out with a church choir singing over an undeniably jazzy beat, two things that are generally considered to be part of “black culture.” Without any lyrics, Lamar is seemingly celebrating black culture and the listener assumes that the song will be a celebration, not a bitter satire of stereotypes in the black community. A spoken word, a rant by Darlene Tibbs, begins painting a negative of the stereotypical black man. The woman needs power. She needs money. She needs sex. There is no

The woman takes a step back and Lamar comes center stage. The titular question is turned into Lamar’s tribal chant for this song— “This dick ain’t free [sic].” His bitter words contrast with the otherwise upbeat music creating a theatrical tableau of anger. Lamar, at the center stage, spits his verse out like the king that he believes he is. The woman stands beside him, silent and ready to strike. Lamar dares the listener, and the woman, to question the cost of his “dick,” telling the listener that he is not the property of the woman. The phallic imagery of this song serves not as a source of shock value or as an attention grabber, which it is, but it is also serves as a criticism of the unspoken expectation that comes with being a black man— a large penis. Lamar doesn’t allow the listener to question his masculinity by stating that his dick “[is] nine inches” and continually reminds the listener of his penis by saying “this dick ain’t free” at the beginning of each major verse (Lamar). He is criticizing the stereotype that black men have to constantly assure themselves, and others, of their masculinity. The relationship between masculinity and black culture is explored in acclaimed author Brent Staple’s anecdotal essay “Just Walk On By.” In the essay Staples talks about growing up as a black man; he watched “a teenage cousin, a brother of 22, a childhood friend in his mid-twenties” throw their lives away because they fell in