{"id":87499,"date":"2015-03-18T08:00:33","date_gmt":"2015-03-18T07:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blackouthiphop.com\/?p=87499"},"modified":"2015-03-17T18:02:25","modified_gmt":"2015-03-17T17:02:25","slug":"kendrick-lamar-on-his-new-album-and-the-weight-of-clarity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/kendrick-lamar-on-his-new-album-and-the-weight-of-clarity\/","title":{"rendered":"Kendrick Lamar on His New Album and the Weight of Clarity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"kendrick<\/p>\n

\nFollowing the success of his major label debut, \u201cgood kid, m.A.A.d. city,\u201d in 2012, the rapper Kendrick Lamar did not indulge in earthly luxuries. Instead, he got baptized.<\/p>\n

That album was the story of his redemption, not just from street gangs through rapping but from a life of sin by embracing Jesus Christ. His long-awaited follow-up, \u201cTo Pimp a Butterfly\u201d (TDE\/Aftermath\/Interscope), which was made available online Sunday night, ahead of a planned March 23 release, is about carrying the weight of that clarity: What happens when you speak out, spiritually and politically, and people actually start to listen? And what of the world you left behind?<\/p>\n

Mr. Lamar, who grew up in Compton, Calif., had previously been saved as a teenager in the parking lot of a Food 4 Less, he said, when the grandmother of a friend approached him after a tragedy, asking if he had accepted God. \u201cOne of my homeboys got smoked,\u201d Mr. Lamar recalled. \u201cShe had seen that we weren\u2019t right in the head. That was her being an angel for us.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the interview at NY Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following the success of his major label debut, \u201cgood kid, m.A.A.d. city,\u201d in 2012, the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t