The Debate Everyone Should Be Having About Around Kendrick Lamar's New Album

The Debate Everyone Should Be Having About Around Kendrick Lamar's New Album
FAJARDO, CA - NOVEMBER 01: Kendrick Lamar performs during the Bacardi Triangle event on November 1, 2014 in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. The event saw 1,862 music fans take on one of the most mysterious forces of nature in a three day epic music adventure. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images for BACARDI)
FAJARDO, CA - NOVEMBER 01: Kendrick Lamar performs during the Bacardi Triangle event on November 1, 2014 in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. The event saw 1,862 music fans take on one of the most mysterious forces of nature in a three day epic music adventure. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images for BACARDI)

Kendrick Lamar knew To Pimp a Butterfly would make a huge impact when it landed.

Before the album dropped, Lamar was already talking about how the album would be "taught in college courses someday." He's right: Every track on To Pimp a Butterfly is a complex look at the personal and political sides of race relations. They are dense, academically and historically informed, and they've revived one massive debate about race relations: culturalism versus structuralism.

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