Mortal Man - Kendrick Lamar (To Pimp A Butterfly)
"Mortal Man" - Kendrick Lamar (Timestamp 10:40)
"The caterpillar is a prisoner to the streets that conceived it
Its only job is to eat or consume everythingAround it, in order to protect itself from this mad cityWhile consuming its environment theCaterpillar begins to notice ways to surviveOne thing it noticed is how much theWorld shuns him, but praises the butterflyThe butterfly represents the talent,The thoughtfulness, and the beauty within the caterpillarBut having a harsh outlook on life the caterpillar sees theButterfly as weak and figures outA way to pimp it to his own benefitsAlready surrounded by this mad city the caterpillarGoes to work on the cocoon which institutionalizes himHe can no longer see past his own thoughtsHe's trappedWhen trapped inside these walls certain ideas take roots,Such as going home, and bringing back new concepts to this mad cityThe result?Wings begin to emerge, breaking the cycle of feeling stagnantFinally free, the butterfly sheds light on situations thatThe caterpillar never considered, ending the internal struggleAlthough the butterfly and caterpillar areCompletely different, they are one and the same."
This poem comes off of Kendrick Lamar's song "Mortal Man" which is apart of his album "To Pimp A Butterfly". The poem is read by Kendrick Lamar as part of a conversation between Kendrick and Tupac Shakur at the end of "Mortal Man". The poem tells a story about a caterpillar growing into a butterfly, understanding and learning the thoughts of itself. But as we know (or should know), there's many, many more layers to this as it comes off of a Kendrick Lamar song. Although there are many interpretations on what this story/poem is about, it's mainly seen as a summary of the album "To Pimp A Butterfly" as it is the last thing listeners hear when listening to the album. Each line has its own significance, its own weight, and its own ties to all the songs on the album, but when talking about "beautiful" lines, these are my favorite.
"The caterpillar is a prisoner to the streets that conceived it
Its only job is to eat or consume everythingAround it, in order to protect itself from this mad cityWhile consuming its environment theCaterpillar begins to notice ways to surviveOne thing it noticed is how much theWorld shuns him, but praises the butterflyThe butterfly represents the talent,The thoughtfulness, and the beauty within the caterpillarBut having a harsh outlook on life the caterpillar sees theButterfly as weak and figures outA way to pimp it to his own benefits
Although this is almost half the poem, it's impossible to break it down without ruining the flow of the poem. As I mentioned before, there are many interpretations on what this story could be about, but the way I view it as it the "caterpillar" represent the people, the "fans", the ones who grew up with Kendrick. Kendrick is represented by the change from caterpillar to butterfly, which is all later in the poem. In this portion of the poem, the "caterpillar" are the people who stuck being poor in the city of Compton (Kendrick's birthplace), hence why they are "a prisoner to the streets". The caterpillars are not living to succeed, they are living to survive, doing what they possibly can to stay afloat in Compton. The lines I find the most beautiful within this section of the poem are "the World shuns him, but praises the butterfly/The butterfly represents the talent, the thoughtfulness." Kendrick "has" the butterfly, he has the talent, the success, but the caterpillars don't see him as an icon or someone to look up to. The caterpillars want to use him, benefit from him. They see Kendrick as weak, easy to manipulate. The caterpillars want to pimp him for their own benefits.
Mortal Man - Kendrick Lamar (10:40 for the poem)
Extra Personal Thoughts
Kendrick Lamar is probably the person I've written the most blogs about, and will probably continue doing so. When it comes to rap, it often gets summarized into three obvious categories: guns, girls, and intercourse. Which I won't entirely disagree on, those categories definitely have their own communities around them. But there is a certain uniqueness to Kendrick's music. Each and every song has a message, and no line is told without meaning. In his own way, Kendrick's music is poetry. When being able to freelance through blogs like this one, I will almost certainly involve Kendrick Lamar simply due to the fact that I can. I will never have to force a connection between Kendrick's music and whatever topic I'm writing about because there is always either a connection, or there isn't at all and majority of the time, there is a connection. It comes from the versatility of Kendrick's music making abilities. The blog above has hundreds of more connections to be made. The amount of layers within the "Mortal Man" poem alone is hard to even conceptualize. There's connections between the poem and every songs, the lyrics of each on the album, Tupac Shakur, Nelson Mandela, black culture, street violence, hip-hop culture etc...
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