Kendrick Lamar Visits High School Where Students Studied To Pimp A Butterfly

Photo by Jessica Lehrman

Kendrick Lamar recently paid a visit to High Tech High School in North Bergen, N.J., where Brian Mooney, who teaches freshman English, used Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly to draw correlations to Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye.

According to the New York Times report, Mooney asked his students to “reflect on the dichotomy of black culture in America — the celebration of itself and its struggle with historic oppression”. His students then penned essays and created art that Mooney recorded in a blog that eventually made its way to Kendrick Lamar after accruing over 10,000 Facebook shares.

Lamar sat in on Mooney’s class and listened to the students before participating in a panel in the afternoon, in which the group discussed the inspiration behind the album and Lamar’s perception as an author himself. Mooney selected 50 of his students to perform spoken word sessions and raps for Lamar. Later, the group joined the rest of the school at the field house, where Lamar performed “Alright”.

According to Rolling Stone, Lamar was “intrigued that somebody other than [himself] can articulate and break down the concepts of To Pimp a Butterfly almost better than [he] can”.

Watch Lamar’s video for “King Kunta”: