He doesn't offer his teachings from a vaulted cathedral, adorned with frescoes lining the walls he occupies the corner of a cul-de-sac, where his followers are impaled by gang violence and poverty, where he speaks to them in a language they understand, sometimes profanely. While "Love" and "Loyalty" are the most radio-friendly, upbeat R&B tracks, featuring an introspective Rihanna and velvety-voiced Zacari, the album ultimately speaks to the uncertainty of the present moment with the attendant aggression of classic hip-hop. He may be anointed, but he isn't above reproach, which makes it so easy to embrace his message. But what's most significant is that he also turns this finger towards himself. "I'm so fucking sick and tired of the Photoshop," he declares on "Humble." Further, in a Ron Isley falsetto, over the steady rhythm of a sliding cross-fader on "Lust," he points an admonishing finger at us, pointedly critiquing the resignation that can beset us in this post-election aftermath, when millions are still troubled by Trump's victory but can just as easily become disaffected by the things we covet. Kendrick is uninterested in this lie and prefers authenticity to illusion.
One of the more off-putting airs of the religious is the unwillingness to testify about one's transgressions, as if they were born perfect, devoid of sin. What's most impressive about Kendrick's teachings is his embodiment of this conflict. It's intensely personal and lays bare his internal struggle for salvation but not uncomfortably.
On its surface, the album's focus is maybe hard to digest because it lacks the sanctimonious self-aggrandizement that frequently attends religious posturing. In the process, he's creating a new brand of hip-hop that is at once gritty and uplifting and entertaining, not to mention marketable without trying to be. He envisions the recording booth as his pulpit. While Chance is an unquestioned talent, worthy of all his accolades and more, his tracks, to use his own words, are more "praise songs." But if we were to view hip-hop as a grand church, replete with deacons and parishioners and priests, Chance would be the choir director and Kendrick its fiery preacher. Even his most religious contemporary Chance the Rapper pales in artistic comparison. And somehow it's still hip-hop, as these sounds are accompanied by the more traditional tropes-808 percussion, DJ voice-overs, and unabashed bravado. are layered with samples from the thick, sonorous sounds of the '60s and '70s as well as the airy, expansiveness of electronica. Yet Kendrick's inspiration is more complex than rote symbolism. After all, rap was spawned from the black oral tradition that originated in slave songs, many of which were ballads depicting scenes from the Bible. While Kendrick's reliance on religious symbolism is not a new occurrence in hip-hop-see Nas, Outkast, Tupac, Jay-Z, DMX, Common, Kanye, Wu-Tang, Rakim-there is a distinct freshness to his approach. If we were to view hip-hop as a grand church, replete with deacons and parishioners and priests, Chance would be the choir director and Kendrick its fiery preacher. This grim intro sets the tone for the album wherein Kendrick ambitiously grapples with his and our damnation, and yet he doesn't leave us to linger in purgatory. Kendrick Lamar's latest album, DAMN., opens with a blind woman, seemingly distraught over the loss of a valued possession, but when Kendrick approaches her to offer a helping hand, she shoots him and tells him that he is in fact the loser: He loses his life, which can be read as ours. In the Roman Catholic tradition, it appears in the liturgies recited during the last three days of Holy Week, beginning on Holy Thursday and ending on Easter. While its authorship can't be confirmed, it serves as a significant text in the Jewish and Christian mythologies and is recited frequently, in some cases weekly, at the Wailing Wall in Old Jerusalem.
#Kendrick lamar damn torrent torrent series#
The Book of Lamentations-a series of Bible verses that mourn the destruction of Jerusalem and its holy temple-opens with a figurative description of Jerusalem as a fallen woman who was once a queen but who now has become a slave.
0 kommentar(er)
