To Pimp a Butterfly
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50 free To Pimp a Butterfly trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
To Pimp a Butterfly is the album on which Kendrick Lamar stopped sounding like anyone else in rap. He pulled jazz players, funk veterans and soul singers into the studio and came out with a record that critics put at the top of their lists for the year and, later, for the decade. Running through it is a poem. Lamar recites part of it between songs, comes back to it again and again, and only at the very end lets the listener hear the whole piece and learn who it was meant for. This quiz follows that thread, then widens out to the songs, the guests, the samples, the videos and the night at the Grammys. It is written for anyone who has played the record more than once, and for newer listeners who want to know why people still talk about it. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so a wrong guess still teaches something.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which late rapper does Kendrick Lamar appear to interview at the very end of To Pimp a Butterfly?
Tupac Shakur
Tupac Shakur answers Lamar's questions through audio lifted from a 1994 radio interview, taped only weeks before he was shot. His mother and stepbrother approved the use of the tape.
Q 02Which politician called How Much a Dollar Cost, from To Pimp a Butterfly, the best song of 2015?
Barack Obama
Barack Obama picked the album's parable about a beggar over every hit of the year while he was still in office. Lamar later joined his 2016 Independence Day celebration at the White House.
Q 03Which rock legend's final album, released in 2016, was influenced by Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly?
David Bowie
David Bowie and his producer Tony Visconti listened to a lot of Lamar while making Blackstar, admiring that the rapper had refused to make a straight hip-hop record. They wanted the same freedom.
Q 04Which pop star's album beat Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly to Album of the Year at the 2016 Grammys?
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift won with 1989, though Lamar left with five trophies, more than anyone else that night. He had arrived with the most nominations too.
Q 05Which song from To Pimp a Butterfly had its chorus chanted by marchers at Black Lives Matter protests?
Alright
Alright was taken up at youth-led marches against police brutality, and several magazines called it the movement's unifying soundtrack. Lamar described the song as a message of hope.
Q 06The booklet of Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly hides the album's full title in what form?
Braille
Braille dots run through the CD and vinyl booklet. A translator hired by Complex found a jumbled phrase, most likely meant to read A Blank Letter by Kendrick Lamar.
Q 07The opening track of To Pimp a Butterfly is named after which Hollywood actor?
Wesley Snipes
Wesley Snipes went to prison for failing to file tax returns. Lamar used the case to argue that nobody teaches poor young stars how to manage sudden money or celebrity.
Q 08On Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly, what happens to the recurring poem each time it returns between songs?
It grows longer
It grows longer: Lamar adds more lines at each return, so the poem is revealed slowly across the record. Only the last track delivers it complete, then shows who has been listening.
Q 09In How Much a Dollar Cost on To Pimp a Butterfly, who does the gas-station beggar turn out to be?
God
God is the man Lamar refuses a single dollar, and the refusal costs the rapper his place in Heaven. Lamar has called the song a true story about a test of integrity.
Q 10Which superstar reportedly recorded with Kendrick Lamar for To Pimp a Butterfly but ran out of time to finish anything?
Prince
Prince and Lamar shared a session but were too pressed for time to complete anything for the record. Lamar also tried to reach the producer Madlib and never got through.
Q 11Which creature did the word butterfly replace in the working title of Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly?
A caterpillar
A caterpillar came first: the working title's initials spelled the name of a late rapper the album addresses. Lamar swapped the word because he wanted to show the brightness of life.
Q 12A trip to which country led Kendrick Lamar to scrap whole albums of material before To Pimp a Butterfly?
South Africa
South Africa changed the record's direction: Lamar toured the country and visited Nelson Mandela's cell on Robben Island. He came home and dropped two or three albums' worth of songs.
Q 13Which hitmaker produced and sang the hook on the protest anthem from Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly?
Pharrell Williams
Q 21Which closing track of To Pimp a Butterfly finally delivers the album's recurring poem from start to finish?
Mortal Man
Mortal Man runs past twelve minutes: a song, then the complete poem, then a staged conversation with a dead hero. Lamar said the title means he is just a man.
Q 22Which funk pioneer sings on the opening track of Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly and cameos in the video for i?
George Clinton
George Clinton lends his voice to the album's first minutes. Lamar said he listened often to Parliament-Funkadelic, the funk collective Clinton leads, while he was recording.
Q 23Which bassist, once of the metal band Suicidal Tendencies, was called the creative epicenter of To Pimp a Butterfly?
Thundercat
Pharrell Williams built the beat in 2014 with another rapper in mind. Lamar worried it clashed with the album's jazz and funk until his producers worked drums into it.
Q 14King Kunta, from To Pimp a Butterfly, takes its name from the rebellious hero of which bestselling novel about slavery?
Roots
Roots follows Kunta Kinte, who is captured in the Gambia and rejects the slave name his owners give him. Lamar's title puts a crown on the rebel.
Q 15The video for King Kunta, from To Pimp a Butterfly, was filmed on the streets of which California city?
Compton
Compton supplied the cast as well as the streets: Lamar said most of the people in the video were friends of his who still lived there. Director X made the clip.
Q 16Which rap mogul is credited as an executive producer of Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly?
Dr. Dre
Dr. Dre shared the executive producer credit with Anthony Tiffith, the head of Lamar's home label. The album also came out through Aftermath, the label Dre founded, and he is credited with background vocals on two tracks.
Q 17At the 2015 BET Awards, Kendrick Lamar performed a To Pimp a Butterfly single while standing on top of what?
A police car
A police car covered in graffiti was his stage, with a huge battered American flag beside it. The performance opened the show and drew angry commentary on cable news.
Q 18Kendrick Lamar's 11 Grammy nominations in the To Pimp a Butterfly year fell one short of which star's 1984 record?
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson set the single-night record of 12, which Babyface later matched. Lamar's 11 was the most a rapper had received in one night, and he turned five of the nominations into wins.
Q 19Which NBA star's public request prompted Kendrick Lamar to release leftover To Pimp a Butterfly demos in 2016?
LeBron James
LeBron James asked for the songs after Lamar performed nameless new material on television. Eight dated, unfinished tracks followed within weeks and went straight to number one.
Q 20Why did Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly reach iTunes and streaming eight days ahead of its release date?
A label error
A label error at Interscope put it out early, by the account of Lamar's own label boss. iTunes pulled the album the next day, but it stayed up for streaming.
Thundercat plays bass across the album and sings on two tracks, one of which won him a Grammy. He also produced two others and developed an EP of his own during the same sessions.
Q 24Which rapper guests on Institutionalized, the Rahki-produced fourth track of Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly?
Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg shares the song with two singers, and he is one of only two guest rappers credited on the whole album. Rahki also produced the record's lead single.
Q 25Kendrick Lamar's single i, from To Pimp a Butterfly, is built on the song That Lady by which soul group?
The Isley Brothers
The Isley Brothers gave more than permission: Lamar flew to St. Louis to ask their lead singer in person, and the singer ended up adding ad-libs of his own to the record.
Q 26Which Kendrick Lamar release is made up of songs left over from the To Pimp a Butterfly sessions?
Untitled Unmastered
Untitled Unmastered gives its tracks no names, only numbers and dates. Lamar left the recordings rough on purpose, and the set still debuted on top of the Billboard 200.
Q 27Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly set a global first-day record of 9.6 million plays on which service?
Spotify
Spotify counted 9.6 million plays on the album's first day, a global record for the service at the time. In the same week the record debuted at number one in the United States, Britain and Australia.
Q 28At which 2022 event did Kendrick Lamar perform a To Pimp a Butterfly anthem alongside Eminem and Mary J. Blige?
The Super Bowl
The Super Bowl halftime show of February 2022 put Lamar on stage with five other stars. He had sung the same song at the 2016 Grammys, in a medley two magazines ranked the night's best moment.
Q 29Which actor joins Kendrick Lamar on a talent-show stage to dance to Hit the Quan in a To Pimp a Butterfly video?
Terry Crews
Terry Crews dances beside Lamar in the comic clip for the album's fifth single, subtitled A Black Comedy. The video opens in a jail cell and ends on the words To be continued.
Q 30Which R&B star sings background vocals on u and one of the interludes of Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly?
SZA
SZA was signed to the same label as Lamar and sings behind him on two tracks. She also turns up in one of the album's music videos, where he comes bursting into her apartment.