Sacramento-based producer Cole Cuchna launched his award-winning Dissect Podcast as a passion project to analyze the music and lyrics of the 2015 album "To Pimp A Butterfly" by Kendrick Lamar. For the podcast’s fifth season, Cuchna picks up the thread with Kendrick Lamar. His hip hop album "DAMN." was named the 2018 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Music and it advanced the narrative left on a cliffhanger in "To Pimp A Butterfly."
Since that first season, Cuchna dissected albums by Kanye West, Frank Ocean, Lauryn Hill and Tyler, the Creator. Dissect Podcast was named one of the Five Great Podcasts From 2018 by New York Times culture writer Wesley Morris. The show was picked up by Spotify Studios, which came with a professional production budget and worldwide reach.
This season, Cuchna brought on a co-writer to help tell the story. Femi Olutade is a New York-based culture writer. In 2018, Olutade published his own dissection “Reversing the Curse: A Spiritual Guide to Decoding Kendrick Lamar’s 'DAMN.'” Cuchna and Olutade bonded over their scholarly passion for the music, and meaning behind Kendrick Lamar’s work.
Cuchna returns to Insight to talk about the latest season of Dissect Podcast, his new collaborator and the music of Kendrick Lamar.