I used to not really care about Kdot until I saw him live and that’s when everything changed for me. This dude just has so much energy and honestly his albums are insanely good. DAMN. is so solid like at first I heard it and was in shock at just how good he was, yet going for a kind of more accessible sound than TPAB.
At the same time, DAMN. can be a pretty challenging listen too. Its just that the beats on it and the music sound much more like what hip hop and rap sounds like instead of crazy jazz. I fucks with the jazz though. Section 80 is dope as hell and I was really stupid for thinking that GKMC was overrated. I’m saving up to see him in Houston with travis scott, that would probably just be a full on riot or something.
I have really enjoyed DAMN. so far. It feels like Kendrick doing a contemporary rap album and it so good to hear his take on it. His voice espsically feels more varied in style than before, where on previous albums vocal inflections rather signified him inhabiting different characters for the lyrics sake. I do still think GKMC and TPAB both are better albums being more cohesive in theme and lyrics making a more complete album package. But holy shit does DAMN. feature some amazing songs and moments. Here are some of my favs:
The way Blood kicks into DNA with the Fox News sample is so good. Plus the beat to the second verse in DNA is so intense and just forceful “Give me som ganja!”
The bridge on Element is such an earworm “Damn, damn, damn, it’s a goddamn shame”
“Sippin’ bubbly, feelin’ lovely, livin’ lovely. Just love me”
The fact that XXX is like three songs in one with a ft. from U2 and it all works.
like all of Fear.
Also, the thing about vocal inflections and characters I kinda lifted from this video essay on Kendrick and how he presents himself through inhabiting characters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxCvWtt4dKU
I think Damn is worse than GKMC and TPaB, but I still love it.
I think that Fear is probably Kendrick’s most ambitious and well-realized track he’s ever done. The way it tells 3 separate stories that are thematically connected and so VIVID just really blew me away.
It is a perfect example of how much more introspective this album is than any of his other work. The fact he’s comparing himself to Pac and seeing the world in a similar light. Also the idea of people just ignoring an apocalypse and acting like everything is normal is all too real of a feeling these days in the US.
I love the introspectiveness on DAMN, its basically Kendrick’s personality on steroids = confident but unsure of his /self/, looking for answers, restless, angry at times, calm at others etc. I skip over Loyalty and Pride often though, just don’t vibe with them as much. I don’t think its better than TPAB, but really, that’s a one in a quarter century album, completely transcending the artist and the genre, basically as perfect as something so subjective like an album can be perfect.
Can I also point out, he’s got a Rihanna feature, U2 on a track, but instead decides to go for a solo song called “Humble” (!) as the first single. Fucking incredible. Incredible.
I don’t really like ranking albums; they’re snapshots from a particular moment in time, you can’t go back in time or keep recording the same album over and over again. But I like the concept-album approach of M.A.A.D, I like the spirit of experimentation of TuPaB, and I like the sense of dialectic (between Hotep Kendrick and Street Kendrick) that’s happening on Damn. The second half of Damn is so good.
Hearing y’all’s and some others criticisms of DAMN have kinda made me recontextualize it, but I’ve really been digging it. A mark of a good album for me is its ability to be enjoyable on repeat listens, and I think DAMN does that well.
Now its definitely not the concept album that TPAB was, and I think that’s a good move. Is it more commercial? Maybe. It’s a lot angrier and self-reflective, and kind of indicative of the state of the nation without being as overtly political as say Joey Bada$$’ new album.
It’s stripped down in terms of production. I’m thinking particularly of the breakdown at the end of DNA, where the sample is just beat repeated. Simple, effective and hard-hitting.
honestly loyalty & pride are my fav tracks on the album atm, pride especially, once i got over the amazing steve lacy production, has some hidden gems tucked away, which is kind of this album in a nutshell for me:
at first i wasn’t feeling how stripped-down it felt, especially after TPAB was so lush & full, but on repeated listens there’s so much more to take in than i initially realised, especially lyrically.
it’s def a grower, & i know how i feel about it now is definitely gonna shift, but:
I hate ranking albums too but if I had to rate them in order of what I prefer listening to:
TPAB>DAMN>Untitled Unmastered>GKMC>Section.80
That being said all of his albums are fantastic. I think that after TBAP he had to do a more personal record because really there’s no other follow up to what that record was than to go inward.
Though the best part of DAMN is how many times Fox News gets put on blast.
Yeah, I was just listening to Untitled again yesterday and that’s my second or third favorite Kendrick album. I just think that allowing the people he assembled for TPAB (Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, Sounwave) and just getting weird is such a winning formula.
For me it’s TPAB -> GKMC/Untitled -> Damn -> Section.80
My personal list is GKMC, TPAB, Section.80, Overly Dedicated, then DAMN. I just didn’t resonate with DAMN that much. enjoy my list 
