Kendrick Lamar - 2017 Album - DAMN

Not the remix with Jay Z, the album version. Jay Z nearly ruined a perfectly great song, imo.

yea i think i've listened to the jay-z version only once or twice, why anyone would want to listen to that over the album version is beyond me

who uses alpha/beta to talk about humans in a way that isn't incoherent red pill types raging about their insecurity?

altho I should probably let this go, it still bugs me, because I like this artist and album. *I* used it to describe an artist who seems different in ways I explained earlier, but also because I don't myself have negative connotations with the term. Didn't actually realize it was something of a trigger phrase and I guess I never attached a sexuality implication to it. And for that...well, this is why writers have editors, to at least inform them when they might be about to step into something that will obscure what they're really trying to say. Someone mentioned introversion above, and that gets at the same basic thing I was going for, and as an introvert, may very well be the reason K "speaks to me", to use DJP's phrase.

for anyone confused about why these terms have so many posters upset, here are some helpful guides that put them into context:

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pol-alt-right-terminology-20161115-story.html
http://www.cracked.com/blog/a-guide-to-beta-cuck-dumbest-insult-internet/

I'm now blanking on which song it is but Kendrick has a line where he calls himself an extrovert who hates people, which basically made me leap to my feet and yell "MY MAN"

On DNA he calls himself "Antisocial, Extrovert"

I know this is greedy of me and 5 albums in 6 years is more than one can ask for from a Prestige album artist of Kendrick's stature, but part of me wishes he would adopt Future's mode of production where he just releases internally stylistically consistent tapes at a rapid-fire clip, bcuz i desperately want a Beast Mode style mixtape of all songs that sound like HUMBLE. the variety is cool but i want MOAR

to reiterate, wasn't accusing you of being a secret mens rights activist dominique, just didn't really understand what you were getting at with that. I'm still not sure that there's something neat about his persona(lity), that distinguishes kendrick from other rappers around atm. there are softer & more emo/introverted rappers out there. maybe you could say he was unusually ambivalent/nuanced/delicate/thoughtful in how he handles things - he does seem to have a good bit of the old negative capability - but I think most of what marks kendrick out is that he ticks a lot of boxes for certain sorts of listeners in terms of style and presentation, being a bit old fashioned in some respects, well into his lyrics, introspective and into making Great albums

"he calls himself an extrovert who hates people, which basically made me leap to my feet and yell "MY MAN"

wonder if Trump is a fan.

If he has success with the "drop a classic album every couple years" strategy I'm not sure why he'd switch to a mixtape for each season model

not comparing djp to trump by the way...just the whole extrovert/misanthrope thing reminded me of trump.

I'm obsessed with ELEMENT, DNA, LUST and XXX

― Rachel Luther Queen (DJP), Thursday, April 20, 2017 9:14 PM (yesterday)

Hard picking a song I'm not obsessed with at this point.

too late scott, I now hate you

*makes fist, shakes it towards the west, makes it look sexy*

Trump would never admit to being a misanthrope. In fact, he is the least misanthropic person you've ever seen in your life.

i imagine one year of a hot rapper's life must be like 10 years of my life. and weed is so strong now. being really young and really stoned and having tons of money would totally make me write endless paranoid jesus albums. dmx was 28 when his first album came out. that's 196 in dog years.

If he has success with the "drop a classic album every couple years" strategy I'm not sure why he'd switch to a mixtape for each season model

To please me

http://www.factmag.com/2017/04/21/watch-kendrick-lamar-discuss-damn-new-interview/

^^ 50min interview (brb getting apple music)

didnt really love humble 1st few listens, is def a fav now

same

Section.80 was #2 or 3 on my 2011 P&J ballot, but they had some issues w/ the ballot site that year and it didn't get counted :(

i wouldn't sit here and pretend to argue it's better than anything that's come since, but it is amazing and i might actually reach for it before i'd reach for GKMC or TPAB. not sure that's true about DAMN. tho

So what's the verdict on this vs. TPAB? Is it an overcorrection (if that's the right word, sure it's just he wanted to do something different)

Relistening to TPAB and the first half at least is still really great, I don't dislike most songs in the second half but there're a couple that're less-good.

IMO the beginning & end of this > the middle, beginning being through FEEL. and end starting at XXX. FEAR is great for how spare the beat is

I struggle w some of section 80 tbh

"no make-up" is not great

for starters, yeah. the production is great obv but the lyrics are patchier than what followed

that bekon guy sure sounds kinda like justin vernon

freestyle fellowship namechecked in one of the firsts posts in this beautifully titled thread: Kendrick Lamar will kill your favorite rapper for money

element/feel/loyalty/pride is such an awesome 1-2-3-4 punch! so cool. best songs.

I can't unhear "Biyombo" now.

keep getting DNA in my head but it usually turns into Lift Me Up by Vince Staples, wonder if anyone's going to mash them up

DNA already feels like an all-time banger, "Mama Said Knock You Out" level.

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/7768186/kendrick-lamar-humble-number-one-billboard-hot-100

HUMBLE. at #1, DNA. at #4; DAMN. at #1

damn.

'Lust' is amazing. Barring a few highs ('DNA,' 'Humble,' 'Feel'), the rest is merely alright. Overall, I like it less than Untitled Unmastered.

Loyalty loyalty loyalty

This album is absolutely amazing. Been p much living in it since it's out.

how did I not notice the part where he refers to "jeraldo" lol

i thought that reference was to "Gerardo" tbh

he sampled geraldo talking about hip hop to start the album

no, i got all that (and geraldo's weak-ass clap back just lately); I just thought he was dissing Geraldo as Gerardo

yeah it's all about geraldo, the pronunciation just seemed funny

forks, you know Kendrick Lamar is 29, right?

don't the kids listen to rico suave anymore?

i only know that song b/c of weird al "taco grande"

Loyalty loyalty loyalty

This album is absolutely amazing. Been p much living in it since it's out.

this. prefer it to TPAB i think. i'd been listening to it on and off, but then went to San Francisco and it was *everywhere* - out of speakers being pushed along through the park in a trolley, in restaurants, out of cars. saturated. it made so much sense in the social spaces - perhaps because the way the wrestling with identity and the personal co-exists with the political on the album, rather than say being used as metaphor or allegory, the very social consumption of it brought a sense of community out of its qualities of introspection.

i like the way the songs are put forward as states of mind and emotion - there's both progression through those elemental states, but also interrelation through the cross referencing. TPAB seemed to use this v successfully in another way, focusing on a single event of crisis as an anchor for the tracks - DAMN. seems more i guess kabbalistic almost. the way songs will drift into each other so it's not easy to identify specific sounds with each state helps with this. to that extent the overloaded contention/drift at the end of DNA. that people have mentioned feels kind of appropriate.

then going to vegas the whole album became something protective for me (i don't like vegas), something i'd listen to on headphones to carry that sense of mind into a space that is alien or destructive to it. LUST. became a repeat listen - i really love the line "way too hot to simmer down, might as well overheat" - and then with it LOVE. and XXX.

coming back to the UK also meant coming back to some emotional wreckage, which being in other places had helped anaesthetise, as soon as i plugged the headphones in again on getting back, i felt that a set of thoughts and emotions that would help me with this were stored there.

ok - listening to an album reminds you of when you first got into it, so what, but it felt more than that here.

album as repository for emotional states of mind. the point being it's an album that has the *capacity* to carry those states. maybe the way the music sits back a bit in comparison to TPAB helps with this.

and so yes now the whole album is totally vital. favourite album for a while tbh.

grand fare as ever and I agree, this is my favourite record of the year so far too. hope you're mending

i'll be right. thanks.

the way songs will drift into each other so it's not easy to identify specific sounds with each state helps with this.

^^^^^^I'm totally feeling this. It's something Whiney nailed with his review, talking about the different levels of how "humble" and "pride" are explored in the album. At first the way so many songs would jump around to totally disparate beats really annoyed me in how jarring it was but I'm starting to come around on how well that works as a vehicle for Kdot exploring themes.

I still haven't really gotten into Feel or Lust and would love to hear more about what works (or what doesn't) for people on those tracks. Part of what makes it hard for me to dive into Lust is how much I hear Andre3000 cornballism (which i generally love but for me doesn't jibe well with the material on this album) in the beat, subject matter and flow.

lust - it was the tick-tock hook and shuffling beat, and as mentioned the 'might as well overheat' line, that caught me immediately.

and playing it now it's the variation in pacing and tone that keeps me coming back to it, so the stuff below is probably irrelevant to how it 'works' for me. but the pacing is also the pattern, meaning and progression of the track so...

much of this doesn't seem to be *about* lust. the thirst seems to come from the daily routine bit that keeps getting interrupted and repeated and varied and looped and built until the strings kick in leading up to the trump inauguration, before 'reverting back to our daily programme '. as if it all builds until it reaches an insupportable level.

this seems to be a part of the overheating - but i guess we've all experienced the way things like lust co-exist with the boring daily detail of going to work. it's transformative (everything about your life is consumed by it) but doesn't interrupt. maybe that's why i find the 'might as well overheat' line keeps haunting me - it's an *option* to let it all burn you up, at least it isn't part of the loop; it would be a release. but can I do it? (and as in the rest of the album if it's a personal option that also means it's something of a political option - allow a moment to burn you up).

as in the rest the album, it's a fine line being agonised and wrestled over, viewed from the different angles of each track (who am I? what do each of these things mean to me? where does loyalty begin and end? what do i feel? etc). it's monomania on the self that isn't self indulgent.

but the bit where he wonders what he's lusting about, accompanied with that whining/siren, overheated guitar, is unclear. it might be that the looping crazy repetition-with-variation, including the most disruptive and disastrous variation, provokes lust, lust as a way out. i mean the obvious equation is of lust with the heat, but maybe the heat of the repeating days, is the thing that causes the lust. 'lately my lust been heightened' 'lately i lust over self' 'lately i lust over self' 'lately lust turned into fear' (more x-reference). this is lust as a response, allowing overheating from the simmering.

and it all focuses into quite sweet desire and restraint of just wanting to hold the person's hand.

(on the way the intensely personal has become so socially popular - i thought rebecca black got it right on twitter: "Kendrick somehow made an album that I can chill to myself at night but that I can also blast in the car to get hype with my friends")

yes that rebecca black.

Does anyone else now find themselves performing completely mundane household tasks while silently singing to themselves "when I [perform this mundane household task] I'ma make it look sexy"?

And "Feel" - what can I say - standout of the album for me in many ways. Spectral production feels like Burial and the rhyme just build layers and layers and layers. Sensational bassline too. Whoever said he has no cadence upthread made me actually scoff aloud, this track is the most beautiful extended vocal riff I've ever heard. Needs rainy weather or dusk, headphones, walk the streets, pay full attention and let it overwhelm you.