In December 2015, Boiler Room put out a series of end of year podcasts celebrating notable musical stories from the year. One of these podcasts was a mixtape compiled by Livin' Proof's Raji Rags, celebrating Kendrick Lamar's successes in the run up and aftermath of the release of "To Pimp a Butterfly". Every song on the mixtape was either a track or feature by Kendrick and I illustrated the artwork for it. It depicts Kendrick sitting regally on a barber's chair with a load of references to his songs hidden around him. "To Pimp a Butterfly" deals with Kendrick's stuggle between on one hand embracing fame and surrendering to his vices and on the other the desire to do the right thing and use his music to help the people from his home town and bring about social change. In my illustration, everything on the left side of Kendrick's head represent vices that he mentions in his songs and everything on the right represents his inspirations.
I've put together a key below to explain all the references in the image, and you can hear the mixtape here.▼
Key for song references
1. "I'm going through something with life / But pussy and Patron will make you feel alright" - P&P - Kendrick Lamar EP
2. "Women, weed and weather" - The Recipe - Good Kid M.A.A.d City
3. "What you want? You a house or a car?" - Wesley's Theory - To Pimp a Butterfly
4. "I want you to know that Lucy got you" - For Sale? (Interlude) - To Pimp a Butterfly
5. "I'm Makaveli's offspring, I'm the King of New York / King of the Coast, one hand, I juggle them both" - Control - single
6. "Now I run the game got the whole world talkin', King Kunta Everybody wanna cut the legs off him, Kunta Black man taking no losses" - King Kunta - To Pimp a Butterfly
7. "Last time I checked, we was racing with Marcus Garvey / On the freeway to Africa till I wreck my Audi" - HiiiPoWeR - Section.80
8. "This m.A.A.d city I run, my nigga" - M.A.A.d City - Good Kid M.A.A.d City
9. "...now that I finally got a chance to holla at you, I always wanted to ask you about a certain situa--, about a metaphor actually" - Mortal Man - To Pimp a Butterfly
10. "So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street / when gang banging make me kill a nigga blacker than me?" - The Blacker The Berry - To Pimp a Butterfly
11. "Made me wanna go back to the city and tell the homies what I learned" - Mortal Man - To Pimp a Butterfly
12. "Granddaddy had the golden flask, backstroke every day in Chicago" - Swimming Pools (Drank) - Good Kid M.A.A.d City
13. "I met her at this house party on El Segundo and Central / She had the credentials of strippers in Atlanta" - Sherane a.k.a Master Splinter's Daughter - Good Kid M.A.A.d City
14. From an interview with Narduar where Kendrick reveals his favourite fast food restaurant is Louisiana Fried chicken.
15. "Mom, I finna use the van real quick! Be back, 15 minutes!" - Compton - Good Kid M.A.A.d City
16. "I heard the barbershops be in great debates all the time / Bout who's the best MC? Kendrick, Jigga and Nas" - Control - single