In 2015, when people took to the streets to protest police brutality and the killing of Black Americans, Kendrick Lamar's "Alright" was among the songs soundtracking the nationwide demonstrations.
"Kendrick had clearly hit on the spirit of the moment, and people were using these songs as energy for these important political struggles — and human rights struggles, really," says World Cafe correspondent John Morrison.
In this installment of The Culture Corner, Morrison talks about the impact of To Pimp a Butterfly as it turns 10 years old this month — and why Lamar is worthy of being compared to Bob Dylan, not just as a literary talent but as a public personality.
"Kendrick Lamar is an artist in that sense where he's absolutely political and absolutely writing about the times that we live in, but he doesn't necessarily want to be considered a political artist," Morrison says.
This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Kimberly Junod and Will Loftus. The web story was created by Miguel Perez. Our engineer is Chris Williams and our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson.
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