Lamar's wordplay has always been intricate, but he's finding new ways to push its limits: The way he super-stacks rhyming couplets rivals Eminem in his prime, while his constant modulation of voice and pacing allows him to play different characters within a single song. aims to secure his hold on that title belt. On the pre-album single ' The Heart Part 4,' he boldly proclaimed himself to be this era's 'greatest rapper alive,' and DAMN. To put it a different way, Butterfly felt very music-forward, whereas DAMN. But in other places, especially on 'FEAR.' and 'PRIDE.', the soulful spareness works well with the song's themes and Lamar's understated performance. At times, there's perhaps too little there I've had the album on nonstop since the minute it came out and I still can't remember what 'GOD.' or 'LOYALTY.' sound like. This introspection is also reflected in the mostly somber production, which departs from the meaty P-Funk influences of Butterfly in favor of more minimalist moods. On 'DNA.,' the album's first fully fleshed-out song, he raps back-to-back: 'I got millions, I got riches, buildin' in my DNA / I got dark, I got evil, that rot inside my DNA.' Likewise, on the nearly eight-minute marathon 'FEAR.,' he invites us into his anxious mindset, where there's a thin line between confidence and venality, and any hint of success also carries with it the threat of loss.

In some cases, the fractures are made obvious between songs - 'LUST.' and 'LOVE.' or 'PRIDE.' and 'HUMBLE.,' for example - but even within a track, Lamar is constantly exploring conflicts and contradictions. Its 14 songs, all titled with brief concepts such as 'FEEL.', 'LOYALTY.', and 'DNA.', explore dualities within both the soul and American society. wraps its focus inward, tight and layered, like a bundle of rubber bands.

If that album was like billiard balls scattering after the break, then DAMN. is a stark contrast to the funky exuberance on Lamar's much-lauded To Pimp a Butterfly from 2015: There, he seemed to revel in a torrent of creative intensity that some found exhilarating, others indulgent. is redolent with Biblical references, the temperament is decidedly Old Testament, filled with cold wrath and righteous punishments owing to the wages of sin and the blood of innocents. Lamar isn't a Christian rapper in the conventional sense - his songs aren't in explicit exaltation of His glory - and though DAMN. on Good Friday, a day meant to mark the death of the righteous at the hands of tyrants. It's no coincidence that Lamar decided to release DAMN.

The shared message from both artists is that violent ends can arrive unexpectedly, especially if you're young, black and male. This seems to be a tradition amongst Los Angeles rappers: Lamar's most obvious predecessor, Ice Cube, rapped about dying at least three times on his first two albums. opens with Kendrick Lamar narrating his own shooting death at the hands of a blind assailant.

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