Why DAMN. is one of the most impressive albums ever made. A looooong thread🧵
Apr 14, 2024 · 6:24 PM UTC
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DAMN. is the 2017 Pulitzer Prize winning album by Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar Duckworth. It's his most commercially successful album, and a follow up to his magnum opus To Pimp A Butterfly (2015). All of this is known. But what most don't know is why this album is so great.
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First off, To Pimp a Butterfly is a poetic dissection of fame, fortune, and the black american plight in the 21st century, filtered through Kendrick's own experiences after his commercial explosion in 2012 with good kid, m.A.A.d city. From Oct. 2012 to around Aug. 2014 +
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Kendrick experienced the effects of fame, fortune, attention, respect, and power that come from a successful rap career. He, however, came from the hood, where these things are nothing but distant dreams for most. Therefore, he, like many black men before him, was not raised +
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with the expectation of success. On the contrary, statistically he had a better chance of being dead by the time he turned 21. With all that fame and power, he finally had the means to take himself and his loved ones out of that situation. Or did he?
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The reality soon settled in. Kendrick may have made it out the hood... but it was a one-person, one-way ticket. He could not lift Compton out of its unprivileged state, nor could he solve its problems. Survivors guilt. So instead he tried to make an uplifting message in TPAB.
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Tracks like Wesley's Theory, For Free?, King Kunta, Institutionalized, Alright, Hood Politics, Blacker the Berry and i were attempts at showcasing the issues that held his community back. But in the end, even after all the reach of his message, nothing seemed to change.
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The media still portrayed rap as an issue, and downplayed institutional racism. The gangs were still at war with one another, while the police cleaned up the survivors. Rich blacks were still used and pimped by the industry, including Kendrick himself.
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There seemed to be a curse hanging over his head. A damnation that held everyone of his people down in place. A wicked curse over a weakened people.
Thus, DAMN. was born.
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DAMN. is easily Kendrick's darkest album to date. Even now, it has some of his most pessimistic, dark and depressed lyrics. Songs like YAH. FEEL. FEAR. and XXX. display a deep disappointment with America and its people, the media, the industry, Kendrick himself, etc.
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DAMN. is also Kendrick's most layered album. Literally. Every single track has two meanings, two implications, depending on the way you listen to the album. That's because, in the original order, Kendrick tells a tale of repentance and redemption. And in reverse, one of DAMNATION
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Back to the two covers of the album, notice a few details.
On the first cover, the original, the title DAMN. hangs over Kendrick's head. Literally, like a curse or hex placed upon him. The M is placed in such a way that forms a pair of horns, much like what TIME magazine does +
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on their covers sometimes (note that they also use Times New Roman). Kendrick has a defeated look and a weak, submissive stance. Shoulders low, head hanging, arms to the side. He is "under" the weight of this curse, of this inevitable plight. He's "WEAK".
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Now look at the alternate version, the reverse order. Here, Kendrick is in the street. There is no title hanging above him. Instead, he wears DAMN. on his chest, literally "wearing the curse" and accepting his fate, slipping into wickedness.
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Here, Kendrick's stance is relaxed, even a bit mean. his head is held up, his back is straight, and he seems to be talking to someone. Perhaps calling someone out in the street... perhaps an old woman. But that's for later. Here, we can feel the "wicked" atmosphere around him.
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Now let's compare the tracklists. On the OG, it goes from BLOOD. to DUCKWORTH. and evolves in a positive direction. He starts the album ignoring God's call (YAH.) and ends it fearing God and accepting his commands (FEAR. GOD.). As the tracklist progresses, we get closer to GOD.
ALT Tracklist for the original DAMN. release.
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In this order, we go from pride to humble, from lust to love, and from wickedness to weakness. Kendrick learns that his problems (and by extension, those of his people) come from being apart from God and living in a life of self-satisfaction. And the solution is to seek true love
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In this order, Kendrick has a father, who kept him off the streets, and he is now at the heights of his rap career, but questions whether he's living through rap (as in through success) or through fear (of God).
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He ends the album with the revelation that his career and success actually only happened because his father, fearing conflict with Anthony (top dawg), gave him free chicken when he was in line. An act that could be called "weak", but actually changed fate.
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That's when Kendrick poses the question, what would happen if Ducky had not done that? What if wickedness won and Ducky was killed in a robbery, and Anthony went away for life, never founding TDE? And then we hear the cue to put the album in reverse.
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In this reverse tracklist, we have the opposite journey that completes the meaning of the album. Kendrick's father died as he was a kid, which means he didn't have his council and wisdom to keep him grounded (remember, it was Ducky who told Kendrick "real is God" on gkmc).
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Kendrick starts as a religious man, but slowly starts to move away from God, just as the further in we go in the album, the further we are from the track GOD. Here, love turns to lust, humble turns to pride, and Kendrick moves from weakness to wickedness.
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In the end, he dies in the streets, killed by an old, blind woman. Perhaps, the woman he was talking to on the cover of the album, while wearing a curse on his chest?
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Every track and music video for this album has references that prove this theory. The first evidence is the abundance of reverse sounds on the album. YAH. has reverse samples, as does LOYALTY. LUST. XXX. FEAR. and DUCKWORTH.
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Kid Capri, the DJ who narrates the album, says "we gon put it in reverse". Kendrick is, in essence, attempting to reverse the curse put over people of color in America.
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Not only that, but every track has lyrics that work in both directions, and are aware of each other. Notable examples below.
ALT Kendrick in YAH.
ALT Cousin Carl on FEAR.
ALT Kendrick and Rihanna on LOYALTY.
ALT Bekon on PRIDE.
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Even more. In FEAR. Kendrick straight up explains his thesis for the whole album, naming many of the tracks. In GOD. Kendrick repeats the dichotomy of James 4:4 from LUST.
ALT Kendrick in LUST.
ALT Kendrick on FEAR. quoting almost all other track titles.
ALT Kendrick on GOD.
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In DUCKWORTH. Ducky is killed. On FEAR. Kendrick's father is only ever mentioned in the first verse, when he's a child, meaning the song still works if his father is dead (this in the reverse order).
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Overall, there's so many cool aspects of this album that just make it work. It's a grand message delivered with wide appeal, hard beats, cool songs, amazing melodies, and a great listening experience, even being shorter than Kendrick's other albums.
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If you wanna dive REALLY deep into this album, I highly recommend @dissectpodcast's season 5 on DAMN. or this video by @TennisThom. Peace!
youtube.com/watch?v=v-ek1OxZ…
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