Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly is without a doubt one of the year's best offerings. The carefully crafted artistic statement found the rapper innovating the genre with a work that was at once joyous, difficult, honest and damn-near genius. He's also taken that envelope-pushing approach to the videos that have come from the project. The latest cinematic selection is new clip "God Is Gangsta."
The clip combines visuals for TPAB's more difficult musical moment "u" and the jazzy temptation parable "For Sale?" to create a complicated visual expressing the self-doubt and turmoil going on within the young rapper. As the lyrics to "u" suggest, the clip opens with Kendrick drowning his troubles in a bottle of brown liquor as he confronts his own worst enemy: himself. The rapper is a drunken mess as he spits lines laced with vitriol and directed at the man in the mirror (literally).
Things switch up for the for the video's next act, starting with Kendrick being baptized. However, that doesn't stop temptation from reaching out for him. To illustrate the point, our boy is surrounded by nubile and topless young women beckoning for him to follow them down the road of seduction. But just as it seems he might succumb, he's lifted out of the water.
Just as stylistic as previous videos, "God Is Gangsta" is sure to keep us talking about Kendrick and To Pimp a Butterfly as he gears up to see if the project will bring home the gold come GRAMMY time. Check out the video right here.
