At their best, albums are stories and the artist a raconteur who takes our hand and guides us through an intimate experience. That’s what Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 LP, “To Pimp a Butterfly” perfects.

Lamar made noise with his 2011 debut LP, the unfocused “Section.80”, but had his breakthrough with “Good Kid, M.A.A.D City” — about a young Lamar growing up in Compton, the album balanced commercial and critical appeal — the following year. “Butterfly” continues a trend of refined production as it guides us through Lamar, a black man, grappling with fame and feeling twisted by the white establishment — the pimping of a butterfly.

The opener, “Wesley’s Theory”, tackles this head-on. The title of the song is a nod to actor Wesley Snipes’ three-year prison sentence for failure to file taxes. Lamar interprets it as a way to stifle the black community, and ponders if the same thing will happen to him.

“But remember, you ain’t pass economics in school/And everything you buy, taxes will deny/I’ll Wesley Snipe your ass before thirty-five,” Lamar raps in the second verse as the character, Uncle Sam.

Throughout his previous LP, Lamar used characters to let audiences have a taste of what living in Compton was like. We heard them rob a house, evade police, and die in a shootout. The characters in “Butterfly” are more abstract. Uncle Sam is the white establishment profiting off black icons before kicking them to the curb.

On the emphatic 11th track, “How Much a Dollar Cost?”, Lamar meets a homeless man asking for a dollar, but refuses. The homeless man reveals himself as God and sentences Lamar to eternal damnation. Lamar’s intent is to show that successful people have an obligation to give back to their community. If not, they perpetuate the cycle of suffering that they worked so hard to escape from. Throughout the record, Lamar points the finger at himself, questioning if he has abandoned his roots.

On “Institutionalized”, the fourth track, the worlds of stardom and Compton collide. The second verse is told from the perspective of Lamar’s old friend, whom he takes to an awards show. The friend has a near-breakdown and erupts at Lamar for abandoning his roots for an elite that helps perpetuate inequality, planting the seed of survivor’s guilt in the rapper, which leads to the most intimate moment on the record — the sixth track, “u”.

Lamar breaks down in the aftermath of the awards show interaction, swigging bottles of liquor while rapping in a nasal, self-deprecating voice and criticizing his lack of attention to friends and family. Lamar reflects on not seeing his childhood friend Chad Keaton before he died. Keaton was shot in Compton and Lamar, on tour abroad, spoke with him on Skype before he died in surgery.

Lamar told Rolling Stone this was the most difficult song he wrote. The bleak lyricism is complemented by bare beats in the first verse, a glitchy interlude, and a dreary jazz instrumental in the second verse.

The album ends with Lamar reciting a poem, one that he spoke in pieces throughout the record, and having a conversation with the dead rapper Tupac Shakur.

Shakur’s family gave Lamar footage from an old interview which was spliced to make a seamless conversation. The two discuss the breaking point of race relations in the United States, and complete Lamar’s development as a cultural icon.

Calling “To Pimp a Butterfly” a great album is selling it short. It’s a landmark moment in American culture, music and media. Its storytelling, and the attention paid to the lyrics and instrumentals, is something that other artists merely hope to achieve.

5/5