As part of his 58 Grammy ‘Album of The Year’ nomination, Kendrick Lamar revealed the inside story of his To Pimp A Butterfly album inspiration.
In the Grammy interview King Kendrick credits his 2014 trip to South Africa as the inspiration for the album. As he toured the country, visiting historic sites such as Nelson Mandela’s jail cell on Robben Island, his worldview and approach to music broadened & changed.
According to engineer/mixer Derek “MixedByAli” Ali,the trip led Lamar to create “two or three albums worth of material”. Kendrick Lamar apparently wanted to make music that reflected the sounds of his upbringing in Compton, Calif and SA proved as a source for that inspiration.
“I felt like I belonged in Africa. I saw all the things that I wasn’t taught. Probably one of the hardest things to do is put [together] a concept on how beautiful a place can be, and tell a person this while they’re still in the ghettos of Compton. I wanted to put that experience in the music.” Kendrick Lamar.
Read the full story here.