By Alvin Halimwidjaya
On Monday, Kendrick Lamar’s fourth studio album DAMN. became the top-selling album in the U.S. in 2017, with its lead single “HUMBLE.” also snagging the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and dethroning Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You.” After a few weeks of fanfare and promotion, Kendrick dropped his latest LP on April 14, and it seems that he has crafted yet another masterpiece, despite continuing to adopt a different approach for each album he releases.
Kendrick’s first album, Good kid m.A.A.d city, was a concept album detailing a story about his life in Compton, revolving around key characters like the ever-elusive Sherane and his brother who was shot in a dispute. His wildly successful debut was followed up by To Pimp a Butterfly, an introspective, sociopolitical sprawl of questions backed by jazz and blues-infused production.
In DAMN., Kendrick reverts back to a more traditional approach, recruiting notable producer Mike WiLL Made-It for his booming 808s and aggressive earworms on tracks like “HUMBLE.” and “DNA.” On songs like “FEAR.” and “DUCKWORTH.”, Kendrick opts for a more subtle, wandering beat that draws comparisons back to TPAB, while “LUST.” and “XXX.” provide a sleek, hypnotizing lull, with the former dancing around the beat while the latter drives it straight through the one U2 feature on the record.
Entwined into this different approach to the album seems to be a slightly different Kendrick as well. He’s more aggressive, and more arrogant than he has been in the past. Despite a few instances like his verse on “Control” and his BET cypher, where he has issued statements of dominance that incinerate any rappers in the general area, he seems to grab deification by the halo in this LP, constantly referring to himself as transcendent and, at one point, even predicating an entire song on the assumption that, “this what God feel like.”
His lyrical genius remains at the forefront of the album, as he starts off by recounting a fictional scenario of an old woman murdering him. However, his final story is what really makes the listener stop and think. On “DUCKWORTH.,” Kendrick weaves a tale of two individuals. One is a young man, Anthony, who is caught in the lifestyle of gang violence and robbery. The other is an older man who works at KFC named Kenny. Kendrick recounts Anthony’s difficult young life, and the crux of the narrative lies on Kenny constantly giving Anthony free food, basically in exchange for his life. Eventually, Kendrick reveals the impact of this story, calling himself “the greatest rapper… from coincidence,” as Kenny was his father, and Anthony grew up to be the CEO of TDE, the label that eventually signed Kendrick Lamar himself.
It has been little over a week since DAMN. dropped, and the album is already surpassing efforts from artists like Ed Sheeran to the ever-pandering, Canadian king of superficiality we call Drake. People might say that this LP ranks the lowest in Kendrick Lamar’s discography, and it is true that his latest offering is not as complex, original or discourse-worthy as the previous two records have been.
However, DAMN.’s straightforward, traditional approach does not diminish Kendrick’s brilliance; to compare and rank his albums is to peer into the tiny margins of the highest superlatives. Because he proves to be so elusive and so private, choosing only to showcase his personal life through his music, every glimpse draws crowds of fans in with bated breath and Twitter accounts in hand.
Kendrick Lamar is currently dominating the charts, at least until Taylor Swift drops another voice memo or Harry Styles throws his album into the rabid. adoring throngs that follow him. Lamar has given us a three-peat of classic albums that will surely hold weight long after he stops making music. Kung Fu Kenny is back, and with his upcoming tour to his eventual Grammy nominations looming, DAMN. has started yet another cycle of dominance for the juggernaut from Compton.
