"At first glance, Damn, the fourth and latest opus from Kendrick Lamar, doesn’t seem as much of a group effort as his previous works. Compared to his last album, 2015’s To Pimp a Butterfly, it has a fraction of the featured guest artists and a shorter run time. But a look at the 14 one-word-titled songs that comprise Damn (officially styled, along with the song titles, in all caps and with an emphatic period at the end) doesn’t tell the whole story. Beneath the surface, there’s a cavalcade of trusted collaborators (his TDE camp, Thundercat, Kamasi Washington), well-known names (9th Wonder, U2, James Blake, Greg Kurstin, Don Cheadle), and a sprinkling of fresh faces (Zacari, Bekon, Kaytranada, the Internet’s Steve Lacy). Let’s walk through the village it took to make Damn. It’s difficult to put together an accurate timeline without knowing all the facts about when, exactly, Kendrick broke ground on Damn. ..."
Slate: A Comprehensive Guide to How Kendrick Lamar Made Damn (Video)
W - Damn
NY Times: Kendrick Lamar’s Anxiety Leads to Joy and Jabs on New Album (Video)
NY Times: A Deep Dig on Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole’s Hip-Hop’s Values
"Wackiness, lamentation, the gnashing of teeth have become the spiritual condition of America, regardless of whether your candidate won or lost the last presidential election. The man sitting atop the throne seems possessed by dementia or mania or both, and it seems communicable to his most rabid detractors and dissipated supporters. Never has reactionary victory been so bereft of giddy triumphalism or trickle-down whoo-ha. Amiri Baraka once said that rhythm and blues would always be the accurate reflection of the emotional condition of Black America. Hiphop is but the latest streaking comet in the metamorphic and meteoric continuum of rhythm and blues, the latest measuring stick and black mirror for all of America's entropy. The truths spoken by hiphop's prophets are thus democratically applicable to all living under the reign of Mein Trumpf. Rap has long had a messianic streak running through its ministry's veins, at least as far back as the days of Melle Mel. Who can the more-woke-than-napping masses call on but a rap-Jesus like Kendrick Lamar when the truth they see marching upon them is that cast with four horsemen? ..."
VOICE: Kendrick Lamar's "DAMN" Is the Soundtrack to the Resistance
GENIUS (Video)
Sounwave Explains Every Song He Helped Produce On Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN.
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YouTube: HUMBLE., DNA., 10 BEST Kendrick Lamar Songs on DAMN.
2015 December: To Pimp a Butterfly (2015), 2016 March: When the Lights Shut Off: Kendrick Lamar and the Decline of the Black Blues Narrative by Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah (2013), 2016 March: Who gets to say how black people see themselves? - Marlon James, 2016 March: untitled unmastered (EP - 2016), 2016 July: BET Awards 2016: Watch Beyoncé Perform “Freedom” with Kendrick Lamar.
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