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Kendrick Lamar Listened to High School Students Read Poetry Inspired by ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’

Fresh off an appearance at this year’s Summer Jam festival, Kendrick Lamar went back to school Monday morning, visiting a class at High Tech High School in North Bergen, New Jersey.

The high school made headlines earlier this year when English teacher and poetry club sponsor Bryan Mooney used To Pimp a Butterfly as a means of teaching Toni Morrison’s iconic novel The Bluest Eye. His students crafted poetic responses to the record, which they eventually shared on Mooney’s blog, and Lamar stopped by to hear some of those pieces in person.

Rolling Stone reports that Lamar was “intrigued that somebody other than [himself] can articulate and break down the concepts of To Pimp a Butterfly almost better than [he] can” and sat in on Mooney’s class for the morning, listening to the students, before participating on a panel in the afternoon. It’s not really all that surprising that someone as socially conscious as Lamar would do this sort of thing, but it’s charming nonetheless. Rolling Stone has photos of the occasion.

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