Guest appearances include Thundercat, George Clinton, Bilal, Anna Wise, Snoop Dogg, James Fauntleroy, Ronald Isley, and Rapsody.

This thematic direction was inspired by Lamar's tour of historic sites during his visit to South Africa, such as Nelson Mandela's jail cell on Robben Island.

To Pimp a Butterfly sold 324,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release, earning a chart debut at number one on the US Billboard 200, while also becoming Lamar's first number-one album in the UK.

On February 28, 2014, Kendrick Lamar first revealed the plans to release a follow-up to his second studio album, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City (2012), during an interview with Billboard.

Touring the country  and visiting historic sites such as Nelson Mandela's jail cell on Robben Island heavily influenced the direction of the record[3] and led to Lamar scrapping "two or three albums worth of material".

Much like the singer D'Angelo on his 2014 album Black Messiah, Lamar "consciously indexes African American musical styles of the past in a dynamic relationship of nostalgic revivalism and vanguardism.

"[5] Lamar described the album as an "honest, fearful and unapologetic" work that draws on funk, hard bop, spoken word and soul[3][23] while critics also noted elements of West Coast hip-hop[27] and avant-garde.

[30] Speaking on the album's styles, co-producer Terrace Martin said, "If you dig deeper you hear the lineage of James Brown, Jackie Wilson, Mahalia Jackson, the sounds of Africa, and our people when they started over here.

Consequently, the music is "jazz-like in spirit if not always in sound", according to Ben Ratliff,[31] while Mosi Reeves from Deadspin observes a virtuosic quality to its "prog-rap cornucopia".

[34] Dan Weiss of Spin noted "shades of Miles Davis' On the Corner and free jazz all over [...], as well as Sly Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On and Funkadelic and Erykah Badu's similarly wah-crazy but comparatively lo-fi New Amerykah (4th World War)," but stated nonetheless that "the sense of this album is vividly contemporary.

"[38] Categorized by Billboard as a "politically-charged" conscious rap album,[39] To Pimp a Butterfly explores a variety of political and personal themes related to race, culture, and discrimination.

[40] Jay Caspian Kang observed elements of critical race theory, respectability politics, theology, and meta-analysis examining Lamar's success and revered status in the hip-hop community.

"[43] Meanwhile, Adam Blum discerned connections between To Pimp a Butterfly and the writings of psychoanalysts such as Wilfred Bion, Nicolas Abraham, and Sigmund Freud.

[44] In an essay published in The Lancet Psychiatry, University of Cambridge professors Akeem Sule and Becky Inkster described Lamar as the "street poet of mental health," noting how To Pimp a Butterfly (as well as its predecessor, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City) explore topics such as addiction, anxiety, depression, and resilience.

[46] With lyrics like "and we hate po-po / Wanna kill us dead in the street fo sho, nigga" he makes it clear that he is supportive of the movement and the families of black men and women like Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, and others who have fallen victim to police brutality in the United States.

Stereo Williams of The Daily Beast wrote in response to his lyrics that "it's dangerous to use that violence as a silencing tactic when the public is angry about the systematic subjugation of black people.

[54] "Alright" begins as a spoken-word treatise before exploding into a shapeshifting portrait of America that brings in jazz horns, skittering drum beats and Lamar's mellifluous rapping as he struggles with troubles and temptations.

[57] "The Blacker the Berry" features a "boom bap beat" and lyrics that celebrate Lamar's African-American heritage and "tackle hatred, racism, and hypocrisy head on.

[49] Lamar decided to replace "caterpillar" in the original title to "butterfly", which he explained in an interview for MTV, "I just really wanted to show the brightness of life and the word 'pimp' has so much aggression and that represents several things.

[70] With the latter's release, several contemporary progressive news outlets, including BET, raised the idea of "Alright" being the modern Black National Anthem,[46][71][72] while the media reported youth-lead protests against police brutality across the country chanted the chorus of the song.

[80] According to Anthony Tiffith, CEO of Top Dawg Entertainment, the album's early release was unintentional, apparently caused by an error on the part of Interscope Records.

[85] By the end of 2015, To Pimp a Butterfly was ranked the sixteenth most popular album on the Billboard 200 that year[86] and reached sales of one million copies worldwide.

[101] Spin magazine's Dan Weiss regarded To Pimp a Butterfly as the "Great American Hip-Hop Album" and an essential listen,[35] while Neil McCormick from The Daily Telegraph called it a dense but dazzling masterpiece.

[94] Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Kyle Anderson found the record twice as substantial as Lamar's debut major label album and more comprehensive of African-American music styles, with supremely "cinematic" production qualities but "the freedom of a mixtape".

"[99] Robert Christgau wrote in his review on Cuepoint that not many artists were as passionate and understanding as Lamar, who offered "a strong, brave effective bid to reinstate hip hop as black America's CNN" during an era of social media.

For instance, New York Times critic Jon Caramanica said Lamar still struggled in reconciling his density as a lyricist with the music he rapped over: "He hasn't outrun his tendency towards clutter [and] still runs the risk of suffocation.

"[105] In The Guardian, Alexis Petridis found the music somewhat erratic and lamented "moments of self-indulgence" such as the twelve-minute "Mortal Man" and Lamar's reflections on fame.

The record topped 51 lists, including those by Rolling Stone, Billboard, Pitchfork, Slant Magazine, Spin, The Guardian, Complex, Consequence, The Irish Times, and Vice.

[126] The album's immediate influence was felt as "a pantheon for racial empowerment", according to Butler, who also argued that the record helped create a respected space for conscious hip-hop and "will be revered not just at the top of some list at the end of the year, but in the subconscious of music fans for decades to come".

[101] Writing for Highsnobiety, Robert Blair said, "[To Pimp a Butterfly] is the crystallized moment in time where Kendrick became a generation's most potent artistic voice.