REVIEW: KENDRICK LAMAR - DAMN.
As one of the most devout Christians in the rap game, it is perhaps fitting that Kendrick Lamar has achieved an almost godlike status within the culture. He has solidified himself at a level untouched by his contemporaries, consistently achieving commercial, artistic and critical success whilst educating the masses and challenging preconceptions. However, with this level of acclaim and loyalty to faith comes a burden that manifests itself in the self-doubt, condemnation and pessimism at the core of DAMN.
The personal and political aspects of Kendrick's music have been present from the very beginning of his output, but DAMN. provides a middle ground between 2012's Good Kid, m.A.A.D city and 2015's To Pimp A Butterfly; containing some of Kendrick's most personal and emotional music yet, while simultaneously commenting upon the state of society and morality. DAMN. is an album of consequence and internal conflict, seeking to tackle huge concepts as evidenced through its track titles. Across this record Kendrick intends to teach us about the fragmentation inherent within our humanity and present his personal meditations upon behaviour and what makes a person who they are.
Across this album Kendrick showcases that his morals and faith, usually the foundations of his work and philosophy, are shaken. As a result, a pessimistic view of human nature and motivation is pervasive across the project. Kendrick attempts to analyse this by presenting the conflict between our inherent desires and moral expectation within the album sequencing itself, coupling tracks together to reflect this duality within life .i.e. LUST/LOVE or perhaps most interestingly FEAR/GOD. This fear of God is a significant theme throughout the album. DAMN. acknowledges not only the positive potential of faith within the world but also adopts an Old Testament awareness of the tribulations, punishment and destruction God is capable of manifesting at any given moment. Kendrick is no longer concerned with preaching the gospel but rather God's judgement and our collective failings, instead utilising fear itself as a means of educating his listeners away from ungodliness. As illustrated through its title, DAMN. is concerned with society’s damnation and the burden of the prophet.
This burden is on full display through Kendrick’s own internal conflict and vulnerability. Across the album Kendrick reveals himself to be deeply conflicted, unhappy with the world and unsure of himself, his fame, his influence. The album fittingly concludes with the couplet of GOD and DUCKWORTH, representing the two patriarchs in Kendrick's life, to which he has an eternal duty: The Holy Father and his own familial legacy through his father’s name. The weight of this dual duty is perhaps most clear in FEAR where Kendrick draws parallels between himself and the biblical tale of Job. Throughout the album he portrays his duty to society and the burden it brings is as a test from God himself, questioning if the faith he's been armed with is adequate enough to save him. Whereas on good kid m.A.A.D city, Lamar paints rap and music as a means of salvation an escape from transgression, DAMN. questions that perhaps his new status within culture and his duty to God is the very thing that's killing him. Just as he notes on FEEL: "I feel like the whole world want me to pray for 'em, But who the fuck prayin' for me?"
Lyrically and conceptually Kendrick delivers yet another album at the cutting edge of Hip-Hop and modern day poetry in general. However, what is perhaps most impressive is the manner in which Kendrick is able to consistently reinvent himself with every album. DAMN. brings an entirely new sound to Kendrick's catalogue, deliberately fragmented and disorienting yet impressively sonically cohesive, DAMN. fuses a variety of disparate styles, collaborations and genres into a fluid listening experience that is able to complement and support its chaotic, layered, and deeply conflicted subject.
Unlike Kendrick's previous work, DAMN. is not as concrete in its message. Lamar’s display of introspection encourages his audience to reflect upon their past failures, the consequence of our actions and the contradictions inherent within life itself and to draw their own conclusions. He's urging us to grapple with DAMN., in the same existential way that he has. DAMN. focuses upon our development, our actions and our convictions. It does not dictate right or wrong, lecture or outline the world’s injustices, it asks the lister instead to question their own injustices and morals, their vices and desires and makes the case to act morally, regardless of the circumstances or personal burden.
