On March 16, Kendrick Lamar dropped his new album To Pimp a Butterfly a week early. The album was an instant success, shattering Spotify’s streaming records set only a few weeks earlier by Drake’s If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late. Despite its success, Lamar’s new album is much less accessible than his 2012 album Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City. To Pimp a Butterfly sees Lamar shifting gears, working with producers such as Thundercat and Flying Lotus to make instrumentals that resemble old-school boom bap and jazz rap with a modern twist.
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