DAMN. The first rap album to ever win a Pulitzer

DAMN. is the fourth studio album by American rapper Kendrick Lamar. It was released on April 14, 2017, through Top Dawg Entertainment, Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records

In May 2018 “Damn” was declared a triple platinum album by the Recording Industry Association of America. The album also won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album of 2017.

It was even nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year that year.

Let’s see what it’s all about!!! but before we jump in let’s look back a bit.

The birth of Hip Hop is an effect of several causes that marginalized Black and Brown families in urban cities across America.

The messages in the music of the mid-’60s and mid-’70s reflect that reality.

As industrialization came through communities, crime rates, and substance abuse began to grow in neighborhoods.

This examination of the world that gave birth to hip-hop reveals the foundations of the genre and becomes the basis of the creation of many, spanning through decades, genres and artists. Kendrick Lamar’s genealogy includes those factors, linking him to innumerable artists and genres.

His west coast roots connect him to Sly and the Family Stone, a psychedelic soul San Francisco-based band that pioneered the funk that would eventually influence Lamar, his mentor Dr. Dre, and a friend, The Game.

Sly and the Family Stone broke into pop music prominence with their 1968 hit single “Everyday People”. from their debut album “Stand”

“Everyday People” was a response to prejudices of the time and one of Sly Stone’s pleas for peace and equality between differing races and social groups.

the song popularized the catchphrase “Different strokes, for different folks,” and became a social anthem. Kendrick Lamar’s albums like DAMN. and Section.80 likens themselves to Stand for similar reasons. The musical energy it took to create Section.80 or DAMN and the subsequent social consequences are embedded in the formula that made Sly Stone popular.

Another artist in Kendrick’s genealogy is Gil Scott-Heron. Heron’s musical style and the foreshadowing of what Hip Hop would become, are detectable in Lamar’s storytelling texture. And especially in the form of writing as in DAMN

Scott-Heron created a style of music that demanded full attention. A heavy focus in Gil Scott-Heron’s lyrics was his battles with drug addiction. The perspectives taken by Lamar and Scott-Heron reveals internal and external chaos as they battle the effects of personal traumas together with with their relation to the world as Black men.

Scott-Heron’s most famous poem, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” which was finally released in 1971 from the album “Pieces of a Man”, is one of Hip Hop’s most honorable muses. The song’s title was originally a popular slogan among the 1960s Black Power movements in the United State

Scott-Heron filled his bars with several examples of where the revolution will not be and related them to popular media, advertising, and products of the time. The declaration was a reproof to Black people to be proactive about their liberation. With his personal social criticism, Kendrick Lamar’s albums and singles often guarantee an address of political events past, present, and future. These can be heard in tracks like “XXX.” From “DAMN” or “Alright” and “Mortal Man” From “to pimp a butterfly”

The album DAMN. has been categorized as conscious hip hop which is a subgenre of hip hop that challenges the dominant cultural, political, philosophical, and economic consensus and/or comments on or focuses on social issues and conflicts. Some call it Political hip hop or a subgenre inside of it.

This genre is well represented in Public Enemy’s song “Fight The Power”

More than political hip hop, Kendrick was speaking a lot in this album about nationalism, Anti-racism and specifically black liberation, a theme Lamar incorporated on his previous studio album, “To Pimp a Butterfly”. Like Lamar’s song “Alright” that in it he makes it clear that he is supportive of the movement “Black Lives Matter” with lyrics like “and we hate po-po Wanna kill us dead in the street fo sho, nigga” ” talking about black men and women who have fallen victim to police brutality in the United States.

In addition to these, you can also see these themes and elements in the song’s clip and understand that Kendrick supports the black community

(The line is at minute 4:00)

The album is made up of 14 tracks that literally describe a story in order. A few weeks after the release of the album, Kendrick gave an interview and answered a question that many people had asked. that the album can be heard from 1 to 14 but also from 14 to 1

(Kendrick said in an interview with MTV)

(DNA. One of Kendrick’s most successful track from DAMN.)

A major theory chose to see Kendrick’s idea as follows and Kendrick approved the concept

the theory goes and say that Kendrick implores his listeners to determine whether his lifestyle and actions are a sign of either wickedness or weakness. Also notice how every other track is rooted in his wickedness, meanwhile the every other track is rooted in his weakness.

For instance: BLOOD., YAH., FEEL., PRIDE., LUST., XXX., GOD. are songs on the album in which he reveals his weaknesses. On the other hand, every other track aside from those are DNA., ELEMENT., LOYALTY., HUMBLE., LOVE., FEAR., DUCKWORTH., which are songs rooted in his wickedness.

If you play the album from track 1 to 14, Kendrick dies from a gunshot on DUCKWORTH., because of his wickedness. As a result of Top Dawg shooting his father in the outcome of the story of DUCKWORTH., he would grow up without a father and probably die young in a gunfight, presumably over something drug or gang related. If you play the album from 14 to 1, Kendrick dies from a gunshot on BLOOD, because of his weakness. The blind woman in BLOOD represents the consequences of disobeying God, which will result in death, which happens in this case because of Kendrick’s wicked lifestyle. No matter if you play the album from 1 to 14, or 14 to 1, Kendrick will die nonetheless. Kendrick gives the listeners the chance to choose if he dies from his wickedness or his weakness.

Here is a video that shows the concept in a very good way (it adds a little more imagination but it is conveyed in a great way)

Kendrick in many parts of the album talks about God, from an Israeli point of view Kendrick mentions Jehovah.
For example, in the song YAH, the name of the song is actually an abbreviation of Jehovah, and this is what Kendrick uses to say in the song that God is the one who informs him that people like him or hate him(like news broadcasts for ratings) in order to be heard only because of the money and the fact that he is famous.

Another example of using God in connection with Judaism is in the song FEAR. In which there is a voice message left by Kendrick’s cousin for Kendrick in the massage he first says a quote from the Tanach that God is punishing the people of Israel for not keeping the Ten Commandments anymore. Then he talks about how he and Kendrick are descendants of Jacob and the 12 tribes and in order for God to protect them they must go back to doing the Ten Commandments and believing in God. Finally, he ends by saying ” I love you, son, and I pray for you. God bless you, shalom” all of this is meant to show Kendrick that he should return to believe if he wants to be protected. because he said in his previous songs that there are no more real people in his life and there is no one who prays for him.

In addition, the song FEAR. Talks about 3 big fears that Kendrick had. At the age of 7, the fear from his mother anger, at the age of 17, the fear of dying without succeeding, so to speak, dying without meaning, and at the age of 27, the fear of dying and losing everything he had achieved without realizing his full potential.

Kendrick said that the verses in this song are the best he’s ever written, in an interview with i-D Magazine on October 17, 2017

According to Song facts, he explained the veracity of the song

“It’s completely honest. The first verse is everything that I feared from the time that I was seven years old. The second verse I was 17, in the third it’s everything I feared when I was 27. These verses are completely honest”.

The amazing song FEAR. which was discussed in the last two pages.

In my opinion, this is Kendrick Lamar’s best written album! and this is not just my opinion. the album is considered to be written in such a good way that it became the first rap album to ever win a Pulitzer.

The Pulitzer Prize is an annual American award for written journalism, literature and composition.
And Kendrick Lamar’s win with his album DAMN. In 2018, was the first rap album to win the award, and the first time that it is not a jazz or a classical album.