Fans have been noticing something odd about Kendrick Lamar's recent setlists from music festivals such as Sasquatch and Sweetlife: The rapper has been largely ignoring his current album To Pimp A Butterfly at festival dates. At both shows, the emcee only played "Alright" from the album, which was released in March.
It's a curious artistic decision. If anything, you normally hear fans complaining that a performer is playing too much from their current album and not giving enough time for the hits. Lamar already has a series of "hits" off of Butterfly, including Grammy-winner "i" and "King Kunta." Not only that, it's not as if the album was some experimental moment that he and fans would rather forget. To Pimp A Butterfly has been one of the most well-received albums of 2015.
So why isn't Lamar taking the opportunity to promote it and air out new material? He certainly hasn't commented on the trend yet.
One theory, and so far the best we've heard, is that Lamar doesn't feel ready to perform the new material live yet. It seems unlikely, considering how long the album has been out now, but without any other diagnoses, we've got nothing better to go on. Lamar, like Kanye West and other perfectionists in the hip-hop world, have an ideal vision for how a performance should go, and if he doesn't think he can deliver up to the potential of Butterfly, he's not going to waste our time with it. Again, just a theory.
Of course, that could lead to conundrums for the performer. Some fans have pointed out that if he plays the same Sasquatch/Sweetlife set at Bonnaroo next weekend, then he'll basically be playing the same set that he did at the festival during 2013.
Fans in Tennessee will just have to hope and pray for that butterfly to emerge from its cocoon.
