Here we go.
Let's discuss the music.


1. BLOOD.
2. DNA.
3. YAH.
4. ELEMENT.
5. FEEL.
6. LOYALTY. (feat. Rihanna)
7. PRIDE.
8. HUMBLE.
9. LUST. (feat. Zacari)
10. Love.
11. XXX. (feat. U2)
12. FEAR.
13. GOD.
14. DUCKWORTH.

Duckworth, Fear (listen to the last verse how he broke down all of the album's song titles) and Lust are very fire

There's too much going on to break down upon one listen. It's commercial in spots and authentic in many others. The same way I didnt know what to make of To Pimp A Butterfly when I heard it, this is a challenging listen and I'll have to live with it more to fully grasp it

I think it's the best album he was capable of making and I dont think he worried about meeting the pressure of topping the last one

like I did for Common and Tribe. Got a 4 day weekend to digest it.

Why is he kinda trash now except for the Rihanna joint?

And please no Mike Will ever again lol.

This album ain't all the way my cup of tea. But standouts are Loyalty,
Fear, and Duckworth. The lyrics in FEAR, the beat on DUCKWORTH! GOD
gets honorable mention.

Duckworth = same sample as Ludacris Splash Waterfalls.

for the Electric Circus auditions..

dilla hit the delete button he said

>dilla hit the delete button he said

as result of them getting sampled briefly on that last track. At the very least they'll get paid a grip I would imagine.

I'm guessing Duckworth is the 9th Wonder produced track I've seen people mention?

.

Anderson Paak got one on Malibu

if 9th Wonder and Hiatus Kaiyote collaborated somehow in the future. They could even allow him to release those supposed re-works you mentioned. I looked at their twitter feed and they have a posting about the latest Kendrick album, so they band is aware 9th Wonder is a fan of theirs.

>Anderson Paak got one on Malibu

I think might have a miss here.
There's some really cold joints(Lust was a standout, DNA, YAH, Duckworth).
But there's other stuff on here...
That is not working for me (God, Love).
I'm gonna give it more spins of course.
But my first impression is that it's a really mixed bag.

Knocks hard to me on first listen, I even like the Zacari track but then again I'm a Bieber fan.

The strong narrative qualities were really what put his studio albums on another level for me. Listening to this joint I'm like 'oh I guess you just wanted to make some songs this time'.

Whoever was around when he recorded 'Love' and didn't immediately smack him in the face for putting that on a track is not his friend.

This shit....

It's deft, muddy, trippy, head rushing and at times delves into mood music...

Kendrick is rapping out of his mind on some of these joints...lol

Even the U2 joint is good...I gotta keep listening.....

Album is better on second listen already.
Very jarring on the first listen.
Easier the second time around.
But Love and God... still... not feeling those.
Alchemist killed that Fear beat.
And Duckworth is amazing.

Dammit Kendrick.
Making me feel all kinds of ways about this album.

because it's different?
just a ploy? who knows..
I listened to the leak once.
Waiting for the retail now.

Wasn't sure if the mix was proper, I don't know...
Not my specialty. On first listen album is pretty damn good.

Have lots of thoughts about it after one listen.
I imagine a bunch of us will be jumping in this post
multiple times with thoughts after multiple listens.

Them joints was wack. They really hurt my first listen.

>Them joints was wack. They really hurt my first listen.

and it will rule the summer.

Like Kendrick aping Drake's style but arguably doing it better?

I downloaded the apple music app, signed in, and now i have to buy a plan? Fuck that, i just want to buy this specific album.

Different things....

Was kinda thinking that might be the case.

only on "Pride" at the moment but I'm pretty sure i like this album

Opinions tend to run the gamut on these albums. Cats can (and mostly will) disagree. We're going to abstain from posting personal insults tho.

Humble is my least favorite joint on the album. Mike Will came through on his other two productions. Yah, Feel, Lust, Fear and Duckworth are my favorites after one spin. K Dot is 4 for 4 and continues to be the leader of the new school.

https://twitter.com/OfficiallyIce/status/852739102013181953/photo/1


if something like this were to happen?
the world might explode.

How do people come up with that stuff so fast? lol

I wouldn't mind the loc version too though

if it doesn't, haha.

If so I can/will never pay for this.

I can cop whenever it's available.

that drops on Sunday.
Seems like a reach to me.

>that drops on Sunday.
>Seems like a reach to me.


It's no longer speculation....It looks like there's meat on them bones....

http://www.xxlmag.com/news/2017/04/read-easter-theory-kendrick-lamar-releasing-another-album-soon/

>
>
>
>http://www.xxlmag.com/news/2017/04/read-easter-theory-kendrick-lamar-releasing-another-album-soon/

I'm hearing a few things from folks around that camp....It's looking 60/40 at the moment.....

Until the actual Top Dawg says something I will take it as "decent chance"....

I'll digest this more before commenting but after listening, I'm noticing two things in reviews,

There are people that made their mind up that it a classic before hearing it

And then there are people who are going to listen and listen and "force" themselves to feel that it's great just because it's Kendrick.

Ultimately, if anyone else released this, it would not be well received period.

>I'll digest this more before commenting but after listening,
>I'm noticing two things in reviews,
>
>There are people that made their mind up that it a classic
>before hearing it
>
>And then there are people who are going to listen and listen
>and "force" themselves to feel that it's great just because
>it's Kendrick.
>
>Ultimately, if anyone else released this, it would not be well
>received period.


Or...there are folks that actually like the album....

What I'm really finding is a lot of the more conceptual heads who loved the left field direction of TPABF and the thematic, storyline feel of Good Kid are having a hard time accepting the more straight ahead MEAT AND POTATOES,-rapping-on-Mike-Will-Made-It-Beats Cornrow Kenny. There's a good segment of the fans who rolled with Lamar because he came off like an underground, experimental emcee who happened to be a platinum rapper.

Now along with the high praise and even handed criticism, I'm seeing some of the Kenny STANS complain about dude making records with Rihanna or rocking straight off of a Trap Beat without the "socially conscious" element to balance it out.

It's kinda interesting....

I'm sure there are people who actually like it...

But I'm definitely not someone who is going to accept him making music in the same mold of the modern bullshit I don't like simply because he is Kendrick.

You know there are people doing that shit...you can't be that oblivious.

>I'm sure there are people who actually like it...
>
>But I'm definitely not someone who is going to accept him
>making music in the same mold of the modern bullshit I don't
>like simply because he is Kendrick.


Yeah...But dude rapping on a Mike Will Made It beat doesn't mean he's not "saying some shit"...

I just find some of the reactions to this album quite interesting....

I agree...

I just think that if you're going the route of, "let me take mainstream producers and add substance" you're still limiting yourself with how dope the track can actually be.

A lot of them are dope. It's most of the mainstream rappers that are wack

You think RZA is better than Deck so you're in time out for a while...

J/k...but not really...

Either way, even the the mainstream rappers are worse than the mainstream producers I still don't favor the electronic, soulless, synth focused beats.

>You think RZA is better than Deck so you're in time out for a
>while...


lol...

Lol I'm not the only one. Might have to get a poll going my man

Do you remember the 3 disc mix I gave y'all?

Deck is the best MC in the Clan man!

And other forgettable solo LPs. He can be the best emcee but he doesn't make the best music.

And the discussion was about the best MCs in Wu:

You said RZA was better.

That shit is absurd.

But go ahead and turn up your Bobby Digital.

I'm sure in every song RZA mentions "pussy lips"

I feel like they messed up his solo career when he didn't drop in 96. At least drop his shit between Wu Tang Forever and The Pillage. How did Cappadonna come out before Deck?

He should've dropped after Liquid Swords in early 96.

I love me some RZA, but he's not doing as much lyrically these days.

And I do agree that Uncontrolled Substance wasn't what I wanted it to be and it wasn't released at the right time, but it was still dope enough. Maybe there was a better album recorded that was supposed to be released in mid-1996, but it was one of the victims of the seemingly endless floods that kept destroying RZA's master-tapes. I'd like to chalk it up to that, but RZA has talked about so many different floods that happened so many different times that I don't know if any of it really happened.

which is what you're having to do in
order to come to your conclusion that:

>if anyone else released this, it would
>not be well received period."(reply 40)

Name the other albums that sound just like it.

Then there's...

>But I'm definitely not someone who is
>going to accept him making music in the
>same mold of the modern bullshit I don't
>like simply because he is Kendrick.(reply 46)

>I just think that if you're going the route of,
>"let me take mainstream producers and add
>substance" you're still limiting yourself with
>how dope the track can actually be. (reply 51)

>Either way, even if the mainstream rappers are worse than the
>mainstream producers I still don't favor the electronic,
>soulless, synth focused beats.


Which all just tells us YOU don't like
contemporary Hip Hop music and use that
to determine other peoples' feelings.

aka foh. And I'm only addressing
you because you replied to me with your
idiocy in the GD post.
Your "points" (if they can be called that)
are always steeped in self-righteousness
masquerading as some sort of moral high-
ground. Your clown show is not the
Hip Hop authority. Never have been and
never will be. Miss me with all that.

?!?!?!

http://uproxx.com/realtalk/kendrick-lamar-second-album-2/

was them trying to dissuade people from downloading the leak.

I'm not getting my hopes up for a second album, though i would be thrilled to get one.

is that Kendrick Lamar will come out looking bad if an album doesn't drop this weekend because of expectations folks will have.

And dude just dropped a new album today.

to immediately follow The King of Limbs with a part 2. There was a website started to track the rumors and buildup.....and nothing happened. But this is the climate now, people expect more content. Can't win.

>to immediately follow The King of Limbs with a part 2. There
>was a website started to track the rumors and buildup.....and
>nothing happened. But this is the climate now, people expect
>more content. Can't win.

This^^^^^

>>to immediately follow The King of Limbs with a part 2.
>There
>>was a website started to track the rumors and
>buildup.....and
>>nothing happened. But this is the climate now, people expect
>>more content. Can't win.
>
>This^^^^^

It's unfortunate how many folks don't appreciate much of anything. I've felt that way since cds came out and dudes would be in the ride skipping around through CLASSICS. I was scurred for the future even then. Now, folks will devote hella energy to negative reviews, retrofitted agendas, and gp stubborn 'dying on a chosen hill' stances..some of which came from folks who can't even honestly say they fully listened to the album they are going on and on about. Or hell...even one full listen ain't enough..it never was. But it still the same old thang..blueprint vs stillmatic shit!

Meanwhile, folks who like music and have even a little 'perspective' are having the time of their listening lives with the way technology puts music in your ears with absurd ease. Just yesterday I listened to Kendrick, Chance, Gibbs, and Joey and I came feeling great about most of what I heard. Of those, Joey was the most straight ahead 100% killer off of one listen.

Of course, I keep coming back to Kung Fu Kenny (and Gibbs).

Pride, Love, and God, but I'm thinking they might sink in.

off the cuff "Pride" veers towards corny with the beat, just sounded a little hammy. "Love" is just radio sounding, and the hook on "God" reminds me of that damn "Xo tour life" by Uzi and the "ah ha" reminds me of when White rappers say the whole word like Riley explained to Huey.

other than my nitpicking he did his job.

I've never made it a secret that I don't quite feel Kendrick as much as others on here, but I enjoy this stripped-down, back-to-basics approach. I also appreciate the lack of shrieking and funny voices (at least most of the time).

So far, feeling DNA, YAH, XXX, FEAR, and DUCKWORTH. Didn't like LOVE and GOD.

Decent first impression. I'll give it some more listens.

>I've never made it a secret that I don't quite feel Kendrick
>as much as others on here

I'm in this lane as well. The only release of his that I can honestly say I like is untitled.unmastered. On paper, I should like TPOB since he took serious effort with the bars and overall music, but it just didn't grab me on repeated listens. I'm surprised you're critical of Kendrick since I've seen you be fairly positive with most material I've seen you post on this message board.

>, but I enjoy this stripped-down,
>back-to-basics approach. I also appreciate the lack of
>shrieking and funny voices (at least most of the time).

This is where I am at with the album based on the single time I listened to the album last night. It is a way easier listening than the times I first spun Maad City and TPOB. The weird pitch effects he did with his voice on the album and the fact he didn't name names in terms of the rappers he felt were subpar took me a little bit out of the album.

In this day and age where rappers are allowed to literally mumble and abuse auto-tune to great success, I think I'll give this album more listens to be fair.

I'm two listens in.

I find it interesting how the album sways between blatant pop, like "GOD" and "LOVE", which are both absolutely terrible and the more relatively left field stuff. For example, the way his vocals are mixed in "PRIDE" - very low in the mix, putting even more emphasis on those warped vocals and guitar makes that track quite psychedelic - amazing to me, not to mention how dope the rapping is. The production on "YAH" also gave me a slightly psych, or at least trippy vibe, which I really enjoyed despite the fact that I want more lyrically from that track.

There are a couple of just sick beat changes here - 9th wonder LOST HIS GOD DAMN MIND on "DUCKWORTH" and so did Kendrick - great verses on that track. "DNA" is ridiculous as well.

These are all dope as hell to me:

DNA
DUCKWORTH
PRIDE
FEAR
FEEL
LUST

"XXX" is very good as well, I was surprised at how well the U2 collaboration worked, I was afraid it would feel forced, and well "too pop" for lack of a better word, but that is a really good track and again - the beat switch ups are insane and Kendrick kills it. I was also surprised by how west coast (loved those vocal samples) and solid, besides the Rihanna-less portion of the hook, "LOYALTY" was - that's a sure fire single. "HUMBLE" is still held back by the beat and "ELEMENT" is a good song with some dope lyrics and great production, but is held back from being a truly great song due to the hook IMO

going to sit with this more and get into the lyrics. conceptually it seems like his most loose project yet, not seeing a clear narrative at the moment. if I had to rank it now it would be my least favorite of his albums (counting Section 80 through UU)

> "ELEMENT" is a good song with some dope lyrics and great production, but is held back from being a truly great song due to the hook IMO


the hook got me laughing and grinning like an idiot lol. I fuck with it.

everything else i can get down with
IMO this is like a west coast updated version of Smiff N Wessun's "Da Shinin", has those really gutter murky ass minimalistic beats

an album cut. I thiml it would digest way better first presented as a part of a bigger whole.

Other times, it feels like he was trying to make a Drake album...

There's a lot to digest here... But still on the 2nd listen, it's my least favorite of his projects...

No shit...lol

>Other times, it feels like he was trying to make a Drake
>album...

Hah. It's a pretty clear shot at Aubrey when he's 'doing the Drake'. Especially the song with Rihanna. It's funny how rappers get at each other. There's a lot going on with Damn tho. Most of it lands immediately.

Joey, Raekwon, Gibbs, several others have much, much,
much, much, much, much better albums.

No reason to hate on dude, but this ain't it.



----------------------------



O_E: "Acts like an asshole and posts with imperial disdain"




"I ORBITs the solar system, listenin..."

(C)Keith Murray, "

Damn shame...Oddisee's album is getting forgotten already too.

.

Very good EP

Here are three links to clips on his instagram feed where he shows the samples for Duckworth:

Link one: http://tinyurl.com/mnjpdfq
Link two: http://tinyurl.com/k5h69vn
Link three: http://tinyurl.com/krpvbwt

and not entirely in a bad way, but it's definitely a lazy, stoned mess.

while handling this "honey do" list and grinding through the rest of my three-day weekend.

I'm up to "Lust" and ain't disappointed by anything so far.

I forget but I think it's a track or interlude with the JazzyFatNastees singing on it. I remember The Roots track ending with a gunshot and the sound of a tape getting quickly reversed.

.

when Kendrick was a little boy...
Long before Top Dawg took Kendrick in

If the story of Duckworth is that Kendrick doesn't have a career if not for fate then what message is the song sending if Kendrick dies by chance at the beginning?

I took it as he wouldnt randomly be in the streets if he had a father figure, if that's the point it was made sort of sloppily

but maybe he really wasn't allowed to go outside and Good Kid Maad City is loosely fictional

>I took it as he wouldnt randomly be in the streets if he had
>a father figure, if that's the point it was made sort of
>sloppily
>

Kendrick said the ending is supposed to be original and abstract. So much so that he can't really articulate it. (or didn't want to)

Maybe it's a sad ending in the sense that even though he didn't die from a gun fight that he ended up dieing from the gunshot from the woman.

Or that the death is spiritual? I don't know if you've read the Bible, but there's a verse, John 12:25, that says, "Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life."

Maybe Kendick's death at in BLOOD. is his spiritual death?

I feel like I'm trying to figure out the ending of a Spike Lee movie here. It shouldn't be this hard.

>but maybe he really wasn't allowed to go outside and Good Kid
>Maad City is loosely fictional

I'm half-remembering an interview where Kendrick did say that his parents kept him inside when he was younger and that some of Good Kid, mAAd city was fictional, but it was based on real experiences.

At the end of FEAR., it's there. Heard in a few other songs prior to then. Is this something he's now holding on to?

Edit: Searched Google after initially posting this and found the following:
https://youtu.be/rvjyPFyrMbY

.

So is God actually.
Should have known they were dope when The Lesson
said wack+commercial.

but I remember when I was first listening last night that I wished he would name names in regards to the rappers he felt were garbage on the track or tracks when he was rapping on that subject.

DNA, YAH and ELEMENT is a motherfucker of a three song run. I like LOVE and I really like LUST. The beat switches on XXX are dope as hell. GOD is a great riding song... sounds good as shit in the car. DUCKWORTH had me with a big as smile on my face. Only track on the album I can do without is LOYALTY. I don't hate it, but I'm cool on it. Very satisfied, overall.

>DNA, YAH and ELEMENT is a motherfucker of a three song run.

I listened to TPAB 5 time from back-to-back....and I felt fulfilled from it. Other than "Alright", I didn't need repeated listens because I got the whole thing.

Whereas with this I don't think I'll be listening to DAMN. as a whole other than this time I just did, but there's records that will live with me for awhile....but I don't feel fulfilled by this at all.

Good album tho overall.

First listen feels like a consolidation or a narrowing focus, emphasizing execution rather than exploring or experimenting.

But on further listens I'll probably find some mind-blowing details that I never noticed before and realize he's still OUT THERE out there.

That was my experience with Kanye when he went from LR to G.

And yeah, I love it.

s.blak
change is good

those aside, no one is greater

So far LUST. is my standout track on all levels.

I'm not upset about the lack of narrative. I see this as conceptual in a different way.. Kinda like a top40 version of A Book Of Human Language by Aceyalone.. where he focuses in on specific words/concepts and lets the titles sort of dictate the direction of the lyrics and songs.

I can see the comparison you are making.

Filtering understanding of God through the ideas of street violence and police brutality, and then dropping that on Easter Weekend, talking about "if somebody touched my son?"

That is simultaneously Kendrick AF and U2 AF

I don't know why everyone seems to hate HUMBLE, that Piano beat is minimal but still makes my head nod.

all those soundcloud rappers should kill themselves...ain't nobody fucking with this dude right now

he's building an untouchable discography

After being able to give it a thorough listen,
I have to say this guy is making Hip Hop the
way I like for it to be made... thoughtfully
and insightfully. This time around he just
made it sound more "current" than the last
album. Meaningful and enjoyable. Here's my
track-by-track review.

1)Blood
Interesting opening... definitely has
that 70s R&B breakdown feel.
That Fox ending with them talking
about "Alright" was cool.

2)DNA
Found myself wondering if he was baiting
Fox to overreact and invite him on so he
could discuss epigenetics... far-fetched
I know, but it's fun to imagine lol.
As for the sound, it's a hard contemporary
beat with a sick flow... even a nice
beat switch and intensity increase at the end.

3)Yah
Funny he starts the verse talking about Fox.
Very laid-back feel. If I had to describe
this to someone who hadn't heard it, I'd say
it's more 2017 Domino or Arrested Development
sing-songy than straight ahead rap.
Probably only 1 of the 2 songs on here without
some layer of meaning.

4)Element
First thing I noticed was the "hmmmmm" every
4 bars characteristic of vintage Wu-Tang era
yet very contemporary at the same time.
Chorus on this song is hilarious and catchy.
Definitely caught the "last LP I tried to lift
black artists" line. I think the meaning that
he continues to infuse in his music and his
commitment to uplifting despite ppl taking
shots at him is a testament to his dedication
to not be taken "out of his element."

5)Feel
Very contemplative song here... moment of
vulnerability with a backdrop that sounds like
it could have just as easily been produced by
Soulquarians. The "feeling" here is definitely
one of not being truly cared about beyond
his entertainment value.

6)Loyalty
From the time the beat drops you understand
why Rihanna's featured on it. This is the
type of joint you raise glasses to. I found
it kinda funny how her voice is deeper than
the "funny voice" he raps in. Beyond the
cosmetics, this is the other song without
a layer of meaning... just questioning what
you're loyal to and whether or not that loyalty
is unconditional.

7)Pride
Has that drunk, lazy light rock feel initially
with the sparse guitars. The thoughtfulness of
the lyrics are the star of the show here imo,
especially the last verse where he talks about
a utopia of sorts after the first verse where
he touches on alotta things caused by pride...
things ppl don't usually mention in connection
with pride. It's an insightful song.

8)Humble
Just as I suspected, this song plays perfectly
within the mix of the album... sounds great
after Pride. We've discussed this one tho.
No review necessary.

9)Lust
Immediate Outkast/Dungeon Family/Sa-Ra vibes with
the chorus and music here. Funny how he turns this
into social commentary about how our desires keep
us mentally disconnected from important issues
affecting our lives.

10)Love
Man this song is beautiful. Something that's gonna
work for a late night cruise or just a straight up
slow dance lol. This is pretty straight-forward
trust song. I say trust song, because he repeatedly
says "rather you trust me than to love me."

11)XXX
I'm sure people were expecting something sexual
here with the title, but it's made very clear
that this is a commentary on violence within
the black community committed both by cops and
other victims of racism. Pt.1 is spoken in
first person. The transition to pt. 2 of the
song is extra smooth... and it works. Pt.2 is
spoken as a witness/critic.
Oh, and the beat change at 1:22 is VERY N.W.A.

12)Fear
I like that a song entitled Fear starts with
talking about beating a child for damn near
everything a child does, then goes into a 17
yr old being fearful of everything that happens
in his environment. Then a 27 yr old rap star
being afraid of everything about fame.
Brilliant concept and brilliant execution.

13)God
Very catchy chorus. Song is just sonically
beautiful imo, but what I like most about the
song is that he took very practical examples
that his generation can relate to and said
"That's what God feel like" over a very
contemporary beat instead of making this another
overly-sappy or preachy song about God.

14)Duckworth
I had pretty high hopes for this song, considering
it's his last name. He definitely delivers,
making this a run-down as to how the lives of
relatives were part of the universe's plan to
create his own "fortune" accented by some really
nice throwback-flavored beat switches.

Courtesy of Creole in GD:

Yah does have layers.
"Yah" is short for Yahweh (or God).
It's, IMO, a song about his awakening
or understanding that he is an Israelite
and the internal conflict resulting from
shit that plagues his existence as a star.
He's looking to separate himself from that
which comes as a result of his popularity
by calling out for God.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/apr/14/kendrick-lamar-damn-review

Kendrick Lamar: Damn review – more mellow but just as angry
5 / 5 stars

Luscious harmonies and hints of psychedelic soul – plus guest support from Bono and Rihanna – couch brilliant, sharp-edged storytelling from an artist at the top of his game

In the weeks before the release of Kendrick Lamar’s fourth album, rumours circulated about its contents. Sources clearly blessed with assorted degrees of reliability informed the world that To Pimp a Butterfly’s follow-up proper would be more commercial than its predecessor, involve “African tribal elements and sounds” and be an album based not around the funk and jazz influences in which To Pimp a Butterfly and the subsequent outtakes collection, untitled unmastered, were rooted, but the harsh, spare sound of trap. But the most intriguing suggestion came from Lamar himself, who told the New York Times it wasn’t going to be another sprawling state-of-the-nation address: “To Pimp a Butterfly was addressing the problem. I’m in a space now where I’m not addressing the problem any more.”

Like a lot of things Lamar has done over the last couple of years, that seemed suspiciously like an exercise in deflating expectations. Since To Pimp a Butterfly was acclaimed not merely as a great album but a work of vast social importance – lauded not merely by Prince but also by the outgoing president of the United States, and home to Alright, a song that went from hit single to protest anthem, the Black Lives Matter movement’s own We Shall Overcome – Lamar has seemed conflicted about shouldering the solemn voice-of-a-generation tag. And understandably so: it’s one thing being compared to Marvin Gaye or Sly Stone or even John Coltrane, quite another being compared to Mahatma Gandhi, as happened in one spectacularly overheated broadsheet profile.

The sense that Lamar has been trying to shake off some of that earnestness – by handing out guest verses not just to Beyoncé and Kanye West but also to flimsy singles by Maroon 5 and Sia, by flogging trainers that he claimed were somehow a “call for unity and equality” – has been hard to avoid. As if to underline it, Damn arrives bearing an old-fashioned backwards message, of the kind seldom heard since the mid-80s furore about hidden calls to satanism and suicide on heavy rock albums. Played backwards, a track called Fear finds Lamar bemoaning “the pain in my heart carrying the burden for the struggle”.

And yet the main differences between Damn and To Pimp a Butterfly seem more musical than lyrical. It takes less than two minutes to reference the Fox News-generated controversy about his performance of Alright on the BET awards, and a couple of minutes more to home in on the subjects of black empowerment and right wing pundit Geraldo Rivera’s absurd suggestion that hip-hop was somehow worse for African Americans than racism. Later, there are suggestions that America is teetering on the brink of apocalypse, that Trump’s victory has left “all of us buried”, talk of “race barriers” and calls for the disenfranchised to “parade the streets with your voice proudly”. It has to be said, for an album that’s supposed to be not addressing the problem any more, it does a pretty good job of addressing the problem on a regular basis.

Despite the presence of Canadian post-bop quartet Badbadnotgood amid a supporting cast that also includes Rihanna and U2, the skronking jazz interludes sprinkled throughout To Pimp a Butterfly – allegedly inspiring the late David Bowie to break out the discordant sax on his final album Blackstar – are noticeable by their absence. BadBadNotGood’s contribution to Lust seems restricted to providing a spectral guitar figure that pans from speaker to speaker somewhere in the distance. It’s beautiful but restrained, certainly not as startling as the sudden appearance on the track of what sounds like a child with a Mancunian accent rapping.

Less obviously haunted by the influence of George Clinton than its predecessor, Damn still sounds rooted in early-70s soul. There are nods towards the luscious, harmony-laden mellowness of the Stylistics and the Chi-Lites (opener Blood even features a warped version of the kind of spoken-word monologue found on the latter’s single Have You Seen Her?), to the stentorian bellow that opens Curtis Mayfield’s If There’s a Hell Below We’re All Gonna Go and to the dense sound of psychedelic soul – by way of Outkast – on Pride.

If it seems a more straightforward listen than To Pimp a Butterfly, there’s a cheering sense that this doesn’t equate to a lessening of musical ambition. There’s none of that album’s wilfully jarring quality – its sudden, anxious musical lurches and abrupt, short-circuiting leaps between genres – but the tracks on Damn still feel episodic and expansive: XXX alone goes from massed harmony vocals to a downbeat rap over glitching, stuttering samples, to a thrilling moment where it explodes in a mass of sirens, screeching tyres and heaving basslines, to a dramatic drop in tempo and an understated guest vocal from Bono in the space of four minutes.

Rather than angsty disruptions, there’s a more subtle sense of disquiet here. The heavy-lidded drift of Yah would sound relaxed were it not for the presence of two grating bass notes that fit with the lyrics’ prickly unease, where images of contented family life rub up against “theories and suspicions”. Meanwhile, on the brilliant Pride, troubled lyrical shifts from modesty and confusion to self-belief – “I can’t fake humble because your ass is insecure” – are mirrored by a rap electronically treated so that its pitch gradually speeds up and slows down amid the woozy atmospherics and falsetto vocals.

Elsewhere, there’s brilliant, dexterous storytelling on Duckworth – the saga of how Lamar’s father narrowly avoided being murdered by a criminal called Anthony, complete with an eye-popping, no-spoilers twist – and another demonstration of Lamar’s nonpareil ability to write songs about the pressures of wealth and success that somehow manage to elicit the listener’s sympathy rather than a roll of the eyes. Fear deals in context, tracing the genesis of his mass of neuroses through the ages.

Whether Damn will have the same epochal impact as To Pimp a Butterfly remains to be seen, but either way it sounds like the work of a supremely confident artist at the top of his game. Kendrick Lamar, it seems, is going to have to live with raised expectations for the foreseeable future.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/mar/22/kendrick-lamar-to-pimp-butterfly-review-fearless-in-scope

I disagree with the score of course/some points, for me the album is 4/5 - don't really see how this is overall on the level of TPAB - but this is well written. I like how they pointed out the psych/OutKast elements in the album.

I didn't understand the simple responses from folks in terms of words but after listening I do. All other rappers seem lightweight now. As an old head it makes me proud that hip hop isn't dead. He could have hit in 1993 is what I'm saying. The song god makes chance's career redundant and I could go on to other rappers but the point is that Kendrick used to focus on the audience but now he's focused on other rappers and damn.

First 3 tracks cover a lot of ground.

God will not grow on me

"God" hasn't been working so far in any setting.

it's infectious

Is NOT necessarily a good thing IMHO... Props to K. on touching on a wide variety of important topics, but musically this is all over the place!!! Not one track felt like the-one Id go back to - yeah I know I know, its my perception, music is subjective, yada yada etc.. Seriously, considering the network of talented beatmakers and/or producers this man has access to?? Already been said how different these beats sound from one another, and because of that I expect each joint to showcase the given artists A-game so wheres it at? I be hard pressed to find a joint where any of the involved soundsmiths proved either A) hi level tech skills or B) amazing ear for vibes and the ability to communicate them... Where.that.at??? This must not be for me.

.

not a fan. feels sterile. makes it seem like there is no depth to the instrumentals. like it's taking place in a small featureless white room. his vocals are popping out though. maybe that's the point.

edit: finished. not impressed on my first listen. a lot of the lyrics were blowing by me because i was bewildered by the beats. going to give it a second listen this weekend and come back with a more informed opinion

feels weird to hear a dude sing over a beat like that, though. not wrong, but weird.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

People keep telling me it gets better. It does not.

5+ listens in and I can't even choose a favorite track. I'm between like SIX! It's a testament to how good his discography is that I think this is probably tied with Section 80 as his worst album (not counting UU) (and this album has MUCH higher highs than Sect. 80 IMO, but also MUCH lower lows). It's a shame "LOVE" and "GOD" had to be on here though - I can't see myself ever liking those tracks. Speaking of "GOD" I wonder how Chance feels about that song considering that it's basically a Chance song. "LOVE" is actually the worst Kendrick song ever to appear on an album. Damn lmao.

This album is odd in the sense that it's like, Kendrick does an album with overtly pop tracks, and tracks that seem like commercial rap by the numbers ("HUMBLE" beat is basic, however "LOYALTY" is a good pop single, was surprised by the fact I liked it) - why is probably why I found it a bit jarring on the first listen. That's why I can definitely understand the initial STRONGLY negative reactions here.

That said, this album is also extremely moody and psychedelic in parts - and that's when its at it's best for me. "FEAR" is just incredible. The entire dark, downtrodden, soulful vibe of that track. The lyrics going through his childhood, adolescence and adult life. "PRIDE" is also a trip, the singing is absolutely gorgeous and the entire atmosphere of that track is just something else to me, not to mention how he alters his voice throughout and those great introspective lyrics, really adds to the trippy feeling IMO. "LUST" is also amazing and is in the lane of being moody/dark. It strikes me as Kast' like at times (people always talk about the Pac' influence because West coast but honestly the 'Kast influence is more apparent sonically than anything else, why don't more people talk about that?!). Then there are the bangers like "DNA" , which I have probably played over 20 times already - that fucking beat change and "DUCKWORTH" with that amazing storytelling over some of 9th's best work. Also, I was fearing the U2 track, but it is also flames, especially the last 2/3rds of it, I love those last two beats.

It's interesting to see him do something so loosely constructed and straight forward in comparison to his past work. No overall journey here really with each track just focusing on literally the title. I mean obviously religion and virtues are overarching themes but still.

"No overall journey here really with each track just focusing on literally the title. I mean obviously religion and virtues are overarching themes but still."

Would you not think that the overarching themes are reflective the or his "overall journey?" Each song title is a statement that is further expounded upon through the related song. Each song is then an invitation to share in his world; his journey. His journey appears to be one that has become even more heavily influenced by God, religion, and spirituality. Him becoming open to seemingly announce and more open to share his experience as a Black Hebrew Israelite and as a pop star is speaking quite to his overall journey.

All that to say... Dude got busy!

>"No overall journey here really with each track just focusing
>on literally the title. I mean obviously religion and virtues
>are overarching themes but still."
>
>Would you not think that the overarching themes are reflective
>the or his "overall journey?" Each song title is a statement
>that is further expounded upon through the related song. Each
>song is then an invitation to share in his world; his journey.
>His journey appears to be one that has become even more
>heavily influenced by God, religion, and spirituality. Him
>becoming open to seemingly announce and more open to share his
>experience as a Black Hebrew Israelite and as a pop star is
>speaking quite to his overall journey.
>
>All that to say... Dude got busy!

You are right - but what I was trying to express is that the tracks are much less overtly linked - sonically and thematically. For example "I" on the back end of TPAB clearly shows the "journey" made from "U". The poem that weaves itself through TPAB is another defining factor, whereas GKMC had the story. TPAB seems to be an album that tells a story, albeit in vignettes as opposed to being completely linear like GKMC, of Kendrick adjusting to a life of fame and at the same time dealing with socio-political societal issues through his point of view which is very shaped by his past. There is a bit of that here of course, but it seems a bit less connected as an overall package if that makes any sense.

couldn't disagree more about LOVE and GOD, though. I think they're both good a shit...especially GOD. I've never heard one Chance song in my life, so I don't have that perspective. It bangs SO hard in the car, too.

I can definitely see how people could love those tracks, it's just that for me personally, that element of a lot of contemporary hip hop, be it Kendrick's cadence in the verses/hook on "GOD" (though the back end of the track is cool) or the entirety of "LOVE" (hate how the singer has to pop up at the end of the verses in the beginning) is just not for me at all. I can ride with something like "HUMBLE" despite not being impressed by the beat, but that's where I draw the line haha.

the beat gives me chills.

"FEAR" is
>just incredible. The entire dark, downtrodden, soulful vibe of
>that track. The lyrics going through his childhood,
>adolescence and adult life.

totally agree with you on Fear. probably my fave track

Also, I was fearing
>the U2 track, but it is also flames, especially the last
>2/3rds of it, I love those last two beats.

anyone else think bono kinda sounds like layne staley there?

The straight rap songs are dope but I'm not a fan of his singing. Reminds me too much of Drake. Last album I loved where the rapper also sang was probably Black on Both Sides and even that the singing songs were the weakest and ones I skip.

I need to give it a few more listens tho, not jumping out as a classic like it is for others tho, just a decent album with a few bangers, maybe it will grow on me tho.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/what-to-listen-to/kendrick-lamar-star-hip-hop-has-waiting-damn-review/



Kendrick Lamar is the star hip hop has been waiting for, the most urgent, dextrous and purposeful rap lyricist of his generation and perhaps any. This is his second masterpiece in a row. To Pimp A Butterfly was widely hailed as the album of 2015, boasting a widescreen musicality encompassing jazz, soul and psychedelia as backdrop to a fierce, funny, emotionally committed state-of-the-(divided)-nation address. In scope, purpose and flamboyance, it connected hip hop back to the socially and politically aware soul of the Seventies, drawing comparison to Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield. DAMN is a leaner, more minimalistic work but so intensely focussed, lyrically audacious, conceptually inventive and swaggeringly delivered that it more than matches its acclaimed predecessor.

The cover (a scowling close up), bold all caps typography and single word titles (BLOOD, PRIDE, LUST, LOVE, FEAR, GOD) declare Lamar’s stripped-back intent. The feel of the album is a world away from the dazzling, sprawling cornucopia of Pimp. Yet, crucially, there has been no sacrifice of the musicality that helps make Lamar so accessible. Grooves remain fluid, funky and jazzy, melodies glide with a limber sweetness facilitated by Lamar’s masterful flow and sweet singing voice, and delicate touches throughout create a subtly layered sound that peels back with every listen, revealing new sonic dimensions to match the depths of meaning to be uncovered in the lyrics. From DNA’s punchy electro mantra about identity to LOVE’s tender sing-song reggae pop meditation on fickle emotions, DAMN is an album of surface sheen and hidden depths, where words and music operate in beautiful synchronicity, a constantly unfolding dance that lends each new approach a sense of investigation and revelation. It is dazzling.

XXX features U2, a combination that would no doubt fill some music fans (from both sides of the rock and hip hop divide) with dread, but the resulting track has a sinuous and surprisingly soulful flow that makes them a perfect match, showcasing Lamar’s superstar guests at their most understated. While Bono whispers “Pray for me” and gently sings an idealistic mantra of the American dream, Lamar delivers a time-shifting poetic epic about the innate violence in the very fabric of America’s sense of itself. “Hail Mary, Jesus and Joseph / The great American flag is wrapped and dragged with explosives / Compulsive disorders, sons and daughters / Barricaded blocks and borders / Look what you taught us / It’s murder on my street, your street, back streets, Wall Street / Corporate offices, bank’s employees and bosses / with homicidal thoughts, Donald Trump’s in office …”

Ah, there he is. For a rapper who has never shied from addressing the big issues of his day, it is no surprise that the unpopular 45th president should make several appearances on DAMN. But he is not really the focus of Lamar’s attention. On XXX, Lamar implicates himself in the violence of his nation, addressing America as “a mirror”. The emphasis is on the personal, even if the context remains socio-political. Time and again, Lamar addresses emotional and philosophical issues through an examination of his own contradictions, using himself as a template for human fickleness. On PRIDE he examines the sins of his own pride over a thick, old soul beat (“Hell-raising, wheel-chasing, new worldly possessions / Flesh-making, spirit-breaking, which one would you lessen? / The better part, the human heart, you love ‘em or dissect ‘em / Happiness or flashiness? How do you serve the question?”) then follows it with the crashing braggadocio of HUMBLE in which he crows about his superior rap skills and pounds his rivals over a dynamic piano beat. It’s a juxtaposition that complicates and enriches both songs.



Such high minded artistic purposefulness is, for me, what really sets Lamar apart. Well, that and the fantastic rap skills. He can switch up tempo and flow, play with the tone of his vocal delivery, dip in and out of melody, all the time delivering line after line in which every syllable counts. He can create mesmerising narratives (the closing autobiographical DUCKWORTH has a powerful sting in its tail), hypnotic mantras (FEEL offers a dazzling list of complex and contradictory emotional responses), solipsistic pop songs to match DRAKE (Rihanna works her magic with Lamar on the light groove of LOYALTY) and pepper it all with the kind of philosophical and playful non-sequiturs that make rap so eminently quotable (“I can’t fake humble just cause your ass is insecure”).

As a genre, rap can be very demanding to listen to, partly because of the incessant lyrical punctuation but also because of the blizzard of cultural references and slang that need to be decoded. Yet when you peel back the superficially dazzling wordplay of most rappers, you are not left with much more than incessant proclamations of empty obsessions. DAMN is a refreshingly Bling free zone, uninterested in designer labels, expensive cars and assorted luxury brands. There are no women being thoughtlessly demeaned. This is an album in which a sensitive, complex wordsmith is asking serious questions of himself and, by implication, his listeners, about how much responsibility we all hold for the imperfect world we live in. “See, in the perfect world, I would be perfect, world” he insists. DAMN revels in its own imperfections in ways that affirm Lamar’s place not just at the top of the hip hop heap right now but at the top of popular music. This is the work of a future all-time great in full command of his powers. Damn, indeed.

I'm saying...if you give Kendrick anything less then your hip-hop opinion isn't valid.

Paul Rosenberg said he was straight up the best MC to ever live.

than anything else.

.

How dare we love different musical expressions
of black style when the white guy disapproves?
Lol

Y'all love to be in with whatever is popular and that is the basis of your opinion.

You noticed I haven't even stated my opinion on the album yet right?

I've only pointed out the clear hypocrisy and bullshit I knew would come with this album.

>Y'all love to be in with whatever is popular and that is the
>basis of your opinion.


Wrong, but whatever makes you feel better.


>You noticed I haven't even stated my opinion on the album yet
>right?


That's a lie, but even if it's true, that's
pathetic to be so active in a post just to
police other peoples' opinions.


>I've only pointed out the clear hypocrisy and bullshit I knew
>would come with this album.


No, you've pointed about that you don't
like the style of contemporary Hip Hop
music, thereby further cementing your
own clown status.

>You noticed I haven't even stated my opinion on the album yet
>right?

You should probably come into a discussion forum on the album with the actual intention of discussing the album. What you like, dislike, why you like and dislike it. The nuances of it all, the details etc. That fosters actual productive conversation regardless of whether all the participants like the project or not. We've already had the run around on the other aspect of your post so I won't address that.

By his own admission, he's just in here
to attack other people.

I typed LOL because it's clear people *want* to give this shit a 5 just to be on that side of the fence.

If people are catching feelings about that then they're probably guilty of that shit.

You and I both know people rated this shit 5 before it dropped.

Have you ever seen the reviews on iTunes before an album even comes out?

That's the bullshit I'm laughing at.

People get mad at that...fuck 'em

Because I lol'd at that myself, and
you replied to me with that "Lol"
bullshit in the GD post. What
you're really mad about is ppl liking
the album so much and having opinions
that differ from yours.

Just stick to your "I hate this
modern bullshit" angle. That's
more honest.

You said the last album you liked this much was J Cole.

Sorry...I find it funny that you loved the 2 safest cats to like in the game.

It's like you either don't know what else dropped or you're afraid to hold an opinion and actually like something not praised by everyone else.

I like what I like.
You think the world is supposed to conform
to your white opinion of what's praiseworthy.

I'm not gonna dislike it just because it's
mainstream. That's the silly shit YOU do.
Yet you're telling ppl that OUR opinions
are swayed by outside forces. How hypocritical.

Kast is my favorite group all-time and they were as mainstream as you can get so your assumption is as bullshit as your opinion you internet revolutionary.

Outkast isn't a group making current
music either, so that doesn't have
anything to do with anything, you
wannabe white hip hop authority.

youre so original

jesus fucking christ.

he is also other things, but he does do hip hop

i dont even like his music

come on

it would result in less threads getting derailed like this one here and less posts like #20 having to be made by mods.

Lets talk about the music, that's all I am asking, on a forum about music that is on a website about music created by a guy who is passionate about music and makes music for a living. We've had some great back and forth on here before when we disagree on a song or album, let's have some more conversations like that.

I respect you...which is why I speak civil in most cases (don't remember all our past interactions)

Others I don't respect so I fuck with them...I'll ignore them.

Peace

https://tmq2.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/graffiti-boy-art.jpg

all the time

and we love Kendrick cause he great, not cause he popular

and I'm pretty sure we were two of the earliest supporters of Kendrick's work since OD

please have some god damn self-awareness. you in here just LOLing through the whole thread and not once have you stated what you don't like about it, while claiming we've already made up our minds. it's so ultra white gatekeeper-y, it borders on the absurd

>not once have you stated
>what you don't like about it



Look at this...


>But I'm definitely not someone who is
>going to accept him making music in the
>same mold of the modern bullshit I don't
>like simply because he is Kendrick.(reply 46)

>Either way, even if the mainstream rappers are worse than the
>mainstream producers I still don't favor the electronic,
>soulless, synth focused beats.(reply 61)



So yeah he's made it very clear that he
dislikes the contemporary sound of the
album, although he just tried to use
his love for Outkast to erase those
previous comments. White guy tryna be
the gatekeeper of what is considered
soulful music.
LMFAO.
Just like in the Humble single post
when he was all "THIS IS HIP HOP, a
piano loop is more like this! *posts Xhibit*"
Just a full-time gatekeeper with no badge.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/apr/14/kendrick-lamar-damn-review

@9thwonder
The 3 beats for "Duckworth" that Dot picked was previously picked by 3 other rappers, neither of them used it. Dot made one jam outta them.
https://twitter.com/9thwonder/status/853035721854156804

So kung fu Kenny gotta get some love too for the way DUCKWORTH was arranged.

then Kung Fu Kenny deserves some love on
that front too.

most def

.

.

btw, i love this album.

a reminder that he doesn't necessarily want to solve other people's problems, but he did want to talk about his own for a while.

I like this a lot more than the era I'm about to mention, but it reminds me of Overly Dedicated and my pondering over whether he'd pull all his talent and potential into a cohesive package or simply make a living as the modern Project Blowed offshoot and slowly fade into regionality or worse the way so many other Dre co-signs from his era did (clearly not a fair comparison, but I saw Kendrick as a weirder Bishop Lamont for a minute)

Again, I like this now a lot more than I liked pre-Section.80 Kendrick then (who I've almost unconditionally loved since) but it does remind me that, at the end of the day, this was the dude who remade Lil' Wayne albums and seemed quite open to the idea of sacrificing songcraft in favor of raw emotion again and again.

Sometimes I've felt like arguing it's more surprising he became as inseparable from the idea of a concept album as he did these past six years; in many ways, Damn. feels a bit like Kendrick coming home.

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

It'll be awhile before I can compare this to any of his other albums, but it's definitely a thorough, solid album.

Last track Duckworth, Kid Kapri says - "Just to remember what happens on earth stays on earth, we gonna put it in reverse". The sample keeps saying "God", there's a clue. Then, at the very least 6 or 7 songs have reversed sampled elements in them. Reverse and Death is the theme. What's death in reverse? Life! Damn God. God Damn.

Definitely YAH, LOYALTY, FEAR, GOD, DUCKWORTH, oh and LUST. And other ones sound like it too but I dont know for sure.

So two of the key themes on the album are death, and things going in reverse.

DAMN GOD / GOD DAMN

Been listening since Friday. Gotta give this a test in the whip.

Interesting story about how he got his start, how he hooked up with The Internet, how he linked up with Kendrick, and how he made the whole beat on his iPhone. It's far from my favorite song on the album, but it's still kind of impressive.

https://www.wired.com/2017/04/steve-lacy-iphone-producer/

it's one of my favorite projects of the year.

I let FEAR hit me like a brinks truck this morning

>I let FEAR hit me like a brinks truck this morning

As soon as I heard that 'I don't think I can fiiiiind a way to me it on this earth!' vocal sample, I was in. All in. I looked at the production credits after two listens to see it was Alc. of course. Love this song.

Using whatever's at your disposal to make
the music. Even his beginnings beating
on tables with pencils like we used to
do back in the day to now using his guitar
and his phone. Plaid!

what a talented dude

i don't know that it does much for his MC cred, given that he doesn't really let it rip that often. But I like these songs.

Feel & Fear are my faves so far & I guess I shouldn't be shocked @ all the Love hate (npi) after all the Humble hate too but wow

Loyalty is the only one I'm skippin on the reg, the rest is classic Kenny

.

love is a bad drake song and a disgrace to Kendrick's legacy. I like the rest of the album, but it's hard to talk about it with people saying off the wall stuff about love.

Love is a parody song. No other rapper would get away with making that song without getting clowned mercilessly.

also, I like "Love" a lot, it has a dope vibe and I dig the thin, reedy effect on the hook dude's vocal.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

at least not on a quality tip.

...to the fact that Love is a dope song. The flow is fucking sick on it, and it sounds honest, and actually breathes a bit. This song will hit, watch...

>Here we go.
>Let's discuss the music.
>
>
>1. BLOOD.
>2. DNA.
>3. YAH.
>4. ELEMENT.
>5. FEEL.
>6. LOYALTY. (feat. Rihanna)
>7. PRIDE.
>8. HUMBLE.
>9. LUST. (feat. Zacari)
>10. Love.
>11. XXX. (feat. U2)
>12. FEAR.
>13. GOD.
>14. DUCKWORTH.


Right now the front-half is stronger to me, with Duckworkth being the shining second-half star.

__
I don't like the beat anymore because its just a loop. ALC didn't FLIP IT ENOUGH!

Flip it enough? Flip these. Flip off. Go flip some f*cking burgers.(c)Kno

Allied State of the National Electric Beat Treaty Organization (NEBTO)

I resent Justin Charity of The Ringer for having the capacity to recall anything Kendrick Lamar did before 2011's Section.80, because if he hadn't made reference to Kendrick Lamar's (to some) inexplicable love for Lil' Wayne I would be drawing so many more comparisons to Lamar's mostly terrible 2009 mixtape C4. For those unaware, a brief recap: from 2005 to 2009, Lil' Wayne was the most exciting thing in rap. What started with a fetishization of Cam'ron's work on Purple Haze among Pitchfork writers blew out into a full blown orgy of dramatic prose hellbent on imbuing "my new drop is berry, watermelon, plum" (Wayne, "Live from 504") with the depth of Homer's Odyssey on every internet-centric indie rock outlet. It is devastating to me, listening to DAMN., just how far from mimetic cultural memory the Carter III era has faded.

So, again for those unaware, C4 is Kendrick Lamar's longtime partner Dave Free gaining access to all the beats from that album, plus Jay-Z's "99 Problems" and some other loosies, and trying to make their own Carter III from the cadavers. On paper, this only sounds like a bad idea because Lamar was a mostly unknown actor on the world stage at this point, a troublingly awkward songwriter, and perhaps most importantly not Lil' Wayne, Taker of Beats. Do not think time has been kind to this record; you will dissolve into the aether upon the very hope of such a thing.

But. But. This is also to say that Kendrick did not start out as a storytelling rapper, or a highbrow rapper, or a rapper at all concerned with "bringing real rap back" or connecting the old with the new. Lamar has been open in the past about To Pimp a Butterfly's sound having far more to do with the musicians he hired to work on it than the aspirations he had going into those sessions, and it always seemed clear to me that Lamar guesting on tracks with artists on as wide a spectrum as Travi$ Scott to Maroon 5 was an implicit reference to the days when he remade "Mrs. Officer" as "Famous Pipe Game" and sang, horribly off-key, "slam my wee-wee wee-wee wee-wee (like a pornstar)." One of the greatest rappers of our or any generation, indeed. Kendrick Lamar's story is of an artist surrounded by other great artists and building on their greatness to find his own greatness within. Or, an artist who got distracted from making his Lights Out or Tha Carter by special circumstances.

"BLOOD." is sort of mean in the sense that it doesn't let the listener just listen to DAMN. on its own terms; by nodding to the Kendrick Lamar known worldwide as some kind of oracle for the times with this spoken word intro, it's hard to get ready for his jokey stabs at Drake ("ELEMENT."), Kanye West/Rich Homie Quan/Young Thug ("GOD.") and Lil' Wayne ("HUMBLE.") songs. "BLOOD." makes it really easy to hear the back-masking and references to religion and conclude Kendrick is (was?) releasing a companion album on Easter Sunday (a day previous as of this writing). "BLOOD." makes it difficult to recognize that "DNA." is as much Spaceghostpurrp by way of KRS-One as any one message, song or anthem, and hard to reconcile all the artistic collages to come are not necessarily part of a bigger picture other than Lamar's portrait. That's not to say that "DNA." is not pure insanity; I'm not sure any single moment in music this year will feel as visceral as the entirety of this song's second half. But his focus on heritage and history on this track is supposed to, I believe, let you know Kendrick is going to wander slightly unfocused through his past and make good on it.

Californians often like to remind people that Digable Planets weren't the only MCs making true free association fashionable in the early-90s while pointing to Aceyalone and his Project Blowed crew, so leave it to Okayplayer poster Original Juice to point out the similarities to Aceyalone's mid-to-late 90s style of focusing on a specific word or sound and crafting a song around it. "Huh", "yah", "uh, "ugh", "raw" are all sounds that define songs here as much as the content of Lamar's verses. Lamar nods at Juvenile's "Ha", forever in a cage match with "Make 'Em Say Ugh" for late-90s rap single most defined by a single noise refereed by every song you remember only for Birdman making his bird noise adlib.

The song where that happens, "ELEMENT.", is a lost Wu-Tang Forever beat (again, Kendrick sees you, Drake) looped into a dosey-doe with some lost Missy Elliott concept record about violence as sexuality. It's funny and weird and reminds me of the Kendrick at the start of this decade who was coming into his own as a rapper but reached for clever turns of phrase frequently. Like most of this record, it's nice to hear him plainly and confidently do old things better than he used to. "LUST." is, alternately, just Andre 3000's "Vibrate" with an awkward hook ("let me put the head in" that both recalls C4 Lamar in unfriendly ways and reveals, to this writer's extreme pleasure, just how much Lamar has grown in ability and confidence as an artist. It's Kendrick Lamar's take on another dude's song, and it's worse, and that makes DAMN. a reminder of Kendrick Lamar's sentience. He will fall some day, as all heroes do. But, for the few long, longtime listeners, it's also fun to hear that Kendrick isn't a horrific mess at this kind of thing anymore.

DAMN. is far from a death sentence for Lamar, but it does force the public to concede Kendrick Lamar will likely do whatever he wants to as an artist from here on out. Despite the uncut raw aesthetic of its artistic direction and titling conventions, DAMN. is actually a pop record with a Rihanna duet that only side-steps expectations by making Rihanna dressing rather than the cake itself. It stunt casts "U2" (it's just Bono, c'mon) on a Public Enemy tribute and makes that work, recreates the manic energy of "A Milli" over a beat far less people will find objectionable ("HUMBLE.", and it sacrifices much of that prior song's danger in doing so) and features several references to luxury vehicles Lamar's biggest fans will likely never sit behind the wheel of. It features "PRIDE.", a song that would've felt like satisfactory album filler on Section.80 but understandably can leave those late to the game confused about this D'Angelo by way of Andre 3000 mood piece. "PRIDE.", after all, is primarily boring.

DAMN. is a very good album, and when he does the thing you want him to do ("FEAR.", right?) it's more proof that Kendrick Lamar has come such a very long way from his beginnings as the young kid in his crew. He can just casually toss a song like that, or "XXX.", or "DNA.", off into an otherwise far more massively palatable experience. In some ways, this makes DAMN. a far more impressive feat than his past three projects; despite a confrontational appearance, this is easily his most inclusive release. DAMN. is the album Lamar needed to make at this point in his career. In a worst case scenario, this is his Lethal Injection, and Lamar never again recalls how to manifest the rage of his hungrier days. DAMN. is the album we should have expected after Lamar released that drunken video in defense of Lil' Wayne despite the rapper's abhorrent batting average over the past decade. The album we should've expected after his last one had critics breathlessly wondering whether any rapper had ever been better than this single 27-year old ("when I was 27, I became accustomed to more fear").

And thus I'm good with "LOVE." reincarnating a vibe from Kendrick we haven't necessarily heard since the hotly debated "No Makeup", if not slightly more recent "Poetic Justice". I'm very down for the Lamar presented on "HUMBLE." because, uh, look at my last.fm stats some time. "DNA.", again, is definitive and revelatory and platitudinous beyond measure. "XXX." not only works, it may ultimately be what this record is best remembered for. At the very least, it's the most exciting political record since anything from Killer Mike's R.A.P. Music, and I'll say it here that it's incredible the two most radical tracks on this album are attributed to hitmaker Mike Will. "DUCKWORTH." is Kendrick doing Last Song on the Album Drake on his terms, telling a truly captivating story about how he came to be the head dog at Top Dawg Entertainment in the first place by way of a chance encounter between his father and Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith decades ago (much credit due for the way his engineers and Danny Keyz weave three distinct 9th Wonder beats into a coherent whole, as well).

DAMN. is a reset button, not the harbinger of some Easter-themed concept on life and death that exposes Kendrick Lamar as hip-hop's Last Great Christian (in fact, it surprisingly reveals he considers himself a Black Israelite now, which I'm surprised is still a thing).

DAMN. may immediately feel like a crossover, whether in the sense of leaving his hardcore fanbase behind or a fake out, but Kendrick Lamar is the second most popular rapper in the world if we work under the assumption Eminem is a retired recluse rather than an annoying husk of a man on a string. As easy as it may be to feel owed another Butterfly or mAAd City, it's hard to recall a time when the words "Kendrick Lamar" were interchangeable with "Bishop Lamont" or "Slim da Mobster". DAMN. lets Lamar officially slam the reset button about as hard he can after a record as challenging as Butterfly, and it also lets elite shit-posters like The Ringer's Shae Serrano expertly skewer the perception that Kendrick Lamar must always be a tome waiting to be deciphered.

Everybody wins with DAMN., if only we let ourselves.



~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

have always enjoyed your writing. disagree with you heavy on "PRIDE" though, it's my 2nd favorite song on the album haha

...couldn't we say about everything after, say, Jay/Nas/Eminem that all of these guys borrow blatantly from someone else?

Even Kanye West, the most individualistic alt-rap provocateur of the Bush and Obama years, is a direct descendant of Tribe and Outkast, no? In the mid-aughts Lil Wayne was undoubtedly a comet, but he still felt like a manic and drugged out Andre 3000 if you listened hard enough. I think after about 03, you'd be hard pressed to find a big rap star who doesn't wear his influences on his sleeves.

(In fact, Kendrick is so obviously better than Drake at being a whole artist, but I would entertain an argument that Drake/40's "sound" is something more unique than Kendrick's)

>...couldn't we say about everything after, say,
>Jay/Nas/Eminem that all of these guys borrow blatantly from
>someone else?

I think it was just as clear where each of those dudes came from, unless you mean they were the beginning of that. I don't think there's ever been an era of rap where you couldn't find songs where rappers were tracing other rappers, except maybe 1984-1989.

>Even Kanye West, the most individualistic alt-rap provocateur
>of the Bush and Obama years, is a direct descendant of Tribe
>and Outkast, no? In the mid-aughts Lil Wayne was undoubtedly a
>comet, but he still felt like a manic and drugged out Andre
>3000 if you listened hard enough. I think after about 03,
>you'd be hard pressed to find a big rap star who doesn't wear
>his influences on his sleeves.

Again, I think this is something true of most rappers in its commercial era and I'm not sure it makes any rapper better or worse. Part of my argument is that I don't think it's a knock against Kendrick that many of these songs sound/feel inspired by other contemporary artists, or artists who were at the top of the genre when Kendrick was in his late teens. More like it's about time he was able to make an album like this and not make an ass of himself, because he has before (I am a mild fan of Overly Dedicated, and dislike his prior work almost entirely).

>(In fact, Kendrick is so obviously better than Drake at being
>a whole artist, but I would entertain an argument that
>Drake/40's "sound" is something more unique than Kendrick's)
>


I don't think Kendrick has "a sound", and that's part of what helps him connect with people more than other artists. While I think TPAB is a phenomenal record, I feel that way for reasons other than its political goals; I agree with those who find it a misguided and confused full-length. I just think it sounds damn good, and feels good to listen to. I'll listen to just about ANY of his other projects casually, though, before TPAB.

What makes Kendrick work for people is the way he smoothly transitions from one style of production from the next, and uses honestly sometimes unnecessary vocal filters to keep listeners on their toes and think "oh man, there's MORE to this!"

Whereas what makes Drake work for people is that you hear a song like "LOVE." and think, "there goes Kendrick doing Drake." Drake's made other artists remind you of him; I don't think Kendrick will do that to someone else's art for a while. In that sense, I agree with you wholeheartedly. But only because I think Drake very deliberately has a sound, and Kendrick deliberately doesn't.



~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

.

Note: I would've just posted the link, but hey, Nodima already broke the door open in this post so why not post the whole thing lol. I wrote this on the 15th, which seems early, but I have had nothing but this album in play since then (I'm talking ridiculously heavy ro'), and still agree with what I wrote. Anyway here is the review:

Range is one of the most powerful weapons of Kendrick Lamar's arsenal. You can't rap-scat over jazz ("For Free?"), channel Ol' Dirty Bastard over soulful guitar licks ("i") and confront white supremacy head-on ("The Blacker The Berry") - all on the same album - like Kendrick did on To Pimp A Butterfly ("TPAB") if you don't have range. It may be selling this LP short, but one could say that DAMN. is Kendrick Lamar fitting his range and eccentricities into a more commercially accessible work. This is especially relevant in light of the divisive - albeit critically acclaimed - reception of his previous jazz and funk inspired masterpiece. The range of quality and approaches to song-craft on DAMN. are at times quite jarring. There are a good portion of tracks on this LP that are just flat-out brilliant - songs that will probably go down ranking among the best of his work. On the other hand, a couple of the more pop-rap tracks may leave some of his fanbase that embraced the relative experimentalism that characterized TPAB pondering whether Kendrick has just released some of the worst songs of his career.

It probably isn't - it's probably Kendrick wanting to continue putting out albums that are radically different than those preceding them more than anything - but if there was a way to reply to the often heard "there are no bangers" criticism of TPAB, it is "DNA". "DNA" is a bass heavy, high-octane romp. Kendrick, by way of a ridiculous display of lyrical talent, embraces the things that make him who he is, his past, upbringing, culture and present. The Compton MC throws shots at those who speak on these things without understanding - a ridiculously ignorant comment by FOX News' Geraldo Rivera ("This is why I say that hip hop has done more damage to young African Americans than racism in recent years"), appears in the middle of a startling beat change.

"DNA" is not the only track with a great beat change on DAMN. - it seems that "The Heart Part 4", and if one looks even further back, "M.A.A.D. City", were preparation for the abrupt and impressive switches in production here. "XXX" is a track that moves from sparse scratches, low key rapping and distorted keys to portions of frantic rapping over sirens. The album closer, "DUCKWORTH" - which is 9th Wonder at his best - goes through three beats that make great use of vocal samples, with the beat that sticks around for the back end of the track being especially beautiful. Both of "DUCKWORTH" and "XXX" are album highlights that take on two completely different topics. "DUCKWORTH" features some amazing storytelling about Kendrick's father and Top Dawg (Anthony Tiffith, CEO of TDE) and "XXX" - a surprisingly effective collaboration with U2 - focuses on the evils of America at large ("Hail Mary, Jesus and Joseph/The great American flag is wrapped and dragged with explosives") and the dangers of the environment that Kendrick is a product of ("I can't sugarcoat the answer for you, this is how I feel: If somebody kill my son, that mean somebody gettin' killed").

The environment that shaped him - Compton - is one of the most prevalent themes in Kendrick's lyricism and he puts his past life into perspective on "FEAR". "FEAR" is a dark and soulful track, which has Kendrick documenting through what he most feared, three stages of his life: childhood, adolescence and his newfound fame as an adult. While Kendrick is in Compton in the song and speaking from his perspective - the refrain before the first verse ("Why God, why God do I gotta suffer?/Pain in my heart carry burdens full of struggle") and the entirety of the second verse, his voice comes off as dark, downtrodden and defeated - perhaps a reflection of his reality at the time. Conversely, once he reaches fame in the last verse his perspective (the first verse is from the perspective of his mom) is presented without any vocal alterations. With his fame, his fears have shifted from those in the first two verses - getting beaten as a child and getting killed as a teenager - to paranoia about money and how the world views him. Even though he still has fears, be it about his close relationships, the world at large, or his ability to create, Kendrick recognizes how fortunate he is to have a successful career ("I practiced runnin' from fear, guess I had some good luck/At 27 years old, my biggest fear was bein' judged").

Although with tracks like "XXX", "FEAR" and "DUCKWORTH" Kendrick spends much time looking outward or story telling, "PRIDE", another stand-out song, is a great example of his introspective talent. "PRIDE", more than any other track on DAMN., is extremely psychedelic - one could argue that it is even mixed with that purpose. The listener is given a lighter preview of the psychedelia to come, on the laid-back, trippy, rap-sung, "YAH", but "PRIDE" takes that aesthetic to another level. On "PRIDE", the rapped vocals are noticeably mixed a bit lower than the mellow guitar work and hazy vocals - with great contribution by Steve Lacy - that fill the song, giving it a distinctly modern psychedelic vibe. In this dream-like atmosphere, Kendrick reflects, pondering things like "Happiness or flashiness? How do you serve the question?" and expressing his flaws and lack of trust ("See, in the perfect world, I would be perfect, world/I don't trust people enough beyond they surface, world/I don't love people enough to put my faith in men/I put my faith in these lyrics, hoping I make amend").

In the context of his career, it's easy to see how his fans may call DAMN., an odd album - especially on the first listen. It's an album on which Kendrick Lamar embraces commercial rap, by the numbers in the arguably too simplistic structure of "HUMBLE" and presents the most overtly pop tunes of his discography in "LOVE", "GOD" and "LOYALTY". On "GOD" the listener finds Kendrick doing what can only be summed up as a "Chance The Rapper" - and that's not just because god is the topic - everything from the chorus and his cadence throughout the verses could have fit in perfectly on Coloring Book. "LOVE" is also a bit awkward from Kendrick and may be the worst song of his discography, with simplistic verses and a pop-structure that may completely turn-off longtime fans. Although "LOVE" and "GOD" are easily the two worst songs here, "LOYALTY" is a solid west-coast pop-rap track, with Rihanna providing a good feature and the beat making a great use of Bruno Mars' "24K Magic" to provide a vocoder vocal effect in the background. Blatant pop-rap aside, another big difference here is despite the clear overall narrative of virtues, vices and religion, DAMN. is more loose conceptually than any of Kendrick's albums. You will not find a poem or a story weaving each track together here. DAMN. is less of a journey and more straight forward - with each track name, besides "YAH" and "XXX", revealing, more or less, what Kendrick will be rapping about.

The main strength of DAMN. is that, despite another sharp change in direction, it still features the fantastic lyricism and quirks of Kendrick's style that have propelled him to be praised by more commercial-leaning fans, critics and hip-hop heads alike. Though the immediate reaction to whatever Kendrick does - due to the west coast connection, gang references and critical acclaim - is to compare him to Tupac, the comparison often doesn't feel right. A hefty portion of the album's incredible moments come from tracks with a moody, hazy and dark atmosphere, with Kendrick manipulating the tone of his voice - be it through studio trickery or his actual tone. These elements, shown through the psychedelia and soul of "PRIDE", "LUST" and "FEAR" evoke, more than anything else in hip-hop, a direct OutKast influence. Although DAMN. has its missteps, and does not reach ridiculous highs as consistently as good kid m.A.A.d City or TPAB, it is still a great album that adds to the overwhelmingly strong argument that Kendrick Lamar is among the best - if not, the best - of his generation.

I love the every album he puts out is drastically different from the last (and so far, from everything he's done). Good to see HUMBLE at #2 on the hot 100 and the album set to be #1 with almost 500,000 sold 1st week.

Songs I like a lot:
DNA (possibly the best song on the album)
YAH
ELEMENT
PRIDE
XXX
FEAR
DUCKWORTH

Songs I don't like:
LOYALTY
GOD
Kinda "eh" on HUMBLE

Solid effort. As I said above, never been as blown away by Kendrick as many, but this album works perfectly well.

"If I tell you I'm good, probably you will say I'm boasting. But if I tell you I'm not good, you'll know I'm lying"
- Bruce Lee

So fitting that the lead single is titled "Humble" isn't it? Because with a body of work like his, and such a gorgeous and fully-realized effort in DAMN, Kendrick has every right to rub his peers faces in it.

Really though he has no peers. J.Cole or Big Sean certainly couldn't make something so meticulous that still sounds so soulful and effortless. And, stating the obvious, we all know Drake definitely couldn't do something like this if his life depended on it.

But Drake is relevant in this case because of the great foil he makes for when compared to Kenny. Not for the dozens of obvious surface level comparisons either, but as a clear contrast in essence. Drake, like Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber or Beyonce, is an enterprise. You can practically hear the 5 different A&R opinions he's satisfying on "More Life", one blatant attempt at serving a specific demographic after another. "Know Yourself" says Drake, a mantra he repeats incessantly. But the only one of these mainstream rappers going today who clearly knows himself is Kendrick Lamar. And that's why the album is called "DAMN."

as in "DAMN." guess I gotta go finally be the man now. Guess I have to make the anthem album. Guess I must go realize my full potential, be who I'm supposed to be.

DAMN. is the sound of a more mature Kendrick Lamar accepting his fate as the greatest big rapper going today, the greatest since Jay in 01 or Em in 03 or maybe Wayne in 06. He hasn't fully shaken the self-doubt and paranoia of overnight superstardom that he wrestles with on Butterfly. But he's accepting this megastar status and even figuring out in real time how he arrived to this point.

The first track on the album hears him being killed by a stranger when all he wanted to do was help, just like all he wanted to do was make music for people and he lost his anonymity and became a de facto social justice figure in the process. But now he's realized he was destined to do it, he's made of the real goods, it's in his DNA.

What follows is a blow-by-blow account of what he's dealt with, what he anticipates he'll still have to deal with, with breaks taken to remind you he's the shit and deserves to be. Again, he's not running from the crown anymore, he's owning it. That's the whole point of HUMBLE.

This is the Eminem Show redux. The big, clean, anthemic sound of a rap phenom realizing that it's too late to go back to being a Bruce Banner, instead accepting and celebrating his Hulk-like status atop the game. And boy does it smash.

.

topdawg said as much.

Autographed version, only for sale until 4/20.

There are a lot of layers on this album...

Final 3 songs on the album brings the whole album together...

Duckworth is awesome...would love to see Kendrick and 9th do a project together. I'll take a EP

(side note, I really like the album, but I think the reviews are a little too glowing)

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/23147-damn/

DAMN. is a widescreen masterpiece of rap, full of expensive beats, furious rhymes, and peerless storytelling about Kendrick’s destiny in America.

Life is one funny motherfucker, it’s true. “DUCKWORTH.,” the last song on Kendrick Lamar's fourth studio album DAMN., tells a winding story about Anthony from Compton and Ducky from Chicago, whose paths cross first over KFC biscuits, and again, 20 years later, when Ducky’s son records a song about the encounter for Anthony’s record label. It’s a precious origin story, the stuff of rock docs and hood DVDs, and it’s delivered with such precision, vivid detail, and masterful pacing that it can’t possibly be true. But it’s a tale too strange to be fiction, and too powerful not to believe in—just like its author. Kendrick Lamar has proven he’s a master storyteller, but he’s been saving his best plot twist this whole time, waiting until he was ready, or able, to pull it off.

Storytelling has been Lamar’s greatest skill and most primary mission, to put into (lots of) words what it's like to grow up as he did—to articulate, in human terms, the intimate specifics of daily self-defense from your surroundings. Somehow, he’s gotten better. The raps on his fourth studio album DAMN. jab mercilessly like a sewing machine. His boyish nasal instrument is distinct and inimitable as it slithers up and down in pitch on “PRIDE.” Even when Lamar sounds like Eminem, or Drake, or OutKast, he sounds like himself, and he arguably outpaces them all as a writer. On “FEAR.,” he relays daily threats from his mom (“I’ll beat your ass, keep talking back/I’ll beat your ass, who bought you that? You stole it”) and from his neighbors (“I’ll probably die because I ain’t know Demarcus was snitching/I’ll probably die at these house parties fucking with bitches”) over low-slung blues stirred by The Alchemist. Lamar’s recitation is so effortless you wonder where he breathes, or if he does at all.

Kendrick is a relic of the mid-aughts rap blog era, where bedroom WordPress pages would post .zips of albums by amateurs. After years of such releases, Kendrick dropped a self-titled EP in 2009 that featured Big Pooh from Little Brother and elicited such Nah Right comments as “I like the beats on this” and “who da fuk?” Accolades swelled with each project; by 2011, he was considering signing with Dr. Dre; by 2013, he was playing SNL and touring with Kanye West. He came of age with his fans, and by 2015’s To Pimp a Butterfly, he put to music their chest-clenched frustrations. Ever the curtain-puller, he released an album of untitled and unmastered drafts and grew his hair out. His short absence, even after lending Taylor Swift a verse, has been made to feel longer by his media shyness and a surging tide of new rappers shuttled out daily.

Throughout it all, he’s avoided the boxed-in fates of predecessors like Nas and peers like J. Cole through an electric originality and curiosity. He mastered rap not for mastery’s sake, but to use it as a form, undeterred by slow-eared fans who’ll only highlight his “simplest lines.” His best new trick is repetition; it offsets his density and drills his ideas, as enthralling as a Sunday sermon or pre-fight chirp session. There have been few threats committed to record as sincere as, “Let somebody touch my mama, touch my sister, touch my woman/Touch my daddy, touch my niece, touch my nephew, touch my brother”—you tick down the list along with him, slot in your own lifelong bonds with loved ones. Such internal processing plays out through the album’s Greek chorus, via the singer Bēkon, who speaks in riddles of balance throughout: “Is it wickedness, is it weakness;” “Love’s gonna get you killed, but pride’s gonna be the death of you;” “It was always me versus the world/Until I found it’s me versus me.”

DAMN. is best in these philosophical spaces. It lags slightly around the center, where the concept loosens: “LOYALTY.,” with Rihanna, has all the makings of a radio mainstay this summer, and is as low-stakes as the platform demands; it’s always fun to hear Rih rap, and her presence is its most interesting aspect. “LUST.” would sound better if it weren’t next to an ear-worm as tender as “LOVE.,” which slow-dances between Zacari falsettos and Lamar’s sheepish read of the girl who fills him up. Between the two tracks, it’s easy to tell which force is tugging at him harder.

The record’s few lulls succumb to what surrounds them. The springboard bounce of “HUMBLE.,” the war chant of “DNA.,” and hot steel of “XXX.” show Kendrick in his element, fast and lucid, like Eazy-E with college credits and Mike WiLL beats. The production is taut and clean, but schizophrenic, often splicing two or three loops into a track and swaying between tempos, closer in kin to good kid’s siren-synths than Butterfly’s brass solos. If he was “black as the moon” on his last album, he’s an “Israelite” here, refusing to identify himself by the shade of his skin but fluent in the contents of his D.N.A. Butterfly floated along to soften its scathing stance—”We hate po-po” sounds better over a smooth saxophone—but with so many “wack artists” in play, what’s the reward for upliftment? Kendrick is so alone at his altitude that when he acknowledges Fox News, let alone Donald Trump, it feels like a favor to them both.

Still, the album exists for “DUCKWORTH.” It’s the final piece of the TDE puzzle, a homegrown label of Compton natives that happened to deliver the best rapper of his generation. If we’re to believe the song’s last gunshot—and its seamless loop back to track one—much of DAMN. is written from the perspective of a Kendrick Lamar who grew up without a father to guide him away from the sinful temptations outside his home. He bobs in and out of this perspective, but the repeated pledges to loyalty and martyrdom evoke the life and mind of a young gang member who carries his neighborhood flag because no one’s proved to him that he shouldn’t. These choices, Lamar suggests, aren’t pre-determined or innate, but in constant dialogue with and in reaction to their surrounding circumstances. They aren’t above or beneath anyone who can hear his voice. Success and failure choose their subjects at their whim; we’re as grateful as Kendrick for his fate.

>(side note, I really like the album, but I think the reviews
>are a little too glowing)
>

kendrick is starting to bring out the "over-reviewers" who are trying too hard to prove they "get" everything and appreciate the music more than everyone else. i don't even read reviews anymore, i'm either gonna listen to something regardless of what the review/rating is, or i'll use RYM or metacritic or something to find stuff getting universal acclaim that i would have otherwise skipped.

I definitely did not get the overwhelming hype behind Butterfly. I felt it was trying too hard to be a big bold statement without ever getting solid enough footing to make the statement in the first place. But I'm aware I'm in the minority - that's probably the most praised mainstream rap album since Dark Fantasy or Good Kid...

So it's weird.

Sometimes though you'll hear something that obviously isn't great but everyone appears too chickenshit to say so. Check out the reviews of Life of Pablo for example. DAMN is not one of those cases.

Still digesting, but the highs are high as f*ck.

FEEL???? whew.

DNA
YAH
FEAR
DUCKWORTH


And PRIDE is a f*cking grower.


I mean, this is no TPAB and I'm personally disappointed in the lack of Flylo, etc.

But..

This is another excellent release.

Legendary run indeed...

I've listened to it like 20 times in the past 24 hours.

werd.

He made a movie that looks crazy as hell lol.


He was an innovator and really got the LA BEAT Scene off the ground
at one time...

But def felt like he had nothing more to say
within the genre as evidenced by You're Dead...



I'd like to see him come back with a new album
and turn LA on its fucking head.
I was in love with the Beat Scene genre for a good 3-4 years..
It had a nice run and there are some cats
still making some cool stuff but it's few and far between now.

I'm far, far from an expert on that scene.

I was moreso saying I would have been perfectly fine (read: hyped) if he had continued on with the TPAB- typse sound.

I've liked/loved all his released, but TPAB hit me in the f*cking gut/soul/over the head.

I would have legit lost a bet that it was 2 years old, because it is still so fresh in my mind.


I think DAMN is really good, and as I said the highs are really effing high, though.


I also, liked You're Dead (??), so maybe I'm not a typical Flylo fan.

I was more so saying that he went and made jazz fusion album
with a few moments that reminded you it was still a FlyLo release lol.

I love TPAB so I probably would've been satisfied if Kendrick
would've continued down the path with that sound and those cats.

But I'm really feeling DAMN so glad he went in a different direction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLZRYQMLDW4

Top just tweeted about it. I copped the autographed vinyl and grey shirt for $51 shipped.

for being both colored and autographed. I was afraid I was going to get gouged when I saw that it was autographed; I wonder how many copies Kendrick 'signed'.

Got an autographed gatefold sleeve and a sealed copy of the album with the gatefold sleeve itself. I didn't open plastic on the album itself to see what the colored vinyl looks like yet.

how long ago did you get one of those?

looks great, and the shirt is dope.

It's a great album.

'Love' is sooooooooo terrible. How are we not pointing this out more. It's ok that your fav made a dud. But it is such a dud.

I move that all of hip hop renounce and denounce the song 'Love' lest it prompt further wackness.

...also 'God' is a bad song.

lyrically dope, and the beat isn't too syrupy for me. no pun, but i also love the melody of the chorus. shit is a great fucking single.


ONLY track i'm meh about is Element (and really, only the chorus)

as far as his Overly Dedicated to DAMN discography is concerned

.

Calling "Love" a Drake song is lazy. This is a song by a guy who's clearly in love, Drake songs are about a guy getting bummed when girls don't text him back.

To each his own

.

Album is a 10. You're supposed to listen to it in reverse order of the tracklisting.

You're supposed to listen from Duckworth to Blood.

(hence the reverse sample/vocal themes; Capri "we gonna put it is reverse!)

he gave yall 2 albums and uaeno it.

Carry on...

I think it's very deliberately laid out to tell the story of a guy who's content with accepting what the universe gives him.

He was destined to rap, it's in his DNA.

to

Duckworth, where his two paternal figures made decisions that impacted him but were wholly out of his control.

Duckworth is the immaculate conception where had his dad been killed he'd probably never been on the rap track

God is him arriving to the success and wealth of the industry, equating it to "God" itself

Fear is how even with that fame, he has been taught to be ruled by fear, to the point where he's living to rap. Even his cousin is putting words of encouragement in the form of fearing God, and talks about the plight of the black/brown/native man in America. (literally says......America, God Bless you son, I love you)

XXX (or USA) intro is "Amercia, God bless you if its good to ya" and speaks on putting him "in the wilderness with a known nemesis"; directly feeds off the Israelite discussion from his cousin.

Love is his savior, I'm assuming Whitney, because it was that that lead him to rule over his fear "because perfect love cast out fear" (c)

Lust is about how the mix of all these things had him in a comfortable routine; first and second verse about how a man or woman may neglect responsibility and lax through a day; third verse about how he did that as an artist "Maybe he was in lust wit fame)

Humble is him asserting himself and telling others he is not willing to hold his tongue anymore.

Pride is about what has people caught up in missing out on their progression. He literally says (in indirect response to his cousin, later directly) that all the religions needs to have a sermon and realize no one is perfect and get over themselves.

Loyalty is about what are you prioritizing in your life: love, family, success, or GOD (that's what God's for (c))

Feel is about his growth through that entire process. From the neglect and fear and not ideal upbringing, he was able to emerge as top of his profession. It is his Garden of Gethsemane (why have thou forsaken me).

Element is about knowing that this is his path to take, and even if he has to go out like Pac, he's going to do it unapologetically.

Yah is putting it in God's hands, and that he senses something bad may be about to happen to him (via powers that be maybe) but that life will go on.

DNA is the OUTRO, and his self actualization. It is his strongest lyrical outpouring.

Check my link below. The transitions even make more sense with the tracklisting backwards. Its enough to make you say "Damn".

You decide (c)

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

https://itunes.apple.com/us/playlist/nmad/idpl.53488fa1a4574d50aaf7e66c7d29438f

Idc, I'm listening to it this way. He is either genius or terrible at sequencing.

(But maybe I'm reaching)

And that the initial work on this project started before TPAB was even finished.

http://www.thefader.com/2017/04/18/kendrick-lamar-rihanna-terrace-martin-loyalty-damn

Makes sense in that by all accounts that last record was really emotionally draining for him.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/05/01/kendrick-lamars-holy-spirit

KENDRICK LAMAR’S HOLY SPIRIT
Religion is often invoked in hip-hop to dramatize one’s struggles against temptation or judgment. “DAMN.” uses it in a more profound manner.
By Hua Hsu

At some point during 2015, Kendrick Lamar came to seem like much more than a rapper. One of his best songs, “Alright,” was adopted by the Black Lives Matter movement as an informal anthem; sing-alongs erupted at rallies and protests across the country. “Alright” somehow manages to sound carefree yet urgent, like a radio jingle perforated by drum fills. “We been hurt, been down before,” Lamar raps, preaching about the glory inherent in struggle. “We gon’ be alright.” He sounded like a prophet, capable of articulating what people in the streets desired but couldn’t put into words.

Lamar appeared to embrace the role. In the video for “Alright,” he soars over Los Angeles and the Bay Area, astonishing all who see him, until a cop brings him down. At the BET Awards, he performed the song on the roof of a vandalized police car. At the 2016 Grammys, he began his performance as part of a chain gang. His verses felt like pronouncements, the words rushing out as though he had been tasked with conveying an entire community’s joys and sorrows. It has become commonplace for hip-hop’s biggest artists to see themselves as globalist curators, absorbing and spreading new sounds. But Lamar’s circle seems only to grow smaller, his music indebted to those who came before.

Lamar was born in Compton in 1987, the same year Eazy-E released “Boyz-n-the-Hood,” which, for many people, came to define the neighborhood. While in high school, he began recording mixtapes, which caught the attention of a local manager named Anthony (Top Dawg) Tiffith. In 2012, Lamar put out his major-label début, “good kid, m.A.A.d. city.” It was loosely structured around a seemingly average day from his teens: seeing about a girl, testing his parents’ patience, hanging out with friends and imagining that they are inside the reckless lyrics of a Young Jeezy song. What made the album powerful was its acknowledgment of life’s precariousness, an awareness that arrives in the course of the day, as someone close to him is shot and Lamar begins rethinking his faith. (He is a devout Christian.)

The success of “good kid” helped inspire “To Pimp a Butterfly,” released three years later. The songs on that album communicated Lamar’s ambivalence about his sudden fame, particularly at a moment when the nascent Black Lives Matter movement was casting light on all the young people, growing up just as he had, who would never see their twenties. He wanted to stay grounded, and not to sell out, and he explored this desire by making dark, adventurous music steeped in seventies funk and spaced-out jazz. It’s not that he spurned the mainstream. His albums have sold well, and he’s contributed verses to hit songs by Taylor Swift and Maroon 5. But these simple, tidy guest appearances underscore how much attention he pours into the carefully rendered characters, symbols, and places that populate his own albums.

On April 14th, Lamar released “damn.” It’s filled with contradictions, seesawing between supreme needs and animal wants, heroism and self-loathing, loose thrills and the possibility of eternal damnation. The songs are at odds with one another: “love.” is an ode to trust and commitment, backed by majestic, gliding synths; “lust.” is rash and hellish, as Lamar, over a drum loop played backward, raps about seeking the quick affirmation that comes from being desired. “element.” is Lamar at his most effortless and cocky, peering down from on high; it’s followed by “feel.,” which finds him nursing a chip on his shoulder, mind racing toward the conclusion that his insecurities may never fade. He begins recognizing his own sense of megalomaniacal paranoia: “I feel like this gotta be the feelin’ what Pac was / The feelin’ of an apocalypse happenin’.”

The phrase “What happens on Earth stays on Earth” is repeated on a few songs—a reminder of something greater, beyond this existence. Throughout “damn.,” Lamar wonders if it is nature or nurture that determines who he is. “I got power, poison, pain, and joy inside my DNA,” he raps. The question becomes whether that means his fate is preordained by virtue of his blood, his faith, or his skin color.

The considerable pressure put on Lamar has been unfair, and “damn.” rejects the notion that he has all the answers. Still, within hours of its release, there were theories, which proved to be untrue, that on the first track Lamar represents his death, and that a follow-up album, in which he is resurrected, would come out on Easter Sunday. It feels like a relief when the renowned New York d.j. Kid Capri, a voice from a different era, pops up between tracks to play the role of the hype man, as though to remind you that what you are listening to is still hip-hop, not holy scripture.

Religion is often invoked in hip-hop in a metaphorical way, a method of dramatizing one’s struggles against temptation or judgment. Two of last year’s most acclaimed releases, Kanye West’s “The Life of Pablo” and Chance the Rapper’s “Coloring Book,” turned spirituality into a kind of gilt-edged aesthetic. Those artists’ songs were radiant and euphoric; you wanted to see the light that they saw.

Until “god.,” the album’s penultimate track, Lamar’s version of faith feels heavy-handed and wearying: far from the megachurch’s spotlit pulpit, he’s more like a street-corner preacher whom people go out of their way to avoid. God is invoked not merely to lend texture to his triumphs. Lamar’s faith reminds him of the possibility of judgment, of an old-fashioned belief in the discrete categories of good and bad. Where others might simply bow to self-contradiction as inevitable, Lamar remains drawn to the idea that we will be judged by the path we walk, and by the work we leave behind. “I don’t love people enough to put my faith in men / I put my faith in these lyrics, hoping I can make amend,” he raps, over Steve Lacy’s slowed-down, jingle-jangle guitar, on “pride.”

“damn.” ends with “duckworth.,” a song about faith and the possibility of karma, a reminder that every decision matters. It recounts the story of Anthony, a gangster from Nickerson Gardens, a public-housing complex in Watts. Over a loping beat by 9th Wonder, Lamar describes Anthony as a good-natured kid who grew up too fast, whose family history of “pimpin’ and bangin’ ” instilled in him a very narrow vision of the good life. His crossroads seems minor: he is thinking about whether to rob the local KFC, when a worker there named Ducky starts sliding him extra chicken and biscuits, hoping to get on his good side.

Anthony is Top Dawg Tiffin, Lamar’s manager. Ducky is Kenny Duckworth, Lamar’s father. As the story comes into focus, in the final seconds of “damn.,” so much of what has preceded this chance encounter begins to take on a new significance. Suddenly, the references throughout the album to an entire people being “cursed,” trapped in situations beyond their grasp, gain in resonance. “I’ll prolly die anonymous / I’ll prolly die with promises,” he had rapped on “fear.”

“duckworth.” is the sound of turning back these fates. Anthony takes Ducky’s kindness to heart and decides to spare him. “That one decision changed both of they lives / One curse at a time,” Lamar raps, some twenty years later, of Anthony and Ducky’s reunion in the recording studio. Their anonymous lives have been made monumental. Their everyday choices led to magnificent consequences: “Because if Anthony killed Ducky / Top Dawg could be servin’ life / While I grew up without a father and die in a gunfight.”

The track ends with a gunshot and then the sound of a record getting spun back, as if Lamar were speaking in tongues. Or maybe it’s a moment of profound, almost divine hope that he can turn back time. The record rewinds all the way to “blood.,” the first song, picking up just after the opening words, which begin to resound with possibility: “Is it wickedness? Is it weakness? / You decide / Are we gonna live or die?” There are the choices we inherit, which may not be choices at all, and there is the path that we make by walking.

I finally put my finger on it. XXX - when bono comes in, sounds like a track right out of UNDUN. feelin that?


werd.

Kung-fu Kenny
"Mr. 1-5 thats the only logic"

The preceding bars on "Elements" about laces and careers blowing up.

The outfit in the "DNA" video and his Coachella set.

I'm probably reaching but these dudes are all over the place with the subliminal's and those are the things I can see with an easy connection to Lupe.

Can you dumb it down for me more? haha

I guess I'm missing it.

I also read somewhere (maybe GD? Can't recall) that he seems to be going at Jay Elect on that track.


Maybe it is the same part you are referring to?

I don't see any connection to lupe in the 2nd verse of Element.

Can you explain some more?
Do feel like he's possibly talking to someone on Element.

I feel like "Element" was another shot at Drake

Lupe Fiasco is a martial artist who is quoted as saying that Logic is a better rapper than Kendrick.

And the shoes thing cuz of Kick Push and I swear Lupe always saying something about shoes.

Told y'all I was reaching lol

I don't see how some think "LOVE" is trolling Drake though, subliminals got me messed up.

Seem to me to do so in a "I can do you as well or better than you do you" way.

For obvious reasons, but LOVE I just don't see it, that song makes Drake sound mature by comparison, I think he went too soft on that one for it to be a sub at Drake.

and to me, there's similarities in the both songs.

but Drake's song is him whining about haters and frenemies for the millionth time and Kendrick actually made a love song, so for similarities in the titles and the time frame I can see trolling.

yeah, it could be trolling lol Zacari could be viewed as a Weeknd stand in too.

"just same his name and I promise that you'll see Candyman"

you know Jay calls himself Candyman. The Juvie (New Orleans) flow that segways into that verse? Am I reaching?

.

Listened thrice to this point. Has definitely grown on me each listen. Top tracks:

DNA.
YAH.
LOVE.
FEAR.
DUCKWORTH.

Highest 1st week this year so far.

Biggest first week numbers for both categories.

He won me back on this album. May be his best album ever. Still early.

It's still early so things might change, but this is outstanding front to back. There isn't a song that isn't great, Love is actually one of my favourite tracks on the album. I love GKMC and TPAB as albums, but for the most part I can't go through and pick out just any to listen to on its own. But on DAMN it flows beautifully as an album, but I can still pick out any song and enjoy it.

I hope the rumours aren't true and he doesn't have another album dropping shortly. Give us some time to absorb this and truly appreciate it and leave us begging for something new in a couple of years like we've been begging for Outkast for the past 15 or whatever years.

"It was always me verses the world, until I found out it was me vs me" = DNA. Me vs me = DNA?

"Is it wickedness, is it weakness, you decide... are we gonna live, or die?" = the theme to Duckworth?

But if you play FEEL and then ELEMENT, it flows - Kid Kapri starts Element off with "aint nobody praying for me", a key lyric in FEEL... Then the slow down at the end of Element flows well into the slow YAH

Something fishy going on here

The clue throughout the album seems to be to PUT IT IN REVERSE

The tracks arent numbered.

into XXX.

Most def is supposed to be reversed.

at times, I can see what people are seeing in it, but there's way less momentum to the album musically that way whereas once DAMN. gets going it basically never lets up and has a pretty natural ebb and flow rather than starting with all the longest, most important tracks on the album and then getting pretty casual and easy go lucky as it goes along until "DNA.". Plus "FEAR." summarizes the album by reading the tracklist off as originally presented, and it doesn't have the same impact on you if he's reading them off before you've heard 80% of the music.


whereas undun wasn't just "the real story", it was two separate stories told with the same songs. I don't mean to make it a competition between the two albums, but I didn't really see this "play it backwards" narrative going around until enough people decided they were disappointed with certain aspects of the album and the lack of any merit to the East Sunday rumors. I feel like people want to see stuff that isn't there with this album just because his last two projects were so explicitly about narrative and concepts.


DAMN. can be a good straight up mainstream rap record. it doesn't need an extra layer.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

http://pitchfork.com/news/72904-kendrick-lamar-announces-tour/

Kicks off in AZ right across the street from me.




07-12 Phoenix, AZ - Gila River Arena
07-14 Dallas, TX - American Airlines Center
07-15 Houston, TX - Toyota Center
07-17 Duluth, GA - Infinite Energy Arena
07-19 Philadelphia, PA - Wells Fargo Center
07-20 Brooklyn, NY - Barclays Center
07-21 Washington, DC - Verizon Center
07-22 Boston, MA - TD Garden
07-25 Toronto, Ontario - Air Canada Centre
07-26 Auburn Hills, MI - The Palace of Auburn Hills
07-27 Chicago, IL - United Center
07-29 Denver, CO - Pepsi Center
08-01 Seattle, WA - Tacoma Dome
08-02 Vancouver, British Columbia - Rogers Arena
08-04 Oakland, CA - Oracle Arena
08-05 Las Vegas, NV - T-Mobile Arena
08-06 Los Angeles, CA - Staples Center



__
I don't like the beat anymore because its just a loop. ALC didn't FLIP IT ENOUGH!

Flip it enough? Flip these. Flip off. Go flip some f*cking burgers.(c)Kno

Allied State of the National Electric Beat Treaty Organization (NEBTO)

Probably go to at least one more show, maybe Vancouver.

DNA is currently #4 with Loyalty hitting #14.

Man that joint knock

... you understand how many terrible songs have reached #1 on the charts right

Hearing that song in the boxing gym and seeing people's reactions, sitting at stoplights and hearing it come out of rolled down car windows, channel surfing the radio and hearing it seemingly every time I'm on the FM dial...it's simple but it's connecting with people. It's great.

with people.

Anyway glad you like it.

in the billboard 200 right now.

Impressive.

He "shouldn't" play across the board the way he does.

Listening to his catalog, he "should" be among the more popular underground artists with a rabid and dedicated base on some Roots shit.

Yet he's playing across the board in a way usually reserved for pop stars. Which, I suppose, makes him a pop star.

Absent death, anyone ever charted this many songs so high at once?

billboard numbers barely seem comparable to what they were even 5 years ago

still, i'm glad kendrick is getting that shine

And I think 2 other artists did as well. Not sure if they all charted as high as Kendrick's, but probably close.

>He "shouldn't" play across the board the way he does.
>
>Listening to his catalog, he "should" be among the more
>popular underground artists with a rabid and dedicated base on
>some Roots shit.
>
>Yet he's playing across the board in a way usually reserved
>for pop stars. Which, I suppose, makes him a pop star.
>


I thought the show would be old heads and hip hop heads, even though it was an 18+ show... This show was almost completely youngsters and the first time I ever felt old at a show... The bar was bare... I think I posted about it in GD back then... I was 25 at the time... hahah... Dude has a serious connection with the youth... We ain't suppose to understand it... The crowd that night got so hyped when he did Michael Jordan...the one song I left off my burned copy of OD

pretty cool.

August 6th and 8th at Staples

a lot of the music is really not my cup of tea, but he made a helluva statement and he's rapping his ass off. I'm more drawn to the relationship between the way the whole thing is presented when I take in art of any type, and this is one of those albums where I find myself liking one element of the songs a lot more than the others, and that makes it hard for me to listen to it over and over again.

like others have said here, Damn is a straight forward album. That's what I like about it. TPAB is great but a lot of it still went over my head as far as how the songs correlate to one theme like he usually does. The 2Pac interview at the end kinda connected the dots but anyway for this album, it's more in your face and Kendrick brings his usual tools to work. Tools meaning dynamic delivery, beat changes mid-song, catchy hooks with decent enough singing. Kendrick was able to bring Mike Will in without it sounding forced. My two main favorite songs right now are "Loyalty" and "Duckworth". On the former, Rihanna's mini rap verse is very dope and so is the beat. "Duckworth" features 3 of 9th's illest beats in a while and Lamar tells an edge-of-your-seat story over all of them. Damn is more of the greatness that we've come to expect from Kendrick Lamar.

Monev360-"Superman Alive"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT9mVktTEkY

Which says a lot to me. There's only one young barber at my shop, and they go for a more "upscale" feel. Those guys are big fans of Jay, Nas, Kast, etc. etc. and they're loving this album.

I'm 32 and my bros are 10+ years older than me. When I went to visit home in NC last I got in my brother's car and he was bumping Good Kid, Mad City. It was wild cause it was always them putting me onto hip hop, but it is a weird thing being the little brother and having the big bros pick up on something on your radar.

One of my fav memories is us chilling listening to "Money Trees", like they got why its a dope song too without backpacker-gatekeeping *ducks* lol

From the internets...

Theory%*%>$

BLOOD.---** Kendrick's dark side** Is Attempting to take over his brain. Telling him to stop trying to help or he will be killed by America. The Blind Woman.

DNA.---Kendrick's Good Side Replying that he won't be killed due to loyalty, royalty, etc. "Ken is on the way. Mufucka I got winners on the way."

YAH.---Kendrick's dark sideReplies to Kendrick's bold claims with Yah yah which is a dismissive reply...."Radars is Buzzin" (your end is near.) Also name drops Cousin Carl but it's in a dismissive way although Carl plays a major key in Kendrick's breakthrough.

ELEMENT.--Kendrick's Good Side Comes right back annoyed saying he's basically coming out of his element due to his dark side's persistence. He has heard enough. He's gassing himself up saying he's better than his inner demons claim to be.

FEEL.---Kendrick's Dark SideTakes his brain over, and twists his thoughts to make him see the dark side....Kendrick almost loses himself here.

LOYALTY.--Kendrick's Good SideComes back to life, and shakes off the "ain't nobody praying for me/I'm all alone" mentality that his dark side just caused in FEEP. by saying all he needs is loyalty, and that whole negative thought process is invalid. Life's better with someone you can trust. Kung Fu Kenny realizes this is a Major key. Despite the mainstream feel of the song it's an important one.

PRIDE.Kendrick's Dark SideRealizes Kendrick's Good Side has found loyalty and is on the brink of discovering love (which is the key...see below) Kendrick's Dark Side, which I have just NOW decided ill simply call Kendrick from HERE til the end, Sees Kung Fu Ken has realized loyalty is important and instead calls him insecure at the end of a verse out of fear.

HUMBLE.**Kung Fu Ken (Good Side) is telling Kendrick (Dark Side) to be Humble. sit down. Loyalty is important. I know what's good. He comes out of his she'll in this track. Almost becoming the inner demon he's cursing in a way.

LUST.Kendrick (Dark Side) tries to use lust to control Kung Fu Ken. He sees Kendrick going hard during HUMBLE. He sees this as his opportunity to use Lust (which we know is a vicee of his) to bring Kendrick to his side. Tells him to take a shit. don't go to work. roll a blunt. Do whatever. We woke up and Trump is president. Nothing we do is going to help so FUCK IT. Stick the head in.

LOVE.Kung Fu KenFINDS THE KEY (see above)He's found the way to BRING THE GLOW BACK. Love is essential. Hands down. His rebuttal to Kendrick's (dark side) attempt with LUST. almost getting him.

XXX.Kendrick's (dark side) Realized he's fucked now that Kung Fu Ken found Love and is near bringing the GLOW back. He's throwing the heavy artillery here, convincing Ken that chaos is happening no matter what he does. Even references Ken's dark answers to real problems in the past to say he's always been dark.

FEAR.Kung Fu Ken (Good Side) Is genuinely afraid of his own thoughts after hearing himself on XXX. Remembering that he was once a violent minded indivdual...He starts to reflect over all his fears and wonders what is the root of them. Cousin Carl's voicemail at the end makes him realize God is the answer to his problems. He has to break the curse and follow the real God.

GOD.Kendrick's(Dark Side)Last ditch effort all the ammo. Kendrick's a false prophet/false claiming here to convince Kung Fu Ken he is essentially God. He's realized this is the final straw to convince Ken to take the dark path. Otherwise he has lost. Saying don't judge me to Ken. Kendrick's (Dark Side) is very sacreligious throughout the song. Opposite of Cousin Carl's voicemail and the instructions to follow the real God, commandments, etc.

DUCKWORTH.**Kung Fu Ken (Good Side) Responds by taking it back to the beginning and telling the story that God is more powerful than him or his thoughts because prior to him growing up, God basically, through one way or another have him life. Then he begins to take a walk, but its different this time. KUNG FU KEN REALIZED IT'S HIM VS. HIM. NOT HIM VS. THE WORLD. LUCY ISN'T SHERANE OR THE SYSTEM. LUCY IS IN HIS HEAD. HE FOUND THE GLOW. HE BROUGHT IT BACK! KEN WINS....At least we can only hope that's how this walk ends.....I guess we'll see.. I believe the next album will be called Ken Wins....Please feel free to add on to the theory below. I left out a bunch, but I gotta spark this W and run the album back with my new perspective. DAMN.

EDIT: Watch the Zane Lowe interview. Beginning of the End? Or End of The Beginning? is "the whole thing" according to Kendrick when Zane mentioned it. Is this going to be the End of The Beginning? Death to Kendricks Dark Side. Or is this the Beginning of The End? and Kendricks Dark Side has taken over.

P.S. I couldn't get in to my account for awhile so I created another account for a bit. Then was able to get back into this account. I almost predicted this before the release. I mean I did....but couldn't put it into words like Kendrick was able to until it clicked today. Peep the Duality post u/-i-like-music-

http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwmusic/article/Kendrick-Lamar-Adds-New-Brooklyn-and-Los-Angeles-Dates-to-The-DAMN-Tour-20170501

I didn't pay this much to see Prince or Stevie. Can't do it fam.

I looked at the tickets for Boston at TD Garden and then remembered that I saw STEVIE at TD Garden for cheaper 3 years ago in the exact same seats I was considering. I'm a huge Kendrick fan but I'll have to miss this one.

.

every single song is great.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.thefader.com/2017/05/15/kendrick-lamar-damn-tour-new-dates/amp#ampshare=http://www.thefader.com/2017/05/15/kendrick-lamar-damn-tour-new-dates

Wonder what they sound like

I'm sure one day it'll happen...We worked on a couple joints but they didn't make the album...that's family so it's all good
https://twitter.com/realdjpremier/status/863077551811563521

@HNHHNEWS I said that @kendricklamar and I "WORKED" on some joints...I didn't say that they were "Completed"...GET THE FACTS STRAIGHT...
https://twitter.com/realdjpremier/status/863151140329992192

...i wish an album like this would have remixes to certain songs ...cant deny that Kendrick is dope anymore ..i'm really enjoying a handful of songs on this album ..but the ones i dont really fuck with is due to the production not being my cup of tea ..why not let a primo remix that shit ?

wouldn't mind kendrick doing a whole remixed album. same lyrics, different beats.

worth checking out.

http://www.rappersiknow.com/2017/07/25/king-mason-x-kendrick-lamar-damn-king-mason-remixes/

another Untitled Unmastered and stick 'em on there.

I'm listening to the album again and there are additions to Fear and XXX.

I think the adlibs on XXX are different.

And there's a coda on Fear that I don't remember being on the album when it dropped.

Fear is almost a minute shorter than the Spotify version. On the downloaded copy that coda (god damn....) isn't there at all, it just fades out.

XXX has an extra Kid Capri shoutout...or at least I think. I remember being caught by surprise by the adlib even though I've heard the album a lot.

I haven't gone back to verify that second one but there's definitely two versions of Fear.
---------------------------------------


---------------------------------------

The idea sounds interesting.

Did Kanye do the same on his last album?

I've listened to it on Spotify and I have a leaked copy I downloaded.

---------------------------------------


---------------------------------------

I haven't heard of a case of an artist changing the content of an album based upon a leak in a long time.

It would make sense that Kendrick would switch up the bootleg from the actual release version. If only to give the folks who only downloaded the bootleg a reason to stream or buy the album.

Also, as far as the coda, do you mean the voice mail left by Carl?

kanye made lots of tweaks, big and small, for what felt like a few weeks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGipsRdNR_c

Off the top of my head I can remember...

Fear- Tidal version has a voicemail at the beginning of the song

Love- Tidal version has an intro with Kendrick saying "Love or Lust, all of us.." and there's some additional percussive elements throughout the song

I'll have to compare to see if those things you listed are different too

When I do my DAMN review on my YouTube page I was gonna talk about it.

For example. Cd doesn't have voicemail for FEAR...Digital does

Another one... DUCKWORTH...CD has God is one funny mother...Digital has Life is one funny mother...

A true comedian...ya gotta trust him...ya gotta love him...