Renowned rapper Kendrick Lamar has revealed his latest album, “DAMN.,” does, as many suspected, have a double meaning.
In an interview with MTV News Thursday, Lamar said his album can be played backwards to tell a different story. His statement finally, albeit quite belatedly, laid rumors of a second album to rest.
“You listen from the back end, and it’s almost the duality and the contrast of the intricate Kendrick Lamar,” he said in the interview. “Both of these are pieces of who I am.”
The double meaning of “DAMN.” centers around its theme, which Lamar couldn’t be more blatant about as he laid out the album’s ethical dilemma in its first line: wickedness or weakness.
In this, he poses the question of whether he will give in to temptation, or rise above it. Each song falls perfectly into this double-edged theme as they tell stories of Lamar’s trials and tribulations, most of which are internal.
The original tracklist, played front to end, tells the story of Lamar’s moral ascension. If listeners “put it in reverse,” as said in a key line of the album’s final track, “DUCKWORTH.,” it tells a story of Lamar succumbing to wickedness, a pseudonym for pride.
Lamar also left hints for reversing “DAMN.,” or rather “.NMAD,” by including audio-reversed verses in “DUCKWORTH.,” “FEAR.” and “BLOOD.”
The songs’ meanings are relatively straightforward, at least for the rapper whose previous works gained critical acclaim for their dense and difficult to unpack lyrical content. Lamar’s new songs touch on a variety of meaningful messages such as the fine line between pride and arrogance, the pitfalls in relationships that success causes, and troublesome pasts holding one back.
The two unique starting points for the album, beginning and end, function as different starting points of the story. From them, different interpretations of individual verses and entire songs can be made.
These two stories don’t perpetuate the intricate Kendrick but rather the human Kendrick. They show a contrast between him believing he is the greatest rapper alive, expressed in “HUMBLE.” and “GOD.,” and his fears of being inadequate.
The linchpin for the character duality in “DAMN.” lies in the song “LOYALTY.” (ft. Rihanna). In various verses, Rihanna and Lamar probe the extent of Lamar’s loyalty, at least wherein it sits, as they beckon loyalty towards vice or virtue: wickedness or weakness.
This song explores a dilemma many artists know well- struggling to stay in touch with their values in the midst of the money, fame and partying that accompany stardom. This transitionary song acts as a framework to evaluate the two versions of Lamar in “DAMN.”
In .NMAD, Lamar boasts of his success but also reveals the downside to self-loyalty, expressing he feels alone in his hardships. The forward listen, in contrast, shows him staying loyal to those around him, God and his values.
Both the album’s beginning and end tracks feature Lamar dying, making the meaning of the album become clear. Life is a balance between wickedness and weakness. Nothing good is black and white, and Kendrick must learn to channel both sides of himself to reach the happy middle-ground, the gray area, else he risks destroying himself.
Thus, the duality in the “DAMN.” and .NMAD versions present Lamar as a real person, with real feelings, fears and struggles. This is a rather refreshing perspective to the rap music scene, where artists commonly construct idealistic, singular images of their life, possibly for the ease of a more accessible message, instead of displaying their lives as they realistically are: multifaceted.
Kyle Pfannenstiel can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @pfannyyy