34th Annual Student Research Conference
To Pimp a Butterfly: An Exploration of Identity and Cross-Cultural Relations Through a Rap Album’s Synthesis of Late Twentieth-Century African-American Musical Genres
Theodore D. Greer
Dr. Marc Rice, Faculty Mentor
Incorporating genres such as jazz, funk, and spoken word, as well as a variety of rap subgenres such as G-funk (gangsta rap), jazz rap, and conscious rap, Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly fuses diverse African-American musics of the twentieth century with a modern approach to curation, both paying homage to and reinvigorating genres of the past while bolstering the ethos of the modern work and trailblazing an approach to rap more explicitly conscious of its musical lineage. This presentation highlights the conclusions found in surveying the album as a whole, as well as in analyzing in depth four of the album’s sixteen tracks within the context of the genre’s musical predecessors. Considerations from both a musical and textual perspective are included.
Keywords: Rap, Hip-Hop
Topic(s):Music
African-American Studies
Interdisciplinary Studies
Presentation Type: Asynchronous Virtual Oral Presentation
Session: 15-5
Location: https://flipgrid.com/899114aa
Time: 0:00