Last Monday night, Kendrick Lamar took a moment from his New York stop of the Kunta’s Groove Sessions tour to explain To Pimp A Butterfly and thank his fans.
He started off the speech by saying that making To Pimp A Butterfly was therapy for him, saying that once good kid, m.a.a.d. city dropped, within six months his entire life changed for good. “I’m a low-key n*gga, and I’m not scared of the world,” he said, so higher-ups trying to tell him who to run with didn’t fly with him. “As I said on the Kendrick Lamar EP, ‘I need to be be, god damnit!’,” he followed.
Kendrick also thanked his fans, especially the ones in New York, for helping ride the To Pimp A Butterfly wave to the top and make it a No. 1 album without any large radio singles. “That proves to you right there: music is not something you can market all time. This shit belong to you, and you only,” he finished.
This tour was billed as “an intimate night with Kendrick Lamar,” so it’s nice to see him take that opportunity to go a little deeper than just the music on tour. I’m sure this wasn’t the first speech he gave on the tour, and it wasn’t the last, but it’s nice we got video of it. Watch above.
