Tarik Mohammed El-Sayed
When I was given the opportunity to highlight and analyse an album cover of my choosing, ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’ stood out to me immediately. This 2015 album by Kendrick Lamar follows themes of the American government’s exploitation of black art, the effects of success, and the institutionalisation of gang violence and communities, particularly in Compton, where Kendrick grew up.
The album art itself shows a grainy, black and white image of a group of black men in front of the white house, flaunting money and alcohol, whilst a man lies lifeless on the ground with crosses over his eyes. It’s certainly an album cover that overtly comments on the injustices inflicted by the American system on the black community, a theme that is consistent throughout the songs as well.
This group is meant to resemble the people Kendrick grew up with in Compton, the alcohol and money making reference to the gang violence and drug dealings that happen. The man lying dead below them is a judge, confirmed by the gavel in his hand as well as a confirmation by Kendrick in a past interview. Judges in America have historically been an antagonist for African Americans and the progression of their civil rights: for example, Plessy v Ferguson back in the late 1800s, a Supreme Court ruling which enforced segregation in the US. This imagery could be seen as African Americans fighting back against the system, which has consistently oppressed them.
This imagery continues the theme… of the American government being a villain in history
An interesting part of this cover, when looking more closely, is seeing what appears to be Kendrick holding a baby with a single dollar bill. This baby could be a symbol for the institutionalisation of crime in Compton, with children being born into this violent community and developing the ‘Compton-mindeset’ which is referenced in the song ‘Institutionalized’ through the lyric ‘you can take your boy out the hood, but you can’t take the hood out the homie’. This can be inferred from the single dollar bill as well as the fact that the cover shows several different generations of people in the crowd with children, teens and adults.
What looms behind this small crowd is the White House with an American flag standing tall, dwarfing the group of black men below it. This imagery continues the theme across the whole album of the American government being a villain in history, large and dominant. As well as that, the imagery could be a reference to Kendrick’s commentary on black people taking back their pride from the racist American system by overcoming obstacles, having success, and making it out of the crime-ridden estates in Compton, linking to the second song on the album ‘For Free? -Interlude’.
However, like what is also mentioned in ‘For Free?-Interlude’, the success of being a black artist, whilst appearing as fighting against racist systems, in reality is just following the cycle of the music industry and America exploiting black talent for their own profits and draining them until they are eventually dropped. This exploitation of black art is also a recurring theme across the album as Kendrick believes this is happening to him due to his success from his prior album ‘good kid,m.A.A.d city’. It could then be seen that the group of jubilant black men, excited by success, are naive to how they are being exploited by the big industries of the U.S, which are symbolised by the white house behind them.
What makes this album cover so special is how it works complementary to the themes of the album itself. Kenrick’s commentary on racial injustice in America on this album can be summed up a lot from analysing this cover alone, which makes this album my personal favourite.
Tarik Mohammed El-Sayed
Featured image courtesy of Dima Jungliest via Unsplash. Image use license found here. No changes were made to this image.
In-article photos courtesy of @xxl via Instagram. No changes were made to these photos.
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