Damn, by Kendrick Lamar, released 2 years after To Pimp a Butterfly came and blew us all away, received widespread acclaim, winning Best Album at the BET Awards and Favourite Rap/Hip-Hop Album at American Music Awards' , but is it all that?
When I first put this album on, excited as I was, something bugged me about it, so I thought I'd put proverbial pen to paper in order to align my thoughts on this.
The first track, titled Blood, starts and I immediately think: " Okay here we go. Kendrick's at it again". Somehow familiar and obscure at the same time with jazzy notes, languid vocals and a filtered out sound palette of strings and keys greet you, as a monologue begins, telling a story about a man meeting a blind woman. The story, and Kendrick's tone of voice lull you gently, until you're jarred into reality by a gunshot as he twists a knife you didn't know was there.
She replied "Oh yes. You have lost something. You've lost your life."
That's how I thought the next 45 minutes would be - a winding road of unexpected melodies and rhythms, but the next track, DNA, kicks in and I immediately came out of my "Oh shit Kendrick's dropping the fire!" reverie.
DNA, for the first 2 seconds, launches into a twisted vocal, but quickly drops into a simple trap rhythm from the beat and the vocal, the kind you hear pretty much everywhere these days.
Ah Kendrik, I thought you were better than this.
Okay, once the bridge dropped things took a turn for the better, introducing some sonic madness, and the next track, Yah I found really cool, with some weird melodies and cool, smooth production.
Next, in kicks Element, combining modern elements, like big 808 basses, with beautiful old-school pianos, vocals and more, and this is where I felt the love for Kendrick returning, the way he takes the entire track and slows it down at the end, pitching down the vocals and making me feel all weird inside. 😃
In general, I found some of the rap rhythms to be a little lacklustre, especially of the more trap-style beats. Is this an effort to fit in with the crowd? I don't know, that never seemed like Kendrick's MO to me,though I do find myself a little bored from time to time, but do I find this album amazing? Absolutely.
I think the guardian put it nicely:
"If it seems a more straightforward listen than To Pimp a Butterfly, there's a cheering sense that this doesn't equate to a lessening of musical ambition. There's none of that album's wilfully jarring quality – its sudden, anxious musical lurches and abrupt, short-circuiting leaps between genres – but the tracks on Damn still feel episodic and expansive. Whether Damn will have the same epochal impact as To Pimp a Butterfly remains to be seen, but either way it sounds like the work of a supremely confident artist at the top of his game." - The Guardian
Its as if, this time round, Kendrik and his team made a decision to not try and break any crazy new ground, but I don't blame him, he's been on the edge since his first album and god, those are hard expectations and standards to try and match or exceed every time.
My favourite tunes (in no particular order):
BLOOD - At just under 2 minutes, its not a full song, but its powerful.
XXX (feat. U2) - Not because it features U2 - in fact the Bono part is my least favourite - but because its mad and it demands that my ear pays attention.
FEAR - Reversed vocals, dripping in soul, against rhythmic bars? Yes please!
LOYALTY (feat. Rihanna) - Not because this features Rihanna, but because Kendrik show's off the unique way he can do something commercial and twist just enough to be wild and original.
To sum up, this album deserves to listened to a bunch of times in order to glean everything it has to offer, and the king of conscious rap, Kendrik Lamar, delivers the goods in this release. Are there some fillers? In my opinion, yes, but then again, the first single, Humble, went to number 1 on the Billboard charts and here I'm listening to it thinking..."Yah its ok." So who am I to judge?