To Pimp a Butterfly

Kendrick Lamar could have made a safe follow-up to good kid, m.A.A.d city, one of the most acclaimed rap albums of the 2000s, and it would have sold millions and made everyone happy. Instead he flew to South Africa, visited Nelson Mandela's prison cell on Robben Island, scrapped two or three albums worth of material, and came back with something that sounded like nothing else in rap music. That decision is why To Pimp a Butterfly belongs on a list of the greatest albums ever made.

The music draws from the entire history of Black American sound. Jazz, funk, soul, spoken word, all of it woven together by a cast that included Thundercat, Flying Lotus, Pharrell Williams, and George Clinton, who Lamar literally tracked down somewhere in the South and flew out to collaborate with. There is not a single moment on this record that sounds accidental. Every horn stab, every bass line, every sample placement was deliberate. Lamar spent over two years making it, sometimes recording after concerts at whatever local studio was nearby, obsessing over every detail.

Then there is "Alright," which became an anthem in ways nobody planned. When protesters started chanting its hook in the streets during the summer of 2015, it confirmed what the album already knew about itself: this was not just music, it was a document. If you are coming to Kendrick Lamar for the first time, this is the album that shows you what he is capable of at his highest level. It will demand your full attention and reward every second of it.