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Kendrick Lamar · S5 E7
Mortal Man
A poem built across the entire album, then a conversation with Tupac from beyond the grave
At the end of To Pimp a Butterfly, Kendrick Lamar asks Tupac Shakur a question. The only answer is silence.
Kendrick Lamar, untitled 08 (live on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, 2016). A TPAB session track performed live with a full band, floating between jazz, soul, and spoken word. This is the sound of the same sessions that produced "Mortal Man": Kendrick freestyling about faith and purpose, the band breathing around him in real time.
untitled 08 | 09.06.2014., Kendrick Lamar (2016)
Recorded during the TPAB sessions and later released on Untitled Unmastered. The production floats between jazz piano and warm soul, with Kendrick drifting between singing and rapping. The Tonight Show performance strips it even further, letting the live band breathe and sway around him. Listen for how loose and unguarded the delivery feels compared to the precision of TPAB's finished tracks.
Sources
Kendrick Lamar. "untitled unmastered." Top Dawg Entertainment / Aftermath / Interscope, 2016.
The Poem
Throughout TPAB, at the end of almost every track, Kendrick reads a piece of a poem. The lines accumulate across the album, building an extended metaphor about a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly. On "Mortal Man," the final track, Kendrick reads the complete poem for the first time. His audience is Tupac Shakur, assembled from a real 1994 interview, edited to create the illusion of a conversation.
Sources
Kendrick Lamar. "To Pimp a Butterfly." Top Dawg Entertainment / Aftermath / Interscope, 2015.
“I always felt like Pac was speaking directly to me. When I heard those old interviews, it felt like he was answering my questions. So I built the conversation.”
— Kendrick Lamar, MTV News, 2015
TAP TO REVEAL: Where does Tupac's voice on "Mortal Man" actually come from?
What extended metaphor runs through the poem Kendrick reads across TPAB?
I Ain't Mad at Cha, 2Pac ft. Danny Boy (1996)
From All Eyez on Me. A farewell disguised as a love letter: Tupac addresses friends who've gone straight, left the streets, found religion, or simply moved on. His voice is warm and forgiving, the opposite of his "Hit 'Em Up" fury. This is the Tupac that Kendrick talks to on "Mortal Man": reflective, philosophical, already thinking about what comes after.
I Ain't Mad at Cha, 2Pac ft. Danny Boy (1996)
Read the lyrics while you listen. Tupac forgives friends for changing, for leaving the life, for growing up. There's no anger in these verses, only acceptance. Knowing he would be dead within months of recording this makes every line land differently.
Mortal Man: The Details
TPAB is done. Then the President of the United States names a Kendrick Lamar song as his favorite of the year, and the kid from Compton gets invited to the White House. Next: The Obama White House.
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