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.