Kendrick Lamar is really setting a precedence with his upcoming new album, To Pimp a Butterfly. Not only is that daunting four-letter word risking a potential censorship in retail stores who carry the CDs adjacent from bars of soap, he also sent a loud message with the album’s artwork. By depicting the homies of “the hood” infiltrating the White House, he let it be known that his interest in going commercial to be able to compete with Macklemore on that Grammy stage is little to none. (As if the street single, “The Black The Berry” didn’t allude to that enough.) To help hammer home the message, we compiled several politically charged rap album covers that have preceded To Pimp a Butterfly. Hip-Hop is alive and well. — Photos: Universal Pictures, Interscope.
