Damn (Kendrick Lamar album)


Damn is the fourth studio album by American rapper Kendrick Lamar. It was released on April 14, 2017, through Top Dawg Entertainment, distributed by Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records.
The album features production from a variety of record producers, including executive producer and Top Dawg Entertainment label-head Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith, Sounwave, DJ Dahi, Mike Will Made It, and Ricci Riera; as well as further production contributions from James Blake, Steve Lacy, BadBadNotGood, Greg Kurstin, The Alchemist, and 9th Wonder, among others. Damn features appearances from singers Rihanna and Top Dawg signee Zacari, along with Irish rock band U2.
Damn received widespread critical acclaim and topped the US Billboard 200 with 603,000 album-equivalent units earned in its first week. It also topped the chart of Canada while reaching number two in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. It was supported by three official singles: "Humble", "Loyalty", and "Love", the first of which became Lamar's first number-one single on the US Billboard Hot 100 as a lead artist. Damn was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in May 2018 and was also the Billboard Year-End number one album of 2017.
Damn topped The Village Voices Pazz & Jop critics poll and was named the best album of 2017 by several other publications. It became the first non-jazz or classical work to earn a Pulitzer Prize for Music and won Best Rap Album at the 2018 Grammy Awards, as well receiving a nomination for Album of the Year at the ceremony.

Recording and production

The beat for "Humble" was developed by Mike Will with the intention of recording with Gucci Mane, but later showed it to Lamar. After recording, it was initially agreed upon that it would be released on Mike Will's debut album Ransom 2, but others convinced Lamar to keep it for his own next album.
"DNA" was the second song from the album to be recorded by Lamar and Mike Will, after "Humble". After the first verse of "DNA" was recorded with the beat that Mike Will had already prepared, Lamar started rapping the second verse a cappella, requesting that Mike Will build the beat around the rap. Lamar proposed that it sound like "chaos", and Mike Will put together the second half of the song with the intention to make it "sound like he's battling the beat."
Lamar has said in interviews that the ability to play the album in reverse tracklist order was "premeditated in the studio": "It plays as a full story and even a better rhythm. It's one of my favorite rhythms and tempos within the album."

Musical style

Damn has been characterized as conscious rap with elements of trap, R&B and pop.

Artwork and title

On April 11, 2017, Lamar revealed the cover artwork for Damn. The album cover was designed by Vlad Sepetov, who created the album covers for Lamar's last two projects – To Pimp a Butterfly and Untitled Unmastered. Sepetov described Damns cover as "loud and abrasive" and "not uber political like To Pimp a Butterfly but it has energy". Sepetov goes on to say the decision to put the Parental Advisory sticker in its unconventional position was so it could be a part of the design instead of an "afterthought".
In a radio interview on June 29, 2017, Lamar revealed the original title for the album was going to be What Happens on Earth Stays on Earth, but eventually settled on Damn. He stated the working title "didn't read right". Lamar went on to say about its final title, "There was so many different ways you could put it in my head. Damned if I do, damned if I don't. The loudness of the record. When I think about "DNA", when I think of "Humble", when I think these records, it just felt like that."

Release and promotion

On March 23, 2017, Lamar released a promotional single, "The Heart Part 4", which contained lyrics hinting at a possible April 7 release date for his fourth studio album. On April 7, 2017, the album was made available for pre-order and confirmed to be released on April 14. On April 11, Lamar revealed the track listing for Damn.
On December 8, 2017, Lamar released the Collectors Edition of the album. The album is the same musically, but has a reversed track order and new artwork.

Singles

On March 30, 2017, Lamar released the album's lead single, "Humble", accompanied by a music video. It reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number two on the Canadian Hot 100 chart. "Loyalty" featuring Rihanna, was released as the album's second single on June 20, 2017, to rhythmic and urban contemporary radio. The song peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Love" featuring Zacari, was released as the album's third single on October 2, 2017, to rhythmic contemporary radio. It was released to contemporary hit radio on November 21, 2017. The song peaked at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Other songs

The music video for the song, "DNA", was released on April 18, 2017. The song entered at number four on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Lamar's second highest-charting song as a solo artist after "Humble".
The music video for the song, "Element", was released on June 27, 2017. The song peaked at number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Critical reception

Damn was met with widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, the album received an average score of 95, based on 39 reviews. Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 9.1 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus. Album of the Year assessed the critical consensus as 92 out of 100, based on 38 reviews.
Andy Kellman of AllMusic stated that "it contains some of Lamar's best writing and performances, revealing his evolving complexity and versatility as a soul-baring lyricist and dynamic rapper." Christopher R. Weingarten, an author for Rolling Stone, said, "Much like the recent A Tribe Called Quest record, Damn. is a brilliant combination of the timeless and the modern, the old school and the next-level. The most gifted rapper of a generation stomps into the Nineties and continues to blaze a trail forward." In his review, Greg Kot of Chicago Tribute states, "Damn. strips down the rhythms to their essence, flavored with the occasional cameo. Lamar's voice does most of the heavy lifting, playing multiple roles and characters. His supple singing complements a variety of rap tones and textures." Jon Caramanica of The New York Times gave a positive review, stating "Tart and punchy.... Sometimes boisterous, sometimes swampy, rarely fanciful album—it's Mr. Lamar's version of the creeping paranoia that has become de rigueur for midcareer Drake. And yet this is likely Mr. Lamar's most jubilant album, the one in which his rhymes are the least tangled." Eric Renner Brown of Entertainment Weekly said, "After delving into the personal on 2012's Good Kid, M.A.A.D City and going broader on Butterfly, Lamar has found a middle ground on Damn. that yields some of his most emotionally resonant music yet."
Alexis Petridis of The Guardian wrote: "If it seems a more straightforward listen than To Pimp a Butterfly, there's a cheering sense that this doesn't equate to a lessening of musical ambition. There's none of that album's wilfully jarring quality – its sudden, anxious musical lurches and abrupt, short-circuiting leaps between genres – but the tracks on Damn still feel episodic and expansive. Whether Damn will have the same epochal impact as To Pimp a Butterfly remains to be seen, but either way it sounds like the work of a supremely confident artist at the top of his game." Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph stating that Damn "is the work of a future all-time great in full command of his powers." Leonie Cooper of NME said, "Damn. is by far his shortest release to date – but the ideas, thoughts and feelings it contains are massive, weighty things, from sexual tension to deep, dark depression." In Pitchforks review of Damn, Matthew Trammell writes Damn "is a widescreen masterpiece of rap, full of expensive beats, furious rhymes, and peerless storytelling about Kendrick's destiny in America." Writing for The A.V. Club, Evan Rytlewski concluded, "Lamar trusts every idea to stand on its own. When you're making art this substantial, vital, and virtuosic, there's no need to wrap a tidy bow around it." In a mixed review, A. Harmony of Exclaim! wrote that Damn "is the first time in Lamar's career that he hasn't broken new ground, explored old themes in new ways or exhibited sonic growth."

Accolades

YearOrganizationAwardResult
2017American Music AwardsFavorite Rap/Hip-Hop Album
2017BET Hip Hop AwardsAlbum of the Year
2017Danish Music AwardsInternational Album of the Year
2017Q AwardsBest Album
2018Fonogram AwardsBest Foreign Rap or Hip-Hop Album of the Year
2018Grammy AwardsAlbum of the Year
2018Grammy AwardsBest Rap Album
2018iHeartRadio Music AwardsHip-Hop Album of the Year
2018Juno AwardsInternational Album of the Year
2018NAACP Image AwardsOutstanding Album
2018Pulitzer PrizesPulitzer Prize for Music

Commercial performance

In the United States, Damn debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 603,000 album-equivalent units in its first week of release, becoming his third consecutive album after To Pimp a Butterfly and Untitled Unmastered to reach the nation's summit. It sold 353,000 copies in its first week and accumulated over 340 million streams. In its second week, the album remained at the top of the US charts with 238,000 album-equivalent units of which 87,000 were traditional album sales, bringing the sales to a total of 841,000 units. In its third week, the album continued to top the charts with 173,000 album-equivalent units of which 57,000 were traditional album sales, bringing the sales to a total of 1.014 million units. As of April 2018, Damn had sold 1,002,000 copies and earned 3,137,000 album-equivalent units in the US.
On May 10, 2018, the album was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for combined sales, streaming and track-sales equivalent of three million units. The album also opened atop the Canadian Albums Chart with 35,000 consumption units and 25.4 million streams, becoming the rapper's third consecutive album to arrive at number one. In the United Kingdom, Damn sold 30,000 units in its first week and entered at number two on the UK Albums Chart.
According to IFPI, it was the seventh best selling album of 2017, with 1.3 million copies shipped globally. Damn was ranked as the number one album of the year on the Billboard 200 in 2017. In 2018, Damn was ranked as the thirteenth most popular album of the year on the Billboard 200.

Track listing

Album credits adapted from official liner notes.
Notes
Sample credits
Adapted from the album liner notes and AllMusic.

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Chart Position
Australian Albums 37
Canadian Albums 20
Danish Albums 44
French Albums 168
New Zealand Albums 23
South Korean International Albums 34
Swedish Albums 55
UK Albums 76
US Billboard 20013
US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums 9

Chart Position
Australian Albums 91
Belgian Albums 167
US Billboard 20055
US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums 24

Decade-end charts

Certifications

Release history