Even after the release of Kendrick Lamar’s critically-acclaimed album To Pimp A Butterfly , K.Dot is blessing us with more gems. In a recent interview with Power 106, he spat an unreleased verse that did not make it onto the album.
“It was a second verse on this record Soundwave and Terrace Martin did, and I was just talking about the transition from being a kid in Compton to actually being at an after party with industry politics,” Kendrick said about the verse:
“I made a video out there so the homies could see to let ‘em know it’s more than parmalee/ He said good looking pause the video, the moment his phone ring the fast dollar was his only problem / No matter how many times I showed the Eiffel Tower the block was home and Africa was too far for power…It was a few brutal bars after that I can’t say…It’s just for me.”
The “King Kunta” rapper also went on to explain the meaning of the name To Pimp A Butterfly. “[To Pimp A Butterfly means] taking something beautiful and pimping it out and the metaphor for me is looking at my talent and celebrity and using it for good or for bad,” he said.
SEE ALSO: Kendrick Lamar Says His Joint Album With J. Cole Is ‘Definitely’ Happening… Just Not Now
He also later discussed the significance behind the album’s artwork.
“The initial one for me is taking the homeboys from my area and taking them around the world,” he said. “Really taking a group of people that hasn’t seen the world and putting them in places they haven’t seen, and getting them excited.”
The Compton native admitted that the creative process to make the album took him some time because he felt he needed to be inspired. And a trip to South Africa did the trick.
“What’s different is all you know is poverty and how bad Africa is, that’s what they teach you in school. But it’s actually a beautiful place that you don’t want to leave. Obviously you have some poverty-stricken places. That’s all they teach us,” he said. “They don’t teach you the spirit the walks of life and how shapes and faces still come from the same place but have different skin tones. They don’t tell you that a kid could have blue eyes and a complexion like me. Now we have this colorism, but we all come from the same place which is Africa.”
Watch K. Dot’s full interview with Power 106 in the video above. – Richy Rosario