What we have all been waiting for has arrived: To Pimp A Butterfly, by the king himself, Kendrick Lamar. To Pimp A Butterfly (TPAB) was initially set to release on iTunes, Playstore, and in stores on March 23rd, 2015.

TPAB was Kendrick’s third studio album under his label Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE). This was Kendrick’s highly anticipated album after going three years without any hit songs. TPAB also broke the Spotify record for amount of streams in a week, with 9.6 million streams, superceding Drake’s previous number, 6.8 million, from IF YOURE READING THIS ITS TOO LATE. Although the numbers have not yet come in for the amount of copies Kendrick has moved, his previous album, Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City, moved 242,000 copies in its first week, earning the highest first-week Hip Hop album sales of 2012 from any male artist. Many people expect TPAB to move 500,00 copies in its first week. That’s a big number to achieve, but they have faith in King Kendrick.

In the album, Kendrick speaks on a range of topics, including racism, politics, depression, friends, and his hometown of Compton, California. The album leads off with his two singles, “The Blacker The Berry,” and “I.” Guest appearances range from the former president (of funk) George Clinton, Snoop Dogg, Bilal, Anna Wise, ThunderCat, Rapsody, James Fauntleroy, and Ronald Isley. One song that struck me was “Mortal Man,” which has Kendrick using jazzy, smooth, and heavy bass beats, and also includes a creative interview with the late Tupac. Another song that caught my attention was “Alright.” This song has Kendrick rapping over jazzy and funky music, about topics like his battle with depression, blacks not being socially equal, and him being a slave to the music industry with them only wanting the pay cut.

With this album causing so much buzz about the topics and Kendrick’s beat selection, I would have to give this album a perfect 10/10. And that’s hard to do, but just listening to this album and actually hearing the lyrics, I think you would too.