Originally Posted by Moonshake

The issue which I described with this album is not actually with the music itself (if you notice, I did not comment on the content of the album whatsoever), but instead with the rather horrifying social influence of Anthony Fantano. Simply, without his high praise, I don't believe Kendrick Lamar's albums would be nearly as highly rated on RYM, and to me it is highly regrettable that one man has so much influence on the music tastes of others—To Pimp a Butterfly is the one true exemplar of this phenomenon.

However, you do raise a good point; when I said that the album and its physical copies should be incinerated and televised, I wrote that only taking into account the phenomenon above which I described. If I am reminded that the content of the music describes and explores concepts heavily related to Black Americans and their modern-day and historical struggles across multiple strata of society, which makes this album to be very important to those who heavily resonate with said content, then perhaps saying to incinerate all copies of the album is an overstep on my part.

But also, in a way, Fantano's high praise and wide reach (with an audience that is, for all intents and purposes, western, suburban and nonblack) likely dilutes the important sociopolitical messages of the album, by flooding the listener base with people who are wholly unprepared for, and unaware of, the actual content and messages contained within the music itself. Are we to call this, with concern for true social reform in the United States, a true victory? I don't think I would. The more something becomes common parlance, the less significance it carries, and we are obviously to never forget the brutal history of the United States, and how many of us ultimately have blood on our hands.

So, basically, I believe you and I were "tunnel-visioning" on two different aspects of this album, cats: me, on the social repercussions of Anthony Fantano's praise and the blind reception of those who do not know what they are hearing, and you, concerned over my hyperbolic and not-so-subtly ironic frustration in light of the extremely important sociopolitical themes and dialogue within the music itself. But principally, I don't believe we are in much disagreement.

Cheers 🥂