Album Review: Kendrick Lamar-DAMN.

In an era where "real" hip-hop is alleged to be dead, Kendrick Lamar has been dubbed a savior by the segment of the genre's that is disenchanted with the current trap-obsessed climate. With their rich storytelling and dense commentary on everything from growing up in the rough streets of Compton, California to systematic racism, 2012's good kid m.A.A.d city and 2015's To Pimp a Butterfly received the type of sweeping, universal acclaim that hip-hop artists rarely ever receive. On his latest project DAMN., the beloved 29-year old rapper comes crashing back to earth with a competent yet bizarrely safe project that doesn't come anywhere close to sniffing the greatness of his last two LP's.

As hard as I tried approach listening to this record with a clear mind, the letdown of DAMN. directly correlates with the fact that it follows-up good kid m.A.A.d city and To Pimp a Butterfly. While it's admittedly unfair to expect everything he puts out to be on the level of his past records, expectations are a cruel reality that can't be ignored when you're assessing an album. Dropping two instant genre classics in a row naturally raises the bar for what you expect as a listener when you sit down to listen to that artist's new material and sadly, DAMN. falls well below the lofty quality standard Lamar has set for himself.

A large part of what made Lamar's previous two records so special was the scope and execution of the narratives that ran through them. good kid m.A.A.d city focused on the struggle of a teenager trying to escape his gang-driven, poverty-stricken LA neighborhood without being influenced by the evils of the environment he was raised in while To Pimp a Butterfly took an in-depth look at what it means to be black in modern-day America. The stories and overarching messages of these records may be different, but they both thrived because of Lamar's insightful, sharp and deeply personal approach to the topics he discussed. By comparison, the themes on DAMN. are child's play, and that lack of narrative weight paired with shakier execution ends up being its downfall.

This record is primarily dedicated to Lamar's feelings about his newfound fame. I don't know if it's because the subject matter isn't as deep this time around or its just the more accessible style he employs for most of the record, but his reflections on fame lack the potency, tightness and soul-bearing honesty that was present in his earlier material. While there are certainly good tracks with some substance on here ("DNA", "XXX", "Loyalty"), there's not a single moment where Lamar dazzles you with his storytelling. His commentary about the pressures of fame, the strain being in the public eye puts on your personal relationships, etc. offers up nothing you haven't heard on dozens of other "fame isn't as dope as it looks" tracks in the past (Vince Staples' Prima Donna covered similar ground in a much sharper, interesting way). To put it in literary terms, if good kid and Butterfly were his Infinite Jest and The Road, DAMN. is his Runaway Jury.   

Lamar's sudden embrace of all things generic is also apparent in the album's sound. While he shows off his top-flight technical chops throughout and the production from the likes of Mike Will Made It, DJ Dahi and Lamar's longtime collaborator Sounwave is generally pretty good, there's a sense of predictability present on DAMN. that had previously been foreign to his music. The wide influence of production styles and constant vocal delivery changes that made his previous two records so dynamic have been swamped out for more straightforward compositions that rarely utilize Lamar's arsenal of  flows or unusual instrumentation. The sense of unpredictability that ran through Lamar's music gave him a dynamic edge that no one in hip-hop outside of weirdo extraordinaire Danny Brown could match and without it in the fold, he becomes just another faceless semi-conscious rapper that's hard to get excited about.

DAMN. isn't a bad record, it's just a frustratingly unadventurous one. When an artist that has spent the past five years pushing the boundaries of the hip-hop genre releases something that is indistinguishable from the shit that every other non-trap rapper on the planet is putting out right now, you can't help but feel betrayed and disheartened as a listener by the time its over. I'll admit that I'm probably being too harsh on this record, I just can't sit here and overpraise a trailblazing artist like Kendrick Lamar for putting a project that's as inessential as DAMN. is. Every great artist releases some less-than-stellar stuff over the course of their career, let's just hope that DAMN. isn't the first step in Kung Fu Kenny's downward spiral into mediocrity.

3/5 Stars
Standout Tracks
1.DNA
2.XXX (feat. U2)
3.Loyalty (feat. Rihanna)