Connections, people.ĭespite the presence that hangs heavy over the record, To Pimp a Butterfly isn’t a reclamation of Tupac-era sounds. Dre is Lamar’s executive producer, and now Snoop Dogg shows up on To Pimp a Butterfly’s “Institutionalized,” and it’s one of Snoop’s best turns in years. Dre and Snoop Dogg, and everyone lost their bananas. While good kid, m.A.A.d city was in production during 2012, Tupac’s hologram made an appearance at Coachella alongside Dr.
“A silhouette and he said, ‘Keep doing what you’re doing, don’t let my music die.’ That shit scared the shit out of me! Prior to that, my mom brought up, ‘You know, you and Tupac, ya’ll like days apart, ya’ll birthdays.’ I never knew that shit that’s some wild shit.” Lamar was born on June 17, 1987, and Tupac on June 16, 1971. “It’s a crazy true story,” Lamar told HipHopDX. Back in 2011, Lamar had a vision of Tupac in his dreams, and he said that it inspired him to carry the flame. “I’m not saying I’m gonna change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world,” is the operative Tupac quote here. But what Lamar does, more than anything, is bring Tupac’s artistic fire back to light. If we’re going to start comparing Kendrick Lamar to Tupac, then there’s still some catching up to do, commercially speaking.
Since Tupac released 2Pacalypse Now in 1991, he’s sold about 3.1 million records per year. That’s an average of about 500,000 records per year, with m.A.A.d city having sold more than one million copies. Lamar has sold around two million records since 2011. He doesn’t say that he wants to be Tupac, but he also doesn’t shy away from the influence of the 19-years-dead Oakland rapper that has sold 75 million records, worldwide. We’re not Lamar, we don’t really know what he wants. The parallels between Lamar’s own background and that of one of his biggest influences, Tupac Shakur, have placed him as an heir to that throne, and that’s a fair assumption given that Lamar so perfectly splices himself into a past Mats Nileskar interview with Tupac for the final six minutes of To Pimp a Butterfly, a striking 73-minute slab of dark, funkadelic hip-hop. And Lamar fully understands this “you’re no better than where you come from” outlook on life. With three great-to-incredible albums - Section.80, good kid, m.A.A.d city, and To Pimp a Butterfly - he has climbed the ranks of hip-hop acclaim, but he’s still a kid who grew up in the civic corruption of Compton.
He says that maybe he’s “just another nigga,” but he’s also grappling with the idea of immortality. Charles Manson was a psychopathic killer, and Mother Teresa was the emblem of humanitarianism, but, when you break it down, they’re both just human beings. It’s a solid total, but a significant decline from the 129,000 albums 2007’s We Were Dead Before the Ship Sank moved on its way to Number One in its debut week.A butterfly is still a caterpillar. Modest Mouse‘s Strangers to Ourselves, the band’s first album in eight years, finished Number Three with 77,000 copies sold. Last week’s Number One, the Empire soundtrack, slid to Number Two while selling another 89,000 copies, a small drop-off from its chart-topping debut total the show’s heart-stopping season finale likely softened the second-week blow. To Pimp a Butterfly racked up 363,000 total copies sold in its debut week – the second best sales week of 2015 so far behind Drake – giving the rapper his first Number One album and improving on good kid‘s 241,000-unit opening week sales, Billboard reports. The surprise and somewhat misfired release of Kendrick Lamar‘s To Pimp a Butterfly did little to diminish the Compton rapper’s first-week sales as Lamar’s much-anticipated follow-up to good kid, m.A.A.d city cruised to Number One on the Billboard 200. UPDATE: Madonna’s Rebel Heart dropped from Number Two to Number 21 on the Billboard 200.