Kendrick Lamar has been quietly making us say the name of his fourth album for years. Iâve been ready to name him the greatest rapper of our time since good kid, m.A.A.d city arrived in 2012. Another masterpiece and an incredible b-sides record since then only reinforced this opinion. And after spending the last three days with Lamarâs latest, itâs clear to me that he is second to no one. DAMN., indeed.
Brevity is the essence of DAMN., as evidenced by the noticeably punchy, one-word titles of all 14 songs, but also by the tightness and purpose in each verse. A unifying story runs through the whole album as expected, a reflection on the narratorâs life after suffering a gunshotâon his pride, lust, loyalty, love, fear, and pietyâbut each songâs focus on a separate internal concept means each stands on its own as a small, vivid odyssey.
The opener âBLOODâ features little more than a hypnotic melody under Lamarâs voice as he slowly tells an innocent story of helping a blind woman on the street. The deliberate pacing is enough to make a listener feel drunk waiting for resolution, but the twist at the end brings sudden realization and sobriety.
Launch into âDNA.â directly after it for the lead single âHUMBLE.â on steroids, and tell me why itâs taken this long for Mike-WiLL Made It and Kendrick to collaborate. The choppy, forceful âDNA.â represents the pinnacle of braggadocio on the albumâit would probably feel natural on Kanye Westâs Yeezus. (The similarities between the two albums donât end there, as Lamar later boastsâin true Kanye-fashion about feeling like âGOD.â)
Where 2015âs To Pimp A Butterfly was a sprawling jazz/rap love affair, the production on DAMN. is a flex in transcending genres. Songs like âYAH.,â âELEMENT.,â âPRIDE.,â and âLUST.,â are evocative of Frank Oceanâs recent output. On singles like âChanelâ and âBiking,â Ocean has consistently blurred the lines between R&B, hip hop, electronic, and acoustic songwriting, refusing easy labels and creating mesmerizing music in the process. DAMN. and its long list of talented collaboratorsâincluding BADBADNOTGOOD, Steve Lacy, and Sounwaveâengages in the same genre-bending and benefits for it.
And Kendrick Lamar oversees the whole thing, rapping with superhuman control over his words at times and singing without restraint at others, never once faltering in his supreme storytelling, layered with introspection, indictment, and emotion. After masterfully delivering his origin story on m.A.A.d city and his conflicted rise to stardom on Butterfly, Lamar brings us to his current reality as the greatest rapper in 2017âone who remains human despite his fame.