Spotify’s popular podcast series, The Big Hit Show, which dissects various bodies of work, from film to music, is examining Kendrick Lamar’s acclaimed sophomore studio album, To Pimp a Butterfly, in its second season. Consisting of five episodes, the project will be hosted by music journalist Alex Pappademas, who narrated the series’ first season, which focused on the film Twilight. Produced by former President and First Lady Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground media company, the series promises to take listeners on an “epic journey that spans genres, mediums, and generations to explore what happens when a wildly successful piece of pop culture gets so big that it changes the world.”
Recently releasing the first episode of the new season, titled “Hello Kendrick,” The Big Hit Show looks at the roots of To Pimp a Butterfly and the factors that led to its creation. Drawing from Kendrick’s closest friends and collaborators, as well as key players in the making of the album, this episode lays the groundwork for the series and gets novices and disciples of Kendrick’s music alike up to speed by revealing many tidbits about the album that we never knew.
After listening to the “Hello Kendrick” episode of The Big Hit Show podcast, VIBE highlights five interesting facts we learned about To Pimp a Butterfly that we never knew.
Kendrick Lamar Recorded Three Versions Of “King Kunta”
Producer Sounwave, who helped craft the backdrop to “King Kunta,” reveals that Kendrick had him go back to the drawing board multiple times before settling on the final version of the track. “The original was way completely different,” Sounwave explains. “Super jazzy, but it didn’t have the groove that it had. I played it for Kendrick. I was like, “This is hard, but I feel like it should get a little more groovier.” After stripping the tracks down and adding flutes and pianos, Kendrick felt the additions were a bit much, requesting a bit more simplicity amid its intricacies. According to Sounwave, he and co-producer Thundercat created the third version of “King Kunta” within 20 minutes and did it from the confines of Thundercat’s apartment.
The Connection Between Kendrick Lamar EP and To Pimp A Butterfly
A deep cut that longtime Kendrick fans may be familiar with from his catalog is the Kendrick Lamar EP track “Uncle Bobby & Jason Keaton,” which serves as an open letter to his loved ones behind the prison wall. On To Pimp a Butterfly, we get an extension of the story of Jason Keaton, a childhood friend of Kendrick, on “U.” On this track we find the rapper wallowing in the depths of his survivor’s remorse after Jason’s younger brother Chad Keaton, was murdered at age 23 in a drive-by shooting. “Chad was a really hard one for Kendrick because Chad was younger than us, like a little bro,” Kendrick’s longtime business partner and creative collaborator, Dave Free reveals. “And we talked to him, we were supposed to see him and we didn’t even get to see him, but we talked to him on FaceTime. I remember, I’ll never forget it. He FaceTimed me and we were on the bus talking to him and we were telling him ‘Bro, we’re bout to come back and see you. We’re gonna try to cut this run short and get back to you.’ And we didn’t make it back to see him before he passed.”
Rest N Heaven my Lil bro. Watched u become a man. U fought bro. The city stole yo life, but not your legacy. pic.twitter.com/a1YdGQhbKv
— Kendrick Lamar (@kendricklamar) September 4, 2013
Prince Inspired Kendrick To Begin The Recording Process
To Pimp a Butterfly is steeped in a mix of genres that helped defined Black music during the ’70s and ’80s, with many listeners associating the album with jazz and funk, in particular. While that’s true, according to Dave Free, late musical icon Prince was a big motivating factor in spurring Kendrick to jumpstart the creation of the album. “I would say, from my perspective it was when he started studying Prince,” Dave says of To Pimp a Butterfly‘s roots. Incredibly heavily, it was like insane. He became obsessed with Prince because we were trying to get him on Pimp A Butterfly.” Free even spills the beans that Kendrick and The Purple One even met up for a recording session in the latter’s studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota.
“He told me never touch his ping-pong paddle, I’ll tell you that [laughs]. Prince don’t care, man. He don’t care! He’ doing him! That’s what we learned the most, do you. Do you. Do it with poise, do it with respect, do it with intention, do it with purpose, but do you.” Unfortunately, Prince would die on April 21, 2016, just a year after To Pimp a Butterfly’s release. As for that recording session between Prince and Kendrick, there’s no telling what the nature of it was and if we’ll ever get to hear anything that may have been cooked up by either party.
The Identity Of The Man Behind The Voice On “Wesley’s Theory”
Among the musicians listed in the credits on To Pimp a Butterfly is Josef Leimberg, a trumpeter who was called in to contribute horns to various beats on the project, including “These Walls” and “Complexion (A Zulu Love).” Leimberg, who also co-produced “How Much A Dollar Cost,” shares the backstory to how his ominous baritone wound up on one of the most acclaimed rap album’s of this century. “It was all a mystery to me, up until whenever that happened,” Leimberg tells host Pappademas, before recalling his introduction to K-Dot’s sound. “I’m starting to hear the style of music that he’s doing. I’m hearing the funk, I’m hearing the jazz, I’m hearing the avante garde, ya dig. I’m hearing everything, but what I hear on the radio, basically. It was refreshing to me.” After responding to someone asking if he had a spare instrument in tow, Leimberg says Kendrick took notice of him and immediately put his creative cap on. “I said Ah, man, I left it at the studio. I’ll bring it tomorrow,” Leimberg continues. “And that’s when Kendrick turned around, he said I need that voice.” Kendrick, who already had the narration prepared on his phone, gave it to Leimberg to write on paper, who then stepped in the booth and knocked out his take. “He just coached me on exactly what he wanted,” Leimberg notes. “He knew exactly how he wanted me to phrase it. He knew exactly how he wanted me to phrase the words. Like, exactly.”
How A Book Store In Idaho Helped Determine The Album’s Title
Anna Wise, a vocalist on three songs on To Pimp a Butterfly, most notably the Grammy Award winning single “These Walls,” was also key in honing in on the title of the album, which was conjured during Anna’s tour stop in Idaho, of all places. “We were texting back and forth and Kendrick asked me what I thought it could be,” Wise says of her role in picking the title of the album. “I was thinking of butterflies, but I thought that was kind of silly. And I thought, “You know, sometimes your intuition talks to you and you kind of write it off you’re like, ‘No, that can’t be it, that’s not it.’ Or you get that little inkling and then you ignore it and it becomes that, but I wanted a confirmation, so I went to this local bookstore with the intention of finding an album title for him and I went to the metaphysical section of the bookstore and I picked a book and I opened it up and it was the first page of a chapter and it said Conversations With A Butterfly. So then I took a picture of that and I sent it to him.” While many fans are aware that To Pimp a Butterfly was initially gonna be titled To Pimp a Caterpillar, we guess Wise’s judgement lived up to her last name, as he ultimately opted for the butterfly.