Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly ‘forever placed in the canon’ at Harvard Library
Along with Nas' Illmatic
Kendrick Lamar’s masterpiece (at least until the next one) To Pimp A Butterfly has been added to the Harvard Library in acknowledgment of its cultural significance.
The vinyl used for the original production of the album, along with its liner notes has been canonised, along with three other LPs: Nas’ Illmatic, Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory.
Producer and Harvard Fellow 9th Wonder is curating 200 albums that will enter Harvard’s Loeb Music Library, with 10 set to enter it in 2017.
“In 2012, I was chosen to be a Harvard University Fellow at The Dubois Institute,” he wrote on Instagram.
“I chose the research project "These Are The Breaks"....a collection of albums that are the standard of the culture.....200 in all in no particular order.
“These are the first four we chose to start with....to live for forever in the Harvard Library...and to be forever placed in the canon...complete with liner notes and the vinyl that was used in the production of the album...... To live forever.... 4 down.. 196 to go….”
In 2014, Kendrick’s previous album, Good Kid Maad City, began being taught as a text in schools.
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