Kendrick Lamar - 2017 Album - DAMN

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"?

https://twitter.com/djperry1973/status/855147481964982277

Also, every song on the album placed on Billboard's Hot 100 chart this week, with DUCKWORTH at #63 being the lowest-charting song. He has 9 songs in the top 40.

I love this album a lot but this is ludicrous.

pretty funny to think of "Blood" as a Hot 100 single

I wonder how much of that is due to people streaming the album and, instead of resuming it when they get back from something, starting over again. So you end up with the singles being high on the list due to people seeking them out, and then everything else just charts in order of album sequence

This has happened twice in the UK this year - once with Stormzy and then again (to a frankly ridiculous degree) with Ed Sheeran, to the extent that he had maybe nine songs in the top 10.

(Short answer - yes, streaming is to blame).

I immediately thought of Ed Sheeran; didn't this happen with Drake, too?

It's interesting from the standpoint of "what songs are people obsessed with this week" but it definitely turns the Hot 100 into something besides "top singles of the past week"; maybe it hasn't been that for a while and it's only in the past few years of meme-hits and total album dominance that I've noticed.

It happened to Lemonade and Life of Pablo as well--whenever a big new album comes out, the Hot 100 gets all screwy because of 14 or so debut tracks from the huge new album.

imo the Ed Sheeran week was a hilarious self-own by the people of the UK

there's a few albums ever year -- like anything that "sells" ~350k+ in its first week? -- that place pretty much every song in the hot 100... drake definitely just did it

it usually seems like there's a people's champ pick that is higher than the rest of the album tracks... i.e. "passionfruit" or "too good" off views or "sorry" from lemonade that then becomes a single. maybe in kendrick's case "DNA" counts but they clearly already had a video filmed for that so it's not quite the same.

and then as you go down the chart there does seem to be an ordering effect

i walked into my local "Best Buy" today and purchased this on "compact disc"

bout to take the long way home from work

yeah the number of songs charting isn't unusual in this era. Beyonce and Sheeran pulled this off too.

Your horse and buggy has a CD player?

Xp

if i gotta mean mug Οὖτις i'ma make it look sexxy

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 haven't yet listened to this all the way through but I'm on my second pass through the first half - think I'm gonna listen to the end this time - and "Loyalty" strikes me as a screamingly obvious second single. I don't see how it won't be a huge hit. Obviously his skills are titanic, but he just keeps getting better at making records, doesn't he?

The production on this is amazing in a way I'm not sure I've heard before. Can't pin it down ... beats you could build a house on, obviously, but also drama in the tracks that gives him a springboard without distracting from his lyrics.

I may be the only Kendrick fan on ILM who's listening to "Humble" for the first time in May, but on first pass it's easily the weakest song on the record. "First pass" emphasized - I could be totally wrong here.

nah you're probably right, but that's just because the rest of the songs are amazing

HUMBLE is okay. I didn't love it when I first heard it and it's not one of my favorites on the album.

it sounds better as part of the album flow than as a single imo

^^^ agreed

This is quickly becoming my AOTY. There are other recent albums that I was excited about, but I haven't given them much time because I keep coming back to this instead. Just flows so well, and no skipable moments.

it sounds better as part of the album flow than as a single imo

― duped and used by my worst Miss U (President Keyes), Monday, May 8, 2017 12:49 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^ agreed

― her squamous hamhocks (DJP), Monday, May 8, 2017

this.

third week at #1 y'all

The seagull sounds on Pride and the Rick James sample at the end of DNA are both such perfect touches to their beats.

I like the theory going around that the tracks should be listened to in reverse order to get different messages. I'm not sold that it was an intentional move by Kendrick but the way different themes are peppered throughout makes it work. Like how Element starts with Kid Capri introducing the "ain't nobody prayin for me" motif, but if you flip the tracklisting that announcement comes right after Feel, the song that's built around that line.

my daddy commissary made it to commas is a good line

killer verse here
https://www.audiomack.com/song/bottomfeedermusic/mask-off-rmx

was listening to this on the living room stereo the other day and started after skipping to the middle - made me realize how *slow* so much of this album is, tempo-wise.

GIMME SOME GANJA!
GIMME SOME GANJA!
GIMMIGIMMIGIMMIGIMMIGIMMIGIMMIGIMMIGIMME SOME GANJA!

Well, this has been out for a while now and a lot of listens and this one seems to be threatening to burn out a little faster for me than GKMC or TPAB, both of which I'm still listening to a lot, but 'DNA.', 'ELEMENT.', 'FEEL.', 'LUST.', 'XXX.', 'FEAR.' and 'DUCKWORTH.' all rule.

The only reason I don't play this album 24/7 is because I don't want my kids to pick up the cursing and the n-bombs.

If you discount the opener, that's more than half the album!

xpost

this is also a great album to listen to while hiking, especially when you're carrying a heavy bag

this is gonna be one of the best albums of the year for me (and everyone else), no problem.

Oh yeah, this is without a doubt one of my favourite albums released this year too, and yet another installment of what is turning out to be an incredible run. I don't think it's a 5-star, 10/10 album like GKMC or TPAB are, but it's incredibly close - more like a 4.999-star, 9.999/10 album. The only flaw I can really find with DAMN. is that it doesn't seem as endlessly replayable as GKMC or TPAB, but since those albums are (IMO) masterpieces, that's not really much of a flaw when it comes down to it.

this album is the best

The only flaw I can really find with DAMN. is that it doesn't seem as endlessly replayable as GKMC or TPAB

I find the album to be endlessly replay-able. More so than Butterfly (I still prefer Butterfly). Replayability one of those things I can't explain.

I've listened to this way more than the others

I can't stop listening to this record. First Kendrick record that I really got all the way into - I liked the last one but it felt like such a Big Weighty Artistic Statement that it was harder for me to find a way in (especially at my age, where I have less time to really delve into Big Weighty Artistic Statements). Maybe I'll go back and give it more time now. Damn has more straight bangers on it AFAICT, and that hooked me enough to dig more into the weighty artistic statement aspects of the album, which are also great. DNA is the first rap song I felt compelled to memorize in many years.

Also the story on and behind Duckworth is insane.

At least four or five tracks I can have on endless repeat.

DNA seems to get a lot of play on Hot 97 too, which just makes me happy that something that amazing can still be a hit.

agree w you ive played/enjoyed this 1 more than tpab

I still think To Pimp a Butterfly is better, but DAMN. is still one of the albums of the year.

Having children at an age where they parrot whatever they hear has cut down on the amount that I listen to this album but it's still my favorite of the year.

Believe me I get it. The only reason I even got to give this record a chance is that I now drive to work. And with that it was sill totally by chance that I flipped the radio one day to hot 97 and had a head explosion, pull the car over moment when the beat change in DNA happened

I've been impressed by its chart longevity too -- it hit #1 again a couple weeks ago and hasn't left the top ten.

xp the *drama* of this record is one of its biggest hooks - the gunshot cutting off BLOOD, the escalation in DNA, that bit in FEEL where he snaps and rants for a few bars, the rage in XXX. He's just at the top of his game.