In a recent sit-down with Elsie Not Elise, Top Dawg Entertainment president Terrence “Punch” Henderson shared a memorable piece of advice Jay-Z gave him before Kendrick Lamar dropped To Pimp a Butterfly.
Around the 21-minute mark of the interview, Punch was asked whether there were any doubts about how the 2015 album would be received. He admitted he had voiced concerns to Jay-Z while working on the project.
“It’s funny, I said this online before… While we were working on To Pimp a Butterfly, me and SZA would go to Beyoncé’s sessions, and she was writing for her,” he explained. “Jay-Z was there every night. So I had a chance to talk to him, and I told him, ‘Yo, we getting ready to drop this album that’s going to piss off the whole fanbase.’”
According to Punch, Jay-Z’s reaction was immediate and supportive. “His response was, ‘Good, do it now, so they can’t never put you in the box,’” Punch recalled. “And that stuck with me for sure. It gave me more confidence—like, yeah, we’re on the right track. The thing is, rules are set, but geniuses know when to break those rules.”
Punch admitted that when To Pimp a Butterfly finally dropped, it did in fact ruffle some feathers among Kendrick Lamar’s fanbase.
“And with that being said, he could never be put in a box,” he added.
The landmark album marked its tenth anniversary in March. While some listeners felt it wasn’t what they expected from Lamar—who later delivered the more traditional rap project Damn in 2017—To Pimp a Butterfly earned widespread critical acclaim and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Although Kendrick is no longer signed to TDE, having released his latest album GNX under his own imprint pgLang, most of his iconic catalog was released through the label.
