Unfortunately in this big big 2017, this retarded J.Cole and Kendrick comparison still exists. In my opinion it never needed to exist, but the timeline thinks differently⌠BUT DAMN is here to show everyone that Kendrick is one of the best to ever do it.
DAMN is stripped down in comparison to the rest of Kendrickâs Discography but donât let this phase you. This album has some of the best music that he has produced.
The album starts off with BLOOD, an Uma Thurman Kill Bill type monologue (if you can call it that) which introduces the album. From the instrumental I was intrigued, a bit confused however intrigued nevertheless. The importance of the speech in this intro sets the mood of the album and if you have seen the track listing you will notice that they are all single words either adjectives or nouns which play hand in hand with the lyrical matter of each track
In terms of the music, I believe there is a trend in Kendrickâs sound, for example in GKMC, the music on this was practically Hip-Hop centric. Everything youâd expect from a Hip-Hop album in terms of sound. However, TPAB has a Jazz and âWest Coastâ G-funk sound. However, Damn is Kendrickâs most sonically powered work to date. The album differs so far from typical Hip-Hop but still encapsulates the genre. Damn prides itself on rock samples, some psychedelic and some alternative but Kendrick doesnât sway far from the Hip-Hop sound with tracks like DNA and HUMBLE with beats that arenât as cryptic as the other songs on this album. DAMN also shows the versatility of the producers on the album. MikeWILLMadeIt for example played a pinnacle role in the production of DNA, HUMBLE and XXX and these by far are some of his best beats. The beat switch on DNA had my face screwed beyond recognition. Madlib on DUCKWORTH proves his signature sound is relevant to Hip-Hop and the fact that 9th Wonder contributed to this beat made it all the better the two go hand in hand. PRIDE is probably my favourite song on the album, the psychedelic rock (Iâm very fond of this genre) sound and Kendrickâs ability to make his voice match the mood and sound of the track is fantastic. LUST reminds me of something that could have been on Stankonia, the stripped beat but heavy hitting bass is something reminiscent of Organized Noize back in their prime, BADBADNOTGOD did a good job with the instrumental for this song. I think the most exciting song in terms of sound is XXX, it starts of with a soft sample and then a face-screwing beat, then into a N.W.A. F*** da Police type beat, then it transitions into U2âs soft rock. So many styles of music in one song and youâre comparing my man to J. Cole *kmt*. Rihanna must be commended on the track LOYALTY, her flow matches that of Kendrickâs in this track and as usual her vocals sound great. It was nice to hear some sort of rap on her part.
Damn is more striped down in terms of its lyrical matter. You donât have to think too much about his lyrics and the order of the album in comparison to TPAB and GKMC. One thing that helps is the fact that the titles of the song are purely the focus and content of the song, for example FEAR, Kendrick literally talks about his fears, LUST, Kendrick refrains âLEETTT MEEE PUTT THE HEEEAADD INNâ obviously man doesnât need to explain that. Â DAMN is probably the only Kendrick album where you donât have to listen to it front to back before enjoying it properly and its good to see Kendrick going in this direction. Especially as people are lazy as f***. I mean âIf I got to slap a pussy ass nigga, Imma make it look sexyâ is most likely to resonate with the whole of twitter instead of the whole of TPAB despite that album being one of the best in Hip-Hop history. Â
There isnât a lot to say about DAMN. Apart from its fantastic structure, creative beats, amazing lyricism that is so easy to follow and understand. All of which I have grown to love about Kendrick Lamar and even since Section 80, he is still exciting. I personally believe he is in his own lane. DAMN compliments this and he will soon be recognised as one of the best of all time, well that is if he hasnât been already.
Man like Kendrick gets a 9/10 Â