Five years ago today, Kendrick Lamar released his third studio album ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’ which was originally titled ‘Tu Pimp a Caterpillar’ in honor of the late hip-hop legend Tupac, but was changed since it abbreviated to TUPAC
During a 2015 interview with MTV News, Kendrick Lamar revealed that the title of his profound album was in fact originally called, Tu Pimp A Caterpillar (Tu-P-A-C) in honor of Tupac.
“That was the original name and they caught it because the abbreviation was Tupac, Tu-P-A-C,” Kendrick Lamar told MTV on the subject of how other journalists like DeadEndHip-Hop—who were the first— caught on to the Tupac reference.
On Mortal Man, Kendrick Lamar raps, “I remember you was conflicted, misusing your influence, Sometimes I did the same, Abusing my power, full of resentment,” which lead to a pretend interview K. Dot has with Tupac on the song that uses actual clips from a 1994 Tupac interview with a Swedish Radio show p3 Soul.
“Me changing it to Butterfly, I just really wanted to show the brightness of life and the word pimp has so much aggression and that represents several things. For me, it represents using my celebrity for good. Another reason is, not being pimped by the industry through my celebrity.”
Watch the Kendrick Lamar interview with MTV’s Rob Markman below.
Read: David Bowie’s final album “Blackstar” was influenced by Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp a Butterfly”
