When You Lookin’ At Me, Tell Me What Do You See?: Beginning to Understand To Pimp A Butterfly

“I’m not on the outside looking in, I’m not on the inside looking out. I’m in the dead fucking center, looking around.”

When I first heard Kendrick Lamar recite that on Ab-Soul’s Outro (Section.80), I couldn’t get the thought out of my mind. On one hand, I felt the same sentiment in my own life as a culture observer but it also made me realize that to talk about culture, to really interrogate the happenings of our time, I have to balance being immersed in it while staying objective. While this is something I struggle with, it is clear that Kendrick Lamar is quickly asserting himself as the master of this craft. Throughout the album To Pimp A Butterfly, Kendrick does something that has been hard for me to explain. He manages to be one step removed while recounting his own life experiences. He simultaneously knows details THAT only one who lived through the struggles of systematic racism would know, while being completely aware of this system that works so hard to be invisible; his awareness allows him to speak to us as an onlooker from another planet, observing human nature for a science project. Despite standing “five foot something, dazed and confused,” Kendrick articulates Black American life like he is fifty foot something, standing tall in the center of Compton looking around. However, calling him a storyteller doesn’t seem right. The word “story” implies narrative qualities, that things are being exaggerated and made up. This is no story; this is an account of one’s life. Kendrick is able to pull out the nuances of his experiences and re-articulate them for his diverse audience.

I’ve heard people talk about the album saying things like “this is explicitly Black Music made by Black people for Black people.” I’ve heard people say that White people should just listen (for once) and not try to insert themselves into the music. There is no doubt that the music on this album is influenced by jazz, funk and rap music. This is a deliberate and clear homage to the roots of Black American culture. This is Black music. However, I object when people try to delete non-Black people from the picture. This is not for selfish reasons. I don’t feel the desire to relate to the music on some deeper level. I understand my position as a White Canadian woman. I object because White men and women are absolutely implicated in this story. The structural power of systematic racism speaks to everyone in North America. Instead of sitting back and just listening, White people should listen and TALK about it — and not in a Starbucks #racetogether kind of way. I am not talking about absolving White guilt by having “coffee house” conversations. I am talking about realizing that, although white people are not oppressed by racism, they are victims to adhering to the status quo and not interrogating themselves in any deep change to the paradigm. Kendrick has the ability to make these accounts accessible for those whom have little knowledge of Black American experiences. However, he also stays true and authentic to those who know all too well. Some may argue that it shouldn’t matter if he is “accessible” to a non-Black audience, but this portion of the population will be necessary if real concrete change is going to be accomplished. The key to this change is a sense of understanding between culture and race. As such, White people need to hear this album just as much as Black people. Non-Hip Hop fans need to hear this just much as Hip Hop fans. Unlike most critics of To Pimp a Butterfly, I could not possibly talk about the album within the first week of listening to it. Even now, I know I don’t fully understand every angle of this album. I don’t pretend to be the expert and I don’t think anybody else should either. This album is about deep rooted issues sewn into the fabric of the history of the United States; to claim full knowledge would be ignorant. Furthermore, this album does not encapsulate Black Americans. It is the perspective of a young man from Compton but it is a perspective that allows the world to begin to understand the unique experience of the American Black Man.