Let's talk about:
BOO! GOOD KID, M.A.A.D CITY IS BETTER! DAMN IS KENDRICK'S WORST ALBUM! BOO!
Ok so yeah, DAMN. is a 2016 hip hop album written by, produced by and performed by Kendrick Lamar. It also happens to be his best album so far.
I think it's important to acknowledge an artist's body of work when taking into account their latest release, and Kendrick's is a mammoth compared to those who own maybe just a small elk.
Kenny's body of work consists of four studio albums, five mixtapes, one compilation album and forty- three singles.
His most well- renowned piece, To Pimp a Butterfly (2015) was released to immense critical acclaim, which it still gets to this day, more so, some might say, since DAMN. was released.
Kendrick's style is often coined by his references to Compton (his childhood city), instrumental jazz accompaniment to the vocals and his use of the medium to empower the black persons of the United States who have endured what Kendrick has.
DAMN. is almost none of these.
DAMN. was, I think, so different to Kenny's first three albums that the majority of his long- time fans were not able to deal with the radical gear shift in tone and style.
DAMN. uses K. Dot's past works as a backbone to subvert expectations for the genre, as well as to subvert expectations for a Kendrick Lamar album. Why do this, though? Why do this after an album as conceptually thought out and constructed as TPAB?
Well, Kendrick created DAMN. in an effort to address his past work and to move forward in his creative field.
The album is a response, a wall for Kendrick to bounce his personal issues against and a vessel to reach an audience larger than previously reached.
Kendrick's veer away from Compton as a main concept, or location to ground the story of the album in, is a whiplash- inducing event, a change that's almost instantly recogniseable on first listens. The choice to move his attention away from the inner world of Compton, and onto the wider world around us all is a step away from one phase of Kenny's career, and into the next.
DAMN. uses this step away to appeal to a wider audience and to address issues that could only fit into an album such as DAMN.
The sound of the album is noticeably less jazz influenced when compared to TPAB, and less culture- based, opting, instead, to address the mainstream, in a move to create a personal piece that anybody can relate to.
I, personally, can't relate to Section.80 (2011), Good Kid, M.A.A.D City (2012), or To Pimp a Butterfly as well as I can DAMN. This is because of Kendrick pushing his style and conceptual approaches outside of the niche market of his past work, and into said mainstream. Kenny addresses issues I have, thoughts I have and concerns I have, which engage me better in the narrative of the record.
An argument can be made for the likes of GKMC and TPAB showing me a world I don't fully understand, and relaying the atrocities and deviances of these places in the everyday life of the populous. This argument is true in that this has occurred for me, but while I am more knowledgeable on the political and social struggles of Compton, Compton is still only one city, and not the one the rest of the planet grew up in.
DAMN. knows when to keep the pace within Kendrick's childhood home and his thoughts on the world outside of it. This is all the reason why I believe this to be Kendrick's best album. This is an outstandingly dark and cynical outlook that is, yes, explored in previous albums, but never to this extent. This is because of how K. Dot was feeling at the time of making it, again, this album is a way for him to truly bring out his personal demons that built up over 2016.
The overall message of the album, for me, concludes that we as people cannot exist without a balance of wickedness and weakness within our souls, having too much of one or the other will kill you, as has happened with Kendrick's friends back in Compton, illustrated in song throughout TPAD and GKMC. Kendrick uses DAMN. to reveal how and why those whom he held dear to his heart were killed, and how we can all use those awfully tragic moments as learning points to become better people, and to avoid such grisly fates so young in our lives.
"Is it wickedness?
Is it weakness?
You decide
Are we gonna live or die?"
What kept me going through this review: Kendrick Lamar - DAMN., Flying Lotus - You're Dead!, Posij - Cocoon and Eastghost - Misery & Wonder.