For the latest chapter of Higher Ground and Spotify’s The Big Hit Show, podcast host Alex Pappademas is turning to Kendrick Lamar’s universally acclaimed 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly.
As is apparent in a newly released trailer, fans can expect to gain timely insight from a number of people closest to the upcoming Super Bowl Halftime Show performer, including TPAB collaborators, several childhood friends, and one of Kendrick’s grade school teachers.
The deep-dive starts Feb. 16 on Spotify and will also feature an exclusive interview with Kendrick Lamar himself on the album and its impact, marking a rare chance for fans to get a behind-the-scenes look at what’s widely considered to be a modern classic.
In a recent press release, Pappademas spoke on the intention behind The Big Hit Show format, noting that works selected to be discussed on the series are not chosen solely for influence on pop culture at large. Instead, the focus is placed on works that managed to have a “butterfly effect” on the world around them.
“Whether we’re tracing how an author’s vivid dream about a sparkly vampire led to an entirely new fan culture or how a megastar reckoning with success, expectation, and survivor’s guilt crafted a masterpiece that became the soundtrack to the biggest protest movement in a generation, listeners will know from chapter to chapter they’re getting a high stakes narrative that explains how our culture has been influenced and shaped by these creations,” Pappademas, who also hosts the Twilight-centered inaugural chapter of Big Hit Show, said.
The Big Hit Show debuted in January with that aforementioned Twilight-dissecting chapter. As previously announced, the podcast series from Spotify and Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground company will debut additional five-episode seasons later this year.
Listen to the trailer for Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly below; the first episode arrives next week.
