'Rolling Stone's' Best Albums of 2015: Kendrick Lamar Tops List with 'To Pimp a Butterfly’

Ma. Elena
Dec 02, 2015 06:00 AM EST

Kendrick Lamar's "To Pimp a Butterfly" album ranked no.1 at Rolling Stone's 50 Best Albums of 2015 list.

The 28-year-old artist's third record, which debuted in March and follows "good kid and "m.A.A.d city," triumphed over albums from Adele ("25"), Drake ("If You're Reading This It's Too Late"), The Weeknd ("Beauty Behind the Madness"), and D'Angelo and the Vanguard ("Black Messiah"), Rolling Stone wrote.

Rolling Stone described Lamar's "To Pimp a Butterfly" as a "one-of-a-kind masterpiece," displaying both "bumptious party music" and "gripping therapy session." A separate report from the news outlet in March said that the album is "a densely packed, dizzying rush of unfiltered rage and unapologetic romanticism, true-crime confessionals, come-to-Jesus sidebars, blunted-swing sophistication, scathing self-critique and rap-quotable riot acts."

"This album has soared right to the top, with no motherf**king commercial success. God allowed it to be top tier, without a constant radio single or shit. So that proves to you right there that music isn't something [that] you can market all the time," Lamar said of the album's success last month, as quoted by NME.

The 16-track record, which contains songs such as "Wesley's Theory," "King Kunta," and "For Free?", also won the Best Hip-Hop Album in the 2015 Boombox Fan Choice Awards.

In November, Lamar said at the end of his 8-city tour called King Kunta Groove Sessions that the event will be the last live performance of his latest album. Terrance Martin, the record's producer, clarified the issue.

"We didn't do that album for popular culture. We did that album for people who have no way out. We did that album for people who can't even afford to go to the shows. We did an album for people who need hope. You don't prostitute that," Martin explained, as quoted by Music Times.

He also said that he and Lamar are planning to release a new album in the near future, but they have yet to collaborate in the studio, Music Times added.

See a partial list of Rolling Stone's Best Albums of 2015 below:

1. Kendrick Lamar - "To Pimp a Butterfly"

2. Adele - "25"

3. Drake - "If You're Reading This It's Too Late"

4. D'Angelo and the Vanguard - "Black Messiah"

5. The Weeknd - "Beauty Behind the Madness"

6. Courtney Barnett - "Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit"

7. Jason Isbell - "Something More Than Free"

8. Various Artists - "Hamilton: Original Broadway Soundtrack"

9. The Arcs - "Yours, Dreamily"

10. Blur - "The Magic Whip"

24. Donnie Trumpet and the Social Experiment - "Surf"