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Music

Kendrick Lamar's 'To Pimp a Butterfly' Will Be Archived in Harvard's Library

Along with 'The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,' 'The Low End Theory,' and Nas' 'Illmatic.'

As the legacy of Kendrick's tangledTo Pimp a Butterfly continues to unfurl in the face of the turbulent America it was birthed into, it seems the campaign to (deservedly) place it in the halls of the hip-hop greats has already begun. Veteran producer 9th Wonder, a Harvard University fellow, is in charge of "These Are the Breaks," a project by the university's Du Bois Research Institute that seeks to archive rap culture and music for future generations. 9th Wonder selected four albums to be kept in Harvard's libraries late last week, and the most contemporary pick is To Pimp a Butterfly .

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As 247HipHopNews reports, 9th Wonder wrote in a now-deleted Instagram post that TPAB, along with recognized classics by Lauryn Hill, Nas, and A Tribe Called Quest, will be "forever placed in the canon…complete with liner notes and the vinyl that was used in the production of the album." A hop and a skip away from the Library of Congress, perhaps?

Phil is a Noisey staff writer. He's on Twitter.