All Hail King Kendrick

Kendrick Lamar’s new album, “Damn”, shows his ability to create new style of rap while keeping the roots of rap alive.

After many years of releasing music, Kendrick has become one of the most influential rappers of our generation and yet his 4th studio album “Damn” has proven to be another milestone on Kendrick’s path to greatness. While the album doesn’t have the impact of “To Pimp a Butterfly”  it still has all the components that make the album is his best work to date.

While, “Damn” is more commercial than his last album, the themes Kendrick’s expresses are less influential. Kendrick is also well known for his style of rapping and the comparison between albums. Kendrick’s style of rapping is unique because we can listen to his old style combined with new techniques.

In the last album called “To Pimp a Butterfly”  Kendrick was addressing the issues that a typical African American person deals with. Problems like police brutality and the bad influences that rule the projects of America. “Damn” doesn’t address these issues, but Kendrick raps about more personal and religious views, being humble, lust, fear and God. “To Pimp a Butterfly” had more jazz and classical samples to the production of the album, The production of “Damn” has more modern beats, producers like mike-will-made it and 9th wonder, participated in the project.

This album is similar to Kendrick’s second studio album “Good Kid,m.A.A.d city ” that is also as commercial as “Damn”, the beats are simple yet melodic and discusses important themes like “To Pimp a Butterfly”. The themes in “Damn” are similar with “good kid, m.A.A.d city” because the audience can relate with the ideas that are being expressed.

Kendrick keeps showing that he is in a position of Hip Hop royalty as he has 3 straight #1 albums on the charts. “Damn” will become a significant work in Kendrick’s legacy, because it mixes the old school with the new school, its a perfect combination that only Kendrick is capable of doing, songs like the single “Humble” or “DNA” show this combination of eras.

The song “Humble”  is perfect example of this combination of eras. The song talks about being humble and is a direct challenge to cocky rappers. The song has this new style beat produced by mike-will-made-it and the lyrics are the same style of the 90’s Hip Hop. With this new song Kendrick has proven that he has Old School influences and he has the tastes of the New School.

The album gets 9 out of 10 stars because even though it is a good album and the production can be recognized, it still needs time to solidify itself as a iconic album like the previous ones. The album released 2 months ago so it still needs time to become an exceptional Hip Hop album. For people to enjoy the album they need to know the basics of Hip Hop, the combination of the beat and lyrics of the songs that make “Damn” is one Kendrick’s best albums.