There’s only one reigning kingpin of rap at the moment and it’s Kendrick Lamar. The Grammy-nominated rapper has blown away the hip-hop community by avoiding the #sophomoreslump on ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’. After the album was released a week early to Itunes, the set’s interludes garnered Lamar the most credible buzz. On “For Free (Interlude)”, Kendrick takes aim at the money-hungry politics of the rap industry by proclaiming the many ways in which he’ll never work “for free”. Kendrick skirts the fine line between spoken word poetry and hip-hop on “Free” and delivers one of his most conscious verses on the ‘Butterfly’ project – especially with the boisterous refrain “this dick ain’t free”. Although the song reeks of inspiration, some critics have argued that it paints an unlikable portrait of the pressure that women place on Black men in society, to which Kendrick responds via wax with the witty line “oh America, you bad bitch, I picked cotton that made you rich / now my dick ain’t free”. The great jazz instrumentalist Robert Glasper plays piano on the interlude and adds an interesting vintage sound to the “Free” interlude, making the short song tie in perfectly with the rest of the album. For controversy reasons, it’s pretty certain that “Free” probably will never get the official single treatment it deserves – but that doesn’t mean it isn’t epic in its own regard. Listen and download Kendrick Lamar’s “For Free (Interlude)” below.

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