Writer Jamilah Lemieux opined “ like Black men are taking shit over anywhere at anytime or leading anything without Black women LOL it has never happened, ever.” That said, this particular “revolution” is also notable for its uber-masculinity – a feature that’s already prompted Twitter blowback. Lamar’s LP art suggests that the system has been overthrown by a revolution, black president or not. Today, the same broken system has resulted in an absence of justice for the families of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Renisha McBride, John Crawford, and Tamir Rice, to cite the names of just a few slain black Americans. If the LP’s title is a riff on Harper Lee’s classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird, then perhaps the dead judge (who also bears a striking resemblance to Ronald Reagan) represents Judge John Taylor, a decent man who worked inside a broken system and couldn’t save Tom Robinson, the black man falsely accused of raping a white woman. The cover’s incendiary coup de grace is the white judge – whose presumably recent death is signified by the crude black crosses scrawled over his eyes – splayed across the front of the lawn, gavel dangling limply from his right hand. His digital profanity is pixellated and, amusingly, he is positioned directly above the Parental Advisory label – the warning sign concocted by Tipper Gore in 1985 at the height of the Reagan-era culture wars. In the right front, a small boy victoriously flips the bird.
One man is speaking on his cellphone (perhaps to tell a friend: “We’ve won! Come join the party!”), while many of the others – wearing facial expressions ranging from unbridled joy to pure defiance – brandish booze and fat wads of cash: a Scarface-style symbol of material success historically familiar in rap circles.
#KENDRICK LAMAR PIMP A BUTTERFLY ALVUM COVER MEANING PLUS#
Shot in striking monochrome with the quality of a vintage Polaroid, it features a large group of mostly shirtless black men and children – plus one baby, cradled by Lamar himself and, possibly, one woman – arranged in a victory tableau on the lawn in front of the White House. To call its vivd imagery confrontational would be an understatement.
On Wednesday morning, Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar posted the cover art for his forthcoming LP, To Pimp a Butterfly, on Instagram, prompting much excitement.