Kendrick Lamar has all the time advised tales by way of his music, making a bridge between spoken-word and visible narratives. With DAMN., nonetheless, the rapper challenged his audiences to glean understanding by way of disciplined listening.
Launched on April 14, 2017, DAMN. emerged from a tense political local weather through which simmering rigidity gave approach to a cathartic and masterful launch. All through the album, Lamar instills the necessity for restraint, self-reflection, and the preservation of beliefs that allow individuals to combat for themselves throughout crushing instances.
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Categorically aware
DAMN. was by no means meant to be overtly political, however extra of a continuation of Lamar’s progress and response to the world round him. He brings his sharp-edged narrative expertise to the album, using a distinct technique of storytelling through which the listener is inspired to have interaction with the tracks repeatedly to be able to uncover the stability and execution behind every verse.
A really economical album, DAMN. finds Lamar succinctly balancing his novel wordplay, embedding each verse with a transparent intent. There’s no spoon-feeding right here, both, as Ok-Dot persistently delivers skillful, categorically “conscious hip-hop” that’s worthy of cautious dissection.
When Lamar launched To Pimp A Butterfly in 2015, the themes of police brutality, racial inequality, and political outrage had been evident; he addressed trauma inside the black neighborhood, monetary turmoil, and gun violence from a poetic method. Two years later, Lamar unpacked these points with the identical maturity however a deeper scope, intertwining themes of faith to query one’s life path. As an alternative of being a name to motion, DAMN. posits introspection and evaluation of what one can take and use from the world.
Advancing the narrative
The album opens with a choir on “BLOOD.,” with Kendrick using his reducing narrative move, telling the story of an previous blind girl who shoots him when he makes an attempt to assist her.
From right here, DAMN. jumps and runs into “DNA.,” a booming observe that takes to job America’s oppressive views on individuals of color whereas reasserting Lamar’s personal black pleasure. “This is why I say that hip-hop has done more damage to young African Americans than racism in recent years,” Geraldo Rivera spews on a Fox Information phase, whereas Lamar fires again: “I know murder, conviction/Burners, boosters, burglars, ballers, dead, redemption/Scholars, fathers dead with kids and/I wish I was fed forgiveness.”
The album continues with Kendrick bobbing and weaving on tracks like “ELEMENT.,” an unforgiving battle-rap on which he insists he’s keen to “die for this s__t” over a James Blake-provided piano loop. “Last LP I tried to lift the black artists,” he raps, referencing To Pimp A Butterfly, including, “But it’s a difference ’tween black artists and wack artists.”
His confidence is a siren for black individuals rising up disproportionately affected by police brutality and brazen racism. The brevity of the observe is punctuated with the chorus “If I gotta slap a pu__y ass ni__a, I’ma make it look sexy,” whereas Lamar at one level lifts his move from Juvenile’s 1998 single “Ha,” earlier than the observe slows down and eases into “FEEL..”
Biblical allusions
Most of the tracks on DAMN. allude to the seven lethal sins. Whereas every particular person music stands by itself, they arrive collectively to create a scripture-inspired assortment that matches tightly collectively. This philosophical idea offers method on “LOYALTY.,” one of many few radio-ready tracks on the album, that includes Rihanna. DAMN. is noticeably mild on visitor options, however Rihanna’s look (with a uncommon occasion of her rapping) provides additional star energy to the album. Although “LOYALTY.” refers to romantic relationships, Lamar is fixated on notions of loyalty and honesty all through his work.
“HUMBLE.,” the album’s lead single, peaked at No.1 on the Billboard Scorching 100 and serves to bind DAMN. collectively. The standout observe sees Kendrick with one foot prior to now and the opposite within the current, serving as a reminder of what life was like earlier than he was catapulted into superstardom. The throbbing beat by Mike WiLL Made-It was initially reserved for Gucci Mane after he bought out of jail, which explains the urgency of the manufacturing.
Returning to the album’s non secular undercurrents, “FEAR.” speaks of struggling and speaking to God whereas recalling intensely traumatic experiences. The observe ends with a voicemail from Kendrick’s cousin, who quotes The E-book Of Deuteronomy and warns Lamar about God’s vengeful tendencies. On “GOD.,” you’ll be able to sense a looming finality, as Kendrick wrestles between flaunting his achievements whereas staying humble, reminding himself that he’s only a fallible human.
Simply as DAMN. begins with a refrain of voices on “BLOOD.,” so it ends with “DUCKWORTH.,” the observe that underlines the cyclical nature of the album. A reference to his authorized surname, “DUCKWORTH.” imagines an alternate actuality through which Kendrick by no means existed within the first place, telling the story of how Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith might’ve killed Kendrick’s father in a theft lengthy earlier than the 2 ever met and got here to work collectively. It’s a startling reminder that one choice can have an effect on your complete trajectory of 1 life and the lives of these round it.
A “distinguished musical composition”
Kendrick Lamar has chosen to stay as an artist centered on self-examination, tying up the free ends of his life inside his work, and DAMN. reveals him in his prime, studying from himself and rising as a black man navigating the world and pushing in opposition to it when he must.
Even because it trolled the hip-hop mainstream, DAMN. was a vital and business smash. The album debuted at No.1 on the Billboard Scorching 100, was licensed triple-platinum and scooped up the Grammy for Greatest Rap Album in 2018. DAMN. additionally made historical past as the primary non-classical and non-jazz album to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize. The committee praised its “distinguished musical composition,” calling the album “a virtuosic song collection unified by its vernacular authenticity and rhythmic dynamism that offers affecting vignettes capturing the complexity of modern African-American life.”
Whereas Lamar has all the time steered away from the hip-hop gossip ring, he’d clearly been being attentive to the tradition at massive. DAMN. is each a response to the mainstream media’s notion of each Kendrick and hip-hop, and an interrogation of the self.
DAMN. could be purchased right here.
