Maps of Music

To Pimp a Butterfly (2015)

Where the lyrics of To Pimp a Butterfly take you, and where it was really made.

The album was first planned as Tu Pimp a Caterpillar, a backronym for Tu.P.A.C., before Lamar changed 'caterpillar' to 'butterfly'.

Key places

Chalice Recording Studios, Los Angeles (2015)

Recording site Chalice Recording — The album was recorded at a variety of studios, and Chalice Recording Studios is one of the studios named in the source. The point marks the building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Downtown Studios, New York City (2015)

Recording site Record Plant Studios — Downtown Studios is one of the studios where the album was recorded. The point uses the city center, so the exact building is not shown. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

House Studios, Washington, D.C. (2015)

Recording site House Studios — House Studios is one of the studios where the album was recorded. The point uses the city center, so the exact building is not shown. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Notifi Studios, St. Louis (2015)

Recording site Notifi Studios — Notifi Studios is one of the studios where the album was recorded. The point uses the city center, so the exact building is not shown. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

No Excuses Studios, Santa Monica (2015)

Recording site Ruby Red — No Excuses Studios is one of the studios where the album was recorded. The point uses the city center, so the exact building is not shown. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• To Pimp a Butterfly: third studio album by American rapper Kendrick Lamar
• Released March 15, 2015 by Top Dawg Entertainment, Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records
• Primarily a hip-hop album that incorporates jazz, funk and soul from across the history of African-American music
• Lyrics address political commentary and personal themes: African-American culture, racial inequality, depression and institutional discrimination

Background

• Lamar first revealed plans for a follow-up to Good Kid, M.A.A.D City (2012) on February 28, 2014, in an interview with Billboard
• A trip to South Africa strongly shaped the album's direction, including visits to historic sites such as Nelson Mandela's jail cell on Robben Island
• During development Lamar scrapped two or three albums' worth of material
• The album was first planned under the title Tu Pimp a Caterpillar, later changed to butterfly

Recording

• Recorded at several studios across the United States
• Production from Sounwave, Terrace Martin, Taz 'Tisa' Arnold, Thundercat, Rahki, LoveDragon, Flying Lotus, Pharrell Williams, Boi-1da and Knxwledge, among others
• Executive production by Dr. Dre and Anthony 'Top Dawg' Tiffith
• Guest appearances include George Clinton, Bilal, Snoop Dogg, Ronald Isley and Rapsody

Cover

• CD and vinyl releases include a booklet with braille lettering
• According to Lamar, the braille characters translate to the actual full title of the album
• A braille translator commissioned by Complex read it as A Kendrick by Letter Blank Lamar, which Complex noted was most likely meant to read A Blank Letter by Kendrick Lamar

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Kendrick Lamar Duckworth, born June 17, 1987, in Compton, California.
• Began releasing music as K.Dot in high school; signed with Top Dawg Entertainment in 2005 and co-founded Black Hippy.
• Debut album Section.80 (2011) led to a joint contract with Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records.

Career

• Good Kid, M.A.A.D City (2012), To Pimp a Butterfly (2015), and Damn (2017) were ranked among Rolling Stone's greatest albums.
• Damn won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music, the first award of this kind for a non-classical or non-jazz work.
• Curated the Black Panther soundtrack (2018); "All the Stars" earned an Academy Award nomination.
• Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers (2022) and GNX (2024) each debuted atop the US Billboard 200.
• Holds six US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles, including "Humble", "Not Like Us", and "Luther".
• Headlined the Super Bowl LIX halftime show in 2025, the most-watched Super Bowl performance of all time.
• The Grand National Tour with SZA became the highest-grossing co-headlining tour of all time.
• Holds 27 Grammy Awards, the most won by a rapper.
• Co-founded the creative company PGLang with Dave Free in 2020.

Reception

At release

• Met with widespread critical acclaim; critics praised its musical scope and the social relevance of Lamar's lyrics
• Metacritic average of 96 out of 100 from 44 professional reviews, indicating universal acclaim
• Rolling Stone's Greg Tate called it a masterpiece of fiery outrage, deep jazz and ruthless self-critique
• Spin's Dan Weiss regarded it as the Great American Hip-Hop Album and an essential listen
• Entertainment Weekly's Kyle Anderson found it twice as substantial as Lamar's debut major label album
• The Guardian's Alexis Petridis found the music somewhat erratic and lamented moments of self-indulgence, such as the twelve-minute Mortal Man
• New York Times critic Jon Caramanica said Lamar still struggled to reconcile his density as a lyricist with the music he rapped over

Reappraisal

• Rolling Stone ranked it 19th on its updated 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list in September 2020
• Paste ranked it 22nd on its 2024 list of the 300 Greatest Albums of All Time
• The Guardian's 2019 poll of 45 music journalists voted it the fourth best album of the 21st century
• The Independent placed it first on its list of the best albums of the decade

Records

• Debuted at number one on record charts in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States in its first week
• First-week sales of 324,000 copies in the United States
• Lamar's first UK number-one album
• Certified platinum by the RIAA; reached one million copies sold in the US by June 2017
• Earned seven Grammy nominations at the 2016 ceremony and won Best Rap Album
• Topped The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop poll of American critics

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The album was first planned as Tu Pimp a Caterpillar, a backronym for Tu.P.A.C.; Lamar changed 'caterpillar' to 'butterfly'
• The early release on iTunes and Spotify on March 15, 2015 came eight days before the scheduled date; Anthony Tiffith said it was unintentional, apparently an Interscope error
• Spotify recorded 9.6 million streams on the album's first day, a global first-day streaming record for the service
• Mortal Man ends with an interview between Lamar and Tupac Shakur, built from audio excerpts of a rare 1994 interview
• David Bowie's 2016 album Blackstar was influenced by this album, as producer Tony Visconti recalled

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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