“Is it ‘wickedness’? Is it ‘weakness’? You decide.” The opening lines to Lamar’s 2017 album, DAMN, asks the listener to choose how we will end up in the end. “Are we gonna live or die?” Lamar then tells a story about seeing a blind woman on the sidewalk looking as if she needs assistance, as he approaches and offers help, she replies by shooting him. Something black men encounter all too often is the scenario of walking down the street, seeing a white woman walking towards them, and that woman almost immediately crossing the street to avoid “any trouble”. Lamar takes it a step further in the woman executing him and doesn't offer an ethnic description, but I’ll admit, until looking up the lyrics; I thought he was saying “blonde” woman.
Throughout his career; Lamar has been finding himself, unapologetically. This includes being “Black”. His previous and possibly “Blackest” effort was “To Pimp A Butterfly”. The intro opens with Boris Gardiner’s “Every Nigger Is A Star”, a 70’s song that transitions into what I can only describe as the audio equivalent of a modern-day Sugar Shack painting; even a feature blessing by George Clinton. Lamar would weave a story of surviving Hollywood & the follies of being a superstar on the backdrop of a 70’s soundtrack. Critically acclaimed but panned by the audience, calling it too “ weird” and “experimental”. The kids just wanted Good Kid 2, not their momma’s throwbacks talking about Black Power. Conversely, DAMN is just as “Black” as To Pimp, he just changed the backdrop to modern-day.
DAMN is the soundtrack of a young black man in America. DNA is a loud proclamation of not only his culture but the importance of it. He’s talking to the black community via themes we’re familiar with. Paranoia, false accusations, depression, mental health, and hood politics. FEEL is incredibly vulnerable and surprisingly relatable. Addressing everybody in his life, FEEL reads like a suicide letter. If you read this song in a notebook, you would ask your homie if he needs to talk. Depression isn’t a topic Lamar has shied away from in his discography but FEAR is almost like a communal baptism. Running through a list of things his mother would threaten him with preceded by the words “I’ll beat yo ass…” is a sobering look behind the veil of growing up within the community. The second verse is themed around a teen going through a list of ways he’ll reach his demise, preceded by the words, “I’ll probably die…” and this is another element Lamar uses to communicate with Us, Paranoia.
Being a Black Man in America is being paranoid about almost everything. Going to the store, driving anywhere, speaking up, the police, the government, etc. XXX is Lamar’s response to gang murder and the political laws that allow said system to thrive. Lamar receives a call from a friend telling him how distraught he is over the murder of his son; asking Lamar to pray for him and help him through this turbulent time. Lamar says he could sugarcoat the answer but decides to be unabashedly honest and tells him how he would kill his murderer and anybody else who harms his family. “Ain’t no ‘Black Power’ when yo’ baby killed by a coward” is a great dichotomy of gang-related murder and the system that promotes it. Some would say it’s better to come together in these times and support the community and attack the “real problem” which are the politicians who do nothing about gun control, but Kendrick feels differently and believes there’s no honor in slaying the innocent and justice should be served.
In coming to finding himself, Kendrick constantly reflects on the relationship with his parents and their role in his development; saying that having a two-parent household was majorly important in his upbringing. Lamar is a child of his community, his culture, but most importantly, and more obviously, his parents. DUCKWORTH is a story like no other. The track is about fate and eventually seeing it’s strings. Recently moving from Chicago, Ducky, Kendrick’s father, worked at a KFC in Compton, Ca and hustled to keep a roof over his son’s head. Anthony, a native of Compton, would frequent the chicken spot for food and eventually case the place. Ducky, knowing Anthony had robbed the spot already last year, would give him extra free food whenever he saw him in line. Anthony appreciating this, spared his life when he eventually robbed the store. The men would go on to live their lives and 20 years later; Anthony would create a label called Top Dawg Entertainment and sign a 14-year-old kid named Kendrick Lamar, Ducky’s son.
DAMN is a masterpiece and in my opinion, Lamar’s best album. He’s seemed to have found himself as not only a storyteller but as a black man. Navigating complications in his personal life and professional have been a balancing act for Lamar and I believe he’s done it in a way where he makes the audience feel like passengers, not just observers and is coded in a way where its specific enough to talk to the black community, specifically black men.