The album DAMN. by Kendrick Lamar was released on April 14, 2017 produced by Aftermath Entertainment. DAMN. is an album that consist of changes throughout rich beats, enraged rhymes, and pure storytelling of Kendrick Lamar’s future as an American. Kendrick’s ability to tell stories through the rhythms and melodies of his songs has been one of his most lethal aspects of his music career. Through that story telling method he tries to paint a picture in the audience’s head of what his upbringing was like. DAMN. is a full story that can be played backwards from bottom to top. Doing so does not change the ending of the story but more so the feel of it. through that story telling method Kendrick leaves his audience with this theme of “wicked or weakness?”. If you look back at Kendrick’s older album To Pimp a Butterfly,he speaks on changing the world, but in DAMN. he focuses on changing himself first. I claim Kendrick Lamar’s album DAMN. is a self-evaluation of himself and his fear of damnation. I will be using different songs and lyrics from this album to support the claim that DAMN. covers Kendrick’s self-reflection of an immoral sinner, (wickedness) or a weak Christian (weakness) with a fear of damnation. If you look at the album title alone, by definition, damn means, “to be condemned by God to suffer eternal punishment in hell.
The album consists of fourteen tracks and if you split those tracks in half, you’ll see that half speak of Kendrick Lamar’s weakness and the other half his wickedness. BLOOD., YAH., FEEL., PRIDE., LUST., XXX., and GOD. all address his weakness while DNA., ELEMENT., LOYALTY., HUMBLE., LOVE., FEAR., and DUCKWORTH., address his wickedness. Playing the track forward will bring you to Kendrick’s death in DUCKWORTH. at the end, but if you play it backwards it will bring you to Kendrick’s death in BLOOD. at the end. In DUCKWORTH. Kendrick raps, “Whoever thought the greatest rapper / would be from coincidence? / because if Anthony killed ducky / Top Dawg could be servin’ life / while I grew up without a father and die in a gunfight”. As a result of DUCKWORTH. Top Dawg kills Kendrick’s father causing a fatherless upbringing resulting in Kendrick’s death from gang/drug related problems ultimately representing wickedness. In the songBLOOD. Kendrick sees a woman struggling and decided to help her and ultimately pays the price. He raps, “‘Hello ma’am, can I be of assistance? / seems to me that you have lost something / I would like to help you find it’ / she replied, ‘Oh yes / you have lost something / You’ve lost, your life’”. The blind women in this is a representation of Gods consequences for disobedience. Ultimately it is on the audience to determine whether Kendrick dies from his own wickedness or weakness.
Throughout this album Kendrick walks us through his thoughts of himself as each song on the album speaks on a piece of Kendrick’s life. He touches upon his black heritage in DNA. rapping, “I got loyalty, got royalty inside my DNA”. He also acknowledges the wickedness he sees as he reflects, “I know murder, conviction, burners / Boosters, burglars, ballers, dead / redemption, scholars, fathers, dead…”. YAH. covers his weakness to resist temptations as he acknowledges it’s, “first on my list, I can’t resist”. In ELEMENT. he recognizes the root of his hostility being that of his own weakness and fear. That slowly shifts into hopelessness in the track FEEL. as he expresses a feeling of overwhelming expectations that came from the fame and fortune, he encountered. The one song that plays a big part in the album is FEAR. The song initially starts off with a voicemail from his cousin carl. In that voicemail he left a scripture from Deuteronomy that said, “The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart”. In the book of Deuteronomy, it speaks of the laws of Moses and the breaking of this curse of damnation. In this track Kendrick takes us on a journey of three different fears as he grew up. He starts the song with, “Why God why God do I gotta suffer?” which leads him right into his different stages of fear. at a young age he shows us the fear of his parents. As a teen he fears an early death due to gang related events as he raps, “I’ll probably die anonymous/ I’ll probably die with promises”. The last fear he shares is his fear as an adult with all of the fame and fortune. The track YAH. also ties into the song fear as he mentions his cousin car again. He mentions carl in YAH. when he raps, “I’m a Israelite, don’t call me black no more / That word is only a color, it ain’t facts no more / My cousin Carl, my cousin Carol Duckworth / Said know my worth / and Deuteronomy say that we all been cursed”. This ties back into the song fear using these lines to show us his knowledge of and belief in this curse of damnation. Kendrick finish FEAR. by listing many of his fears. He rapped, “I’m talkin’ fear / Fear in losin’ loyalty for pride / ‘Cause my DNA won’t let me involve in the light of God / I’m talkin’ fear / Fear that. My humblness in goin’ / I’m talkin’ fear / Fear that love ain’t livin’ here no more / I’m talkin’ fear / Fear of that is wickedness or weakness / Whatever it is, both is distinctive”.
Using the different rhythms and lyrical flows Kendrick Lamar takes us on a journey of self-reflection. Confronted by his fears and emotions, Kendrick acknowledged his biggest flaws while educating us with his knowledge of the curse of damnation, spoken about in the book of Deuteronomy. Collectively this is Kendrick Lamars way of changing himself before trying to change the world.
CRITICAL MODELS
jay.lyons.class 