Lamar’s DAMN. ★★★★★
Kendrick Lamar’s fourth studio album, DAMN., was released amidst discredited leaked track lists and lukewarm reactions to the album’s simplistic cover art. The tensions surrounding Lamar’s fourth studio album were also heightened by a long of history of emcees failing to maintain inventiveness past their first few albums. Eminem’s fourth and fifth albums, The Eminem Show (2002) and Encore (2004) were failed attempts to live up to the provocative and witty Marshall Mathers LP (2000), Eminem’s third studio album. Jay Z was unable to build upon the promise of his tour-de-force debut album, Reasonable Doubt (1996). Despite this stormy past, Lamar’s new album DAMN. has delivered everything his fans could have hoped for.
DAMN. is a clear departure from the funk-jazz infused sound of the highly acclaimed To Pimp A Butterfly (2016). The album’s production features a more standard hip-hop sound reminiscent of his first full-length album, Section. 80 (2011). While much has changed in Lamar’s sound over the past few years, one aspect of his music that remains the same is his beautiful storytelling and introspective themes. The album’s twelfth track, FEAR. is a reflection on how Lamar’s anxiety has evolved since he was a kid growing up in Compton. Told from the perspective of Lamar at seven, seventeen, and twenty-seven years old, the songs novelistic nature is reminiscent of good kid, m.A.A.d city’s “Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst.”
While DAMN. is less cohesive than Lamar’s previous two projects, the style seems to fluctuate in the middle of the album. Still, the variety of intensities are sure to offer something enjoyable for everybody, from the avid hip-hop fan to the casual listener. The tracks “LOYALTY.” and “LOVE.” are likely to get decent radio play, while the album’s singles “HUMBLE.” and “DNA.” provide the proper bangers that any great rap record needs.
Many music fans rarely listen to entire albums from start to finish anymore, but DAMN.’s final track is worth it. Titled “DUCKWORTH.,” the song tells the story of an altercation between Antony “Top Dawg” Tiffith—the owner and founder of Lamar’s label, Top Dawg Entertainment—and Lamar’s father, Kenny “Ducky” Duckworth, at a KFC, which was diffused by an offering of free chicken. 20 years later, TDE is on top of the rap game and Kendrick is the label’s star. Even more remarkable than the story itself is how long Lamar waited to tell it to the world. The last four lines of the “DUCKWORTH.” are the album’s most powerful. “Whoever thought the greatest rapper would be from coincidence? / Because if Anthony killed Ducky / Top Dawg could be servin’ life / While I grew up without a father and died in a gunfight,” Lamar raps. By acknowledging the feeble nature of his own success story and tying up the album eloquently, Lamar lives up to the humility he calls for in “HUMBLE.” while assuming the title of “hip-hop rhyme savior” he predicts for himself in “The Heart Part 4.”