Albums Kendrick Lamar - DAMN. (Discussion Thread)

[FruitOfTheVale]

It's more than one way to skin a cat. Only in rap do we place these fictional rules on what makes someone dope or not. That's like talking R&B and shytting on Anita Baker for having a husky and some time inaudible inflection in her tone and lyrics and big upping a lesser artist cause of the clarity and better pitch. It's all relative. Kendrick may not be for everyone, but the talent is there and that's all that matters. He drop another album that's good enough for some people to hold in high regard. That's really all you can ask for. He's on that Outkast trajectory. The same cats that liked the southern bass heavy style of Southernplay....might not have been able to digest the uptempo beats, high alien voices, etc of some of their other works, but at least they made a good album. It might not be for you, but the quality of work is obvious.

I agree with you on that other than that Kevin Gates ain't really a "lesser artist" in terms of profile, fanbase, etc. In fact, Kendrick Lamar never had a single as big as 2 Phones or even Really Really which both came out almost exactly a year ago.

If you mean to say that his artistry is "lesser" I'd also say that there's more than one way to skin a cat. Kevin Gates is a gangsta rapper and exists in a different space than Kendrick Lamar. Did we stop giving gangsta rappers credit for rapping ability in the post Kanye wave? Like Scarface never existed? Like Cam'Ron never existed? Like Freddie Gibbs don't exist right now?

nikkas move the goal posts like a mothafukka when it comes to explaining why Kendrick is beyond criticism. I'm a fan of Kendrick but that doesn't mean I think everything he puts out is up to par.

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

I'll never understand the hate for this black man.

Because I'm a black man who has a higher standard for quality content?

I'm not a depressed wallflower?

I have academic credentials and can resort to books and lectures and don't fall for half assed political content?






...and I like this album.

 

[CrimsonTider]

The average party going rap fans doesn't read reviews. Reviews are for internet hardcore forum geeks. Paying for reviews would make no sense. Views got panned yet its 4x plat.

Which goes to show that the opinion of reviewers mean nothing.

Reviews are used for marketing an artist

 

[Guvnor]

Bro. Kendrick has way too much filler. He's compensating for being a poor writer.

Look at prime Hov for an example. He was verbose but he wasn't excessive.

Kendrick sounds like he never does a rewrite or a second draft.

It's like he thinks this is slam poetry and not music.

It's a chore to listen to him. There's little enjoyable about this.

It's the clinging to technicals over style and mood that keeps him out of my top ranks.

There's Hopsin then there's Gunplay. Y'all stay trying to pretend we don't grasp the themes here.

Maybe he's not that deep and he's not that nice.

I've heard more impressive T.I. verses in the last 6 months than the stuff y'all are claiming Kendrick is doing right now.

That hype machine is serious.


...and I like this album more than anything else he has done.

To each there own. I think y'all are bugging, you have poor taste and don't understand but again to each his own.

 

[bigbadbossup2012]

Y'all always lean on the fact that these white publications that get paid to write reviews rate the album highly.

It means nothing at all.

6 months from now Thugga verse on Sacrifices will be quoted more than any deep, layered, complex verse on this album

exactly

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

Good album mayne.

The way he raps makes me about the day he decides to diss someone.

He raps too hard. When he decides to diss someone he will learn that many others are nicer than he is.

Y'all are fooled by this technique of cramming syllables

 

[Insensitive]

Y'all always lean on the fact that these white publications that get paid to write reviews rate the album highly.

It means nothing at all.

6 months from now Thugga verse on Sacrifices will be quoted more than any deep, layered, complex verse on this album

Actually I don't.
Check my post history.
I could give a fukk about Complex, Pitchfork, Noisey etc. and their opinions on Hip-Hop.
If they have an opinion that lines up with mines cool but overall I'm pretty vocal in my
distaste for these publications and how they can control the narrative of who's hot and who isn't.

As for Young Thug, 6 months after Thugga drops that verse people won't
be quoting that shyt. Just like no one is really quoting all the tapes he dropped last year or
the several he dropped before that. And I like Young Thug, I've got pretty much every project
the guy has dropped but I also see that people move on pretty quickly with him just like they
did Rich Homie Quan, Trinidad James, Bobby Schmurda, Chief Keef and a dozen other
guys who have filled and will continue to fill those shoes.

 

[JayBaldacci]

It's more neo-soul/Hip-Hop than it isn't though.
There's "For Free ?", "i", that just have Kendrick spazzing on instrumentals
that clearly do not fit the definition of "Hip-Hop" one is Jazz the other
is a nearly unaltered Soul Sample.

The rest are pretty blatantly Hip-Hop and they take clear inspiration from
ATCQ, Slum Village (more specifically Dilla), D'Angelo, The Roots etc.
There's some contemporary Hip-Hop there like "Alright" but a great deal
of it's heavily rooted in more traditional Hip-Hop or at least what is viewed as such.

The harmony might be on some other ish with the musicians modulating into
different keys mid-song or the focus on fusing acoustic instruments with
electronic instruments but without a doubt, it's a "Hip-Hop" album.


Put it up against somethin by Jason Moran or Hiromi Uehara or a name
more commonly seen on The Coli like Herbie Hancock and you'll see what I mean.

This isn't a hip hop song.

 

[iFightSeagullsForBread]

TPAB=GKMC>DAMN.>S80

Two things

That "black" line rubbing me the wrong to be honest

Also, if you were to play Wesley's Theory right after DUCKWORTH they weirdly sync up. Like When you look at the context of Wesley Theory and what transpires in DUCKWORTH it comes of like hes waking up from a nightmare or some other form a phenomenon.

 

[Barnett114]

The biggest problems I have with Kendrick stans is they don't let the music breathe, they just have to push this narrative of his albums being instant classics and if it isn't to you, it's because you don't get it

 

[Scottie Drippin]

Another Kendrick thread with the same Drake buddies in overdrive. Jesus Christ

 

[OG Talk]

Bro. Kendrick has way too much filler. He's compensating for being a poor writer.

Look at prime Hov for an example. He was verbose but he wasn't excessive.

Kendrick sounds like he never does a rewrite or a second draft.

It's like he thinks this is slam poetry and not music.

It's a chore to listen to him. There's little enjoyable about this.

It's the clinging to technicals over style and mood that keeps him out of my top ranks.

There's Hopsin then there's Gunplay. Y'all stay trying to pretend we don't grasp the themes here.

Maybe he's not that deep and he's not that nice.

I've heard more impressive T.I. verses in the last 6 months than the stuff y'all are claiming Kendrick is doing right now.

That hype machine is serious.


...and I like this album more than anything else he has done.

Breh..

You are starting to sound like Andrew Schultz with his "I voted for Hilary and don't support Trump" rationalizations for his devils advocacy..

It's alright to admit you just don't like something or someone.. It would actually make your statements seem more rational. Nobody is this critical of something they truly enjoy and respect.

 

[Aba_juggin]

Be ignorant about your history bruhs. Aint no sucg thing as black. Before slavery there we went by kingdoms and tribes not fukking color.

I'm first gen Nigerian so you can't run hotep concepts through me and expect me to eat it up. Ain't no kingdoms like castles and empires, but warring villages as far as I'm concerned. I always ask my parents and grandparents about the past and they hit me with the " it was just chill. Nothing really going on, just a bunch of complex traditions and customs, occasional wars, nothing special"

we honestly didn't get the chance to mobilize an empire because of geographical isolation, but anyways I'm no anthropology professor so thats my 2 cents. Yeah you had a couple kingdoms and empires but nothing of a grandiose scale except for Mansa Musa. If you're African American your heritage is a pretty chill village in Guinea, Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, or the Congo. It's not that big of a deal, the day to day life of a west African back in the day was possibly the GOAT relaxing lifestyle ever in the history of the world, where all the different tribes kept to themselves and prospered.

Before the slave trade and colonialism of course


I don't need Kendrick to tell me to keep my head up and tell me my suffering is part of God's plan

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

To each there own. I think y'all are bugging, you have poor taste and don't understand but again to each his own.

Again with this "understand" nonsense.

Bruh I grew up on reggae with more complex political content, rhyme schemes, and realistic social content that some of y'all ever ever grasp. Especially when it comes to love and loss.

This dude is not going over anyone's head.

Y'all are wannabes in reality that's why you gotta pretend you all are these activist radicals who are well read.

You're not. That's why people who actually are the winners in life see through this stuff. We enjoy the stuff you claim isn't "real rap" because we have shyt to celebrate.

Kendrick is trying to live out his Sunday school struggles by pretending to be some hood Leonardo da Vinci

That fake ass Tupac interview should Have warned you all.

 

[Renegade47]

Y'all always lean on the fact that these white publications that get paid to write reviews rate the album highly.

It means nothing at all.

6 months from now Thugga verse on Sacrifices will be quoted more than any deep, layered, complex verse on this album

more quotable but cant succeed for shyt what a career