“We Gon’ Be Alright”: Blackness, Controversy, and Hope in Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly On March 15, 2015, rapper Kendrick Lamar released his album To Pimp a Butterfly, which was met with wide critical acclaim for its complex exploration of blackness and African American identity in contemporary American culture. His album covers such themes as growing up poor in Compton, police brutality against African Americans, and the systemic racism and violence that African Americans face. Thus, To
not bother trying to say it in music.” The beautiful truth of this statement is seen in the works of many excellent composers throughout history, such as Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Handel, Chopin, and Tchaikovsky, amongst others. The wide variety of emotion in the numerous compositions created throughout time gives aspiring musicians hope, as well as auditors a feeling that is unexplainable and that can only be received through the sounds that are of itself music. Music has changed drastically and dramatically