“Kendrick Lamar’s highly praised rap album ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’ has been ripe for musical reinterpretation since its release,” writes Jim Fusilli in Wednesday’s (10/21) Wall Street Journal. “That’s exactly what Mr. Lamar did here on Tuesday night … with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center…. ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’ … is a moving story in which Mr. Lamar tells of his confrontations with depression, racism, the toxic effects of celebrity and a belief system that harms not only himself but a community he seeks to represent…. The NSO began on its own, playing excerpts of Lamar compositions that reinforced the music’s assertiveness and revealed its melodic possibilities. Mr. Lamar’s band then emerged and set up in front of the orchestra and conductor Steven Reineke…. When the authority of Mr. Lamar’s compositions met the force of the orchestra, the program became extraordinary…. The violent saga ‘M.A.A.D. City’ seemed the perfect example of how rap and symphonic music can collaborate as the brass and [Robert] Gueringer’s guitar punctured the splendor of the strings, thus creating a beautiful maelstrom…. In ‘U,’ in which an angry, confused Mr. Lamar challenges his own ethos … the strings played with frantic intensity, heightening the drama of story.”
Posted October 22, 2015
Pictured: Kendrick Lamar with the NSO Pops, led by Principal Conductor Steven Reineke at the Kennedy Center, October 20, 2015. Photo by Yassine el Mansouri
