Kendrick Lamar has been quietly making us say the name of his fourth album for years. I’ve 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 Lamar’s latest, it’s 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 narrator’s life after suffering a gunshot—on his pride, lust, loyalty, love, fear, and piety—but each song’s focus on a separate internal concept means each stands on its own as a small, vivid odyssey.
The opener “BLOOD” features little more than a hypnotic melody under Lamar’s 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 “DNA.” directly after it for the lead single “HUMBLE.” on steroids, and tell me why it’s taken this long for Mike-WiLL Made It and Kendrick to collaborate. The choppy, forceful “DNA.” represents the pinnacle of braggadocio on the album—it would probably feel natural on Kanye West’s Yeezus. (The similarities between the two albums don’t end there, as Lamar later boasts—in true Kanye-fashion about feeling like “GOD.”)
Where 2015’s To Pimp A Butterfly was a sprawling jazz/rap love affair, the production on DAMN. is a flex in transcending genres. Songs like “YAH.,” “ELEMENT.,” “PRIDE.,” and “LUST.,” are evocative of Frank Ocean’s recent output. On singles like “Chanel” and “Biking,” 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 collaborators—including BADBADNOTGOOD, Steve Lacy, and Sounwave—engages 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 2017—one who remains human despite his fame.
