Writer's Choice: Album of the Year 2016

The five official Grammy nominees for the 2016 Album of the Year are Alabama Shakes' "Sound and Color", Kendrick Lamar's "To Pimp a Butterfly", Chris Stapleton's "Traveller", Taylor Swift's "1989", and The Weeknd's "Beauty Behind the Madness". 

Which do I hope wins it? Easy - Lamar's "To Pimp a Butterfly."

"To Pimp a Butterfly"

From the early single release of "King Kunta" (track three on the album), I could tell that Kendrick was aiming for an old-school sound. After all, the entirety of the video was shot in a 90s-esque Compton - a deliberate nod to early NWA influence. I loved the style and hoped the rest of the album lived up to the hype. 

I was not disappointed. The first time I listened to the album from start to finish, I was somewhere in Ohio, hours into a cross-country road trip. My brother served as a quasi listening guide, explaining the meaning of the album as we progressed through the tracks. He pointed out that To Pimp a Butterfly deals with the modern rapper's plight of being "pimped" by the industry - in other words, how the rap game takes raw talent and warps it into materialistic mindlessness. 

And although we observed that the album was directed primarily at a black audience, I was impressed by how accessible the music was. The lyrics felt so real and so raw - something I hadn't heard in modern Hip-hop in a long time. 

Production quality on the album is phenomenal. The beats range from be-bop jazz trios to hypnotizing ghetto anthems, and they never settle for a dull moment. 

So much more can be said and analyzed about this album, but suffice it to say it deserves its Grammy; To Pimp a Butterfly is a technical feat, both musically and conceptually.