For those of you just back from your round trip to Mars, there’s an album that’s making life difficult for the servers at iTunes and Spotify: To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar. His magnum opus is playing everywhere, from the Harman Kadron speakers in a Manhattan music critic’s condo to the tinny headphones worn by the guy hawking baby formula in front of your local supermarket. Everyone agrees: musically, the album is flawless. Even Kendrick isn’t hiding the fact that the arrangements are the beating heart of To Pimp a Butterfly.

Who are the musicians providing the musical frame for this voice of a generation? Well, it turns out BIRD and Kendrick are musical soulmates. K-Dot invited BIRD regulars for his musical needs. Allow us to introduce them.

Robert ‘Sput’ Searight

• Visits to BIRD: 3 (and he’s set to return with Ghost-Note on November 18!)
• Claim to fame: Snarky Puppy drummer
• Fun fact: Robert Searight’s heart is a metronome
• Credits on To Pimp a Butterfly: drums on “For Free? (Interlude)” and “Hood Politics”

Lalah Hathaway

• Visits to BIRD: 1 (and joining us again on June 28!)
• Claim to fame: her Grammy Award-winning collab with Snarky Puppy
• Fun fact: Lalah has 3 vocal cords, letting her sing 3 notes at once
• Credits on To Pimp a Butterfly: songwriting on “Momma” and vocals on “Momma,” “Complexion” and “The Blacker the Berry”

Thundercat

• Visits to BIRD: 2
• Claim to fame: Brainfeeder & Ninja Tune
• Fun fact: Thundercat is so omnipresent on To Pimp a Butterflythat it’s almost a collab
• Credits on To Pimp a Butterfly: songwriting on “Wesley’s Theory,” “King Kunta,” “Hood Politics,” “Complexion” and “Mortal Man;” production on “Wesley’s Theory,” “Hood Politics,” “These Walls” and “Complexion;” vocals on “Alright,” “Complexion” and “You Ain’t Gotta Lie (Momma Said)”

Robert Glasper

• Visits to/through BIRD: 5
• Claim to fame: he’s Robert Glasper…
• Fun fact: Glasper previously worked with MCs like Common, Mos Def and Lupe Fiasco
• Credits on To Pimp a Butterfly: keyboard throughout the entire album

Bilal

• Visits to BIRD: 4
• Claim to fame: Okayplayer & Soulquarians original
• Fun fact: Bilal wants to emigrate to Rotterdam, he’s currently waiting for his visa
• Credits onTo Pimp a Butterfly: vocals on “Institutionalized,” “These Walls,” “u,” “For Sales (Interlude),” “Momma” and “Hood Politics”

Ambrose Akinmusire

• Visits to BIRD: 4
• Claim to fame: winning the Paul Acket Award at the North Sea Jazz Festival
• Fun Fact: he’s the newest member of the Blue Note family
• Credits on To Pimp a Butterfly: trumpet on “Mortal Man”

Kamasi Washington

• Visits to BIRD: 1
• Claim to fame: his epic triptych The Epic
• Fun fact: picked up a saxophone for the first time and played on the Wayne Shorter classic, “Sleeping Dancer Sleep On”
• Credits on To Pimp a Butterfly: can be heard on the entire album