Kendrick Lamar- 'Damn' Album Review

Kendrick Lamar- ‘Damn.’

There’s no doubt about it. Kendrick Lamar Duckworth is at the top of his game, this era’s 2pac, the modern rap prophet, and at just 29, his 4^th studio album ‘Damn’ is one of his most assured, confident, retrospective and bold projects to date. Since his tracks ‘The Heart Pt. 4’ (Not on the album) & ‘Humble’ (On the album) dropped over the past month, the hype surrounding ‘Damn’ has been immense and many people’s expectations have been gigantic. The two tracks were rather different in sound. ‘The Heart Pt. 4’ was TPAB era Kendrick, loose jazzy beats paired with Lamar’s damning lyrics. The track also presented a side to Kendrick that is rarely heard, shots at fellow rappers were weaved into this song regularly and this may be alluding to a potentially new, harder, angrier K.Dot. The theme of dissing was also fairly obvious on ‘Humble’, yet it was presented in a cheekier, more positive manner. The track was relatively mainstream sounding, and like King Kunta and Alright, was worthy of its single title. Both of these tracks were truly impressive and it set up the hype for ‘Damn’. Now, on its release day, it’s time for my review, so let’s get stuck in.

The album opens with ‘Blood’, a track that seems to follow on from Kendrick’s previous album ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’, it’s a brief story of a blind woman walking down the street presented over slow, jazzy/orchestral backing beats. However, the story abruptly reaches a crescendo when the blind woman shoots Kendrick before a sample of a Fox News segment which slates the lyrics of police brutality in Lamar’s 2015 song ‘Alright’ is heard. This is suddenly halted and we are introduced with ‘DNA’, a track that wastes no time in displaying itself clearly to the listener. The free jazz of TPAB and Untitled Unmastered has been scrapped; instead Kendrick is truly embracing his West-coast rap roots. ‘DNA’ incorporates a deep trap-style beat with fast-flowing bars in order to create a true cacophony of aggressive rap. Lyrically, Lamar is tackling racism on ‘DNA’ and the ferociousness of this particular track effectively displays his opinions on this particular matter.

I must admit, when the track listing was released earlier this week for ‘Damn’ and I saw a Kendrick/U2 collaboration I was sceptical to say the least. However, this particular track (titled ‘XXX’) is one of the strongest on the album in my opinion. The first 2 and a half minutes is proper hard styled rap paired with booming police sirens, then the track takes a swerve to the left and U2’s Bono is introduced. His supporting role is slightly less significant than I was expecting, however it does add a solid layer to this track. His distorted vocals layered over a jazzy beat actually culminate in something special.

This album has the knack to make you utter its title regularly to yourself, simply due to the quality of it. ‘Element’ is one of the songs that makes you do this. It’s a sultry, slowish jam that incorporates James Blake provided piano chords with a typical West-Coast beat and Kendrick’s bars. Again, Lamar is dissing other rappers, saying “Last LP I tried to lift the black artists/ But it’s a difference between black artists and wack artists” and the chorus stating “If I gotta slap a pussy ass nigga, I’mma make it look sexy’, showing the shift in the themes of this album compared to TPAB. The aforementioned ‘Humble’ is another standout single of this album that again shows Lamar’s changes from his previous record. It has a rather generic sound to it, yet the lyrics are far from generic. This particular track is a true testimony to Lamar’s talent, he is able to create a track that can sound relatively easy and mainstream appealing, whilst also sounding complex and unique at the same time. Again, he is taking shots at other rappers, and on ‘Humble’ they are probably presented in the clearest manner of the whole album. The chorus states ‘Hol up bitch, sit down lil’ bitch’ displaying Lamar’s opinion that he is the king of his genre and everyone else is below him.

Don’t be under the impression that Lamar is just angry and murderous on ‘Damn’; he subtly shows his softer aspects regularly. ‘God’ for instance is an arrogant track (he is basically presenting himself as the messiah), but it is presented in a cool, loungey manner that enables this particular song to flow seamlessly through the back end of this album and gives the listener an opportunity to catch their breath for 4 minutes. It’s a track that feels very unlike the Kendrick of before and it adds another weapon to this already fully armoured soldier. ‘Lust’ is another track on ‘Damn’ that sounds a bit TPAB, it’s another slow jam that incorporates distorted vocals, a Rat Boy sample (rather perplexing but it actually works), deep bass chords and blue lyrics to create an extremely enjoyable track.

‘Damn’ culminates with the track ‘Duckworth’. The track opens with the lyrics “It was always me versus the world/ Until I found it’s me versus me” and this effectively displays the fact that this is the most retrospective track on the album. Lamar is looking at himself for this track and it involves a bit of classic Kendrick ‘Good Kid. Maad City’ esque storytelling, a personal recount of a troubling experience of how Kendrick’s now manager Anthony Tiffith nearly killed his own father and how this would have ruined Lamar’s career had it happened. This track is capped off via the whole album being played at hyper speed in reverse, sending the listener into one final mysterious realm before they are transported back into the comfort of their own environment.

Overall ‘Damn’ is special, each time Lamar releases a new album it’s like nothing we have heard from him before, and this is definitely the case with this new record. It’s potentially his most mainstream sounding projects, perhaps due to his guest spots with Taylor Swift and Maroon 5 over the past year or so, yet it also sounds very unlike the mainstream. It’s this complex mix of both the familiar and the unfamiliar that enables Lamar to remain at the top of his game. If you ask me, this album should be renamed DAYUMMMM. 

Overall Rating- 9.5/10

Fave Tracks- ‘Humble’, ‘Element’, ‘XXX’, ‘DNA’, ‘Lust’, ‘Love’

Least Fave Tracks- ‘Loyalty’, 'Yah'

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