Alright, let me check the band’s official info one more time and then lay this out for you. Kendrick Lamar’s been one of the most important voices in hip-hop for over a decade now, coming out of Compton with this crazy mix of street poetry and conscious rap that somehow manages to be both commercially successful and critically bulletproof. The guy went from releasing mixtapes as K.Dot to becoming the first rapper to win a Pulitzer Prize – and DAMN. is the album that got him there.
DAMN. dropped in 2017 and honestly, it caught a lot of people off guard because it wasn’t the jazz-fusion experiment that To Pimp a Butterfly was. Instead, Kendrick stripped things back and delivered something way more raw and conflicted. The whole album feels like he’s wrestling with his own contradictions – faith versus doubt, humility versus pride, love versus anger. Every track title is just one word in all caps, which sounds gimmicky but actually works perfectly for how blunt and direct the whole thing is.
The standout tracks here are obviously “HUMBLE.” and “DNA.” – both bangers that show Kendrick at his most aggressive and confident. “HUMBLE.” became his first number-one hit as a lead artist, and for good reason – it’s got this minimalist beat that just lets his flow completely dominate. “DNA.” is even harder, with Kendrick basically declaring war on a Fox News sample that claims hip-hop is more damaging than racism. But the real heart of the album might be “FEAR.” – this seven-minute track where he breaks down his anxieties at different stages of his life, from childhood to fame. It’s the kind of vulnerable storytelling that separates Kendrick from pretty much everyone else in the game.
You should check this out because DAMN. is Kendrick at his most accessible without dumbing anything down. It’s got the bangers for your workout playlist but also the depth to keep you thinking months later. The fact that it won a Pulitzer Prize while also going triple platinum tells you everything you need to know – this is an album that works on every level. Plus, Kendrick designed it so you can play the tracks in reverse order and get a completely different narrative experience, which is just the kind of next-level thinking that makes him special.