Very glad it got a 10.

I think the cocoon in TPAB represents depressive contemplation / isolation, which then institutionalizes someone because they are focused on internal issues instead of escaping their environment, like the obsessive rambling of Kendrick in track 2, which he emerges from as victorious in track 3.

Kendrick becomes depressed then emerges with a new mindset which allows him to be the butterfly, but people who haven't gone through that process yet lack the mindset to want to do anything more than harm him for their own benefit, because they're blinded by hunger and lack of perspective. That's what happened to Pac; he was a butterfly who was pimped (harmed and exploited) by a caterpillar (whoever shot him) when he was killed.

I also think the sample at the beginning is referring to the idea that every caterpillar has the potential to be a butterfly, hence the use of the hard R when referring to the former group in order to communicate a negative connotation, because the world hates the caterpillar.

Finally, although I'm not sure if Kendrick was thinking about this at the time of writing, there's a strange discordance between the world hating the caterpillar and loving the butterfly, when they're both different stages of the same thing, which is something Tupac has said in interviews ('people hate the ghetto but get culture, fashion, music, etc from it').

I think there's a lot more to this album than what has been spoken on so far and I hope people continue to unpack it. The way Kendrick really threw everything he had into making this, despite having the natural talent to not need to, resulted in something absolutely incredible. In my opinion that's something we can all learn from.

Regarding the whole "love and respect yourself" angle, that he made this album the way he did is IMO compelling evidence that he practices what he preaches.