Kendrick Lamar - DAMN. (April 14, 2017) Album • Page 17

Wow wow wow. This whole album is SO SMOOTH. Loving it.

 

U2 feature is definitely different than I expected, but in a good way. Very understated.

 

Oh, you're right. Damn, that's weird. Oh well - looking forward to getting in on some lossless action on Sunday.

 

It's original

 

Tbh I wouldn't mind getting the whole U2 track if they ever decided to record it down the road haha

 

The CD leaked version songs are shorter than the iTunes listings.

 

Only Fear.

 

I really love the strings on the first track.

 

God damnit I can't take this

 

Guess we'll see what that's about in a few hours

 

I wonder if he's just talking about Fear being shorter or what.

 

Could be. Hoping he doesn't Ye this album up.

 

sub

 

I got twoooooo versions

 

Huh

 

frank ocean

 

Thanks for getting it, haha. It's what Frank first posted when he teased what eventually became Blonde.

 

loved element

 

Cool album. One listen is definitely not enough but I really liked Yah, Lust and Love. Anyone know if the story in Duckworth is true?

 

So Kendrick time travelled into the future, watched my Twitter feed, and named the album after my initial reaction.

If I had to put an overly simplistic bow on it, I'd say this album is about possibility. He keeps it very forward-looking sonically (minus the soul sample he breaks out for his dad's/Top Dawg's throwback story on "DUCKWORTH."), which is interesting because it echoes how so much of the subject matter looks forward as well. There's clearly some themes about his kid and next generation, including a line on "FEAR." that's something along the lines of "I better not catch you humping on Keisha's daughter" (which I assume follows up on "Keisha's Song" from Section 80 and gives that character somewhat of a happier ending). He's obviously thinking about his legacy in terms of a child (and his music and his mark on the world etc etc), which gives the uncertainty and the somewhat fatalistic narratives about street violence even more heartbreaking context.

At the same time, he's speaking on a lot of the stuff that's in the world right now with a tone that feels to me like "none of this is going to change." You look at a song like "DNA." or that phenomenal last verse on "PRIDE." (the "perfect world" one). He wishes that the walls ("These Walls" reference) can "talk back", or tell their story so that the cycle won't repeat. Then there's the blind woman who shoots Kendrick in the album's opening parable. Kendrick asks (via singing in the background) if she's weak or wicked. He doesn't know whether she's just afraid because she isn't paying close enough attention or if she just hates him at heart (which obviously ties into all the Fox News stuff in the next couple songs). He's essentially asking whether he can change her (and by extension of the metaphor, society's structural dynamic that needlessly killing other innocents) in some way. He goes back to it at the very end (after a very fatalistic song about his origins), literally rewinding the whole album to see if he can change it.

Anyway. DAMN.

 

And this part makes Soundwave's tweet extremely intriguing.

 

4 tracks in and this is great, haven't stopped boppin my head up and down and up and down

 

2 pills? 2 albums?!?!

 

Oh god wtf