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Welcome to Dissect, Long Form Musical analysis broken into short digestible episodes.

I'm your host Cole Kushna. Today we continue our serialized examination of Tepimpa Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar.

In our previous three episodes we examined Act 1 of Tepipa Butterfly, comprised of the songs

Wesley's Theory, For Free, and King Kunta.

When assessed as a whole, these songs act as a prelude to Kendrick's transformation from Caterpillar to Butterfly.

On Wesley's Siri, young Kendrick lusts about wealth and fame garnered through music.

He meets Uncle Sam, the American Dream

incarnate, who attempts to lure Kendrick down a dark alley of

materialism. And for free, Kendrick rejects Uncle Sam and demands

compensation. He refuses to work for free like his enslaved

ancestors and knows his talent is worth something. In King Kunta, Kendrick

returns to his hometown of Compton in order to claim himself King and prove that he's on top of the rap game.

As we discussed throughout our examination of these songs, a central theme has been the contrasting

duality between empowerment and enslavement.

Though Kendrick feels liberated and empowered by his success in snubbing Uncle Sam, he's still falling

into his trap.

He's still handicapped as a person of color in America and by his own mentality.

...