The first few songs of the album mimic when a person first starts therapy, complete with the rapid information dump while in crisis (“United In Grief”), the self-justification due to a broken society (“N-95”) and the disdain-filled tirade that begins taking account of past mistakes (“Worldwide Steppers”). These thoughts are vulnerable, unmanicured and, to the shock of some fans, politically incorrect and ignorant. The album plays out like an open therapy session, filled with the raw and unfiltered thoughts of one of the greatest rappers to ever pick up the mic. Gone are the pleasant jazz compositions of TPAB and the cleaner rhythms of DAMN.-in their place are scattered piano lines, manic drums, distorted vocal samples and panic attack-inducing synths, all designed to give the listener feelings of anxiety and discomfort. The production on the album mirrors Kendrick’s distress. Kendrick, now the father of two children, is told to turn to Oprah-approved German philosopher Eckhart Tolle to get to the root of what would cause his supposed sex addiction. His longtime partner Whitney Alford urges him to seek counseling after his various infidelities are revealed. Morale & The Big Steppers Kendrick unpacks his sins. Robot episode where Elliott is forced to confront his deep-seated trauma with his therapist, wavering over what caused his pain, but eventually finding the heartbreaking truth. The double album plays out like a two-act play, the set never changing from his therapist’s office. And this is part of the reckoning Kendrick goes through on his latest album Mr. Therapy lays the groundwork to strip away external expectations and perceptions to reach the root of all past traumas.
But after years of reflection, Kendrick has finally accepted that he can’t solve everyone’s problems-he hasn’t even solved his own. The difference between those times is Kendrick believed he was the new leader of rap and a beacon for Black America. Kendrick is just another kid from Compton.Įven on the seminal TPAB, near the end of “Mortal Man,” he questions fans’ loyalty by bringing up how they denounced accused abuser Michael Jackson: “That n-gga gave us ‘Billie Jean,’ you say he touched those kids?” he scolds. “If I told you I killed a n-gga at 16, would you believe me? / Perceive me to be innocent Kendrick you seen in the street / With a basketball and some Now & Laters to eat / If I mentioned all of my skeletons, would you jump in the seat?” “M.A.A.D City” offers a pivot in perspective the chosen one is only an audience projection and expectation. But the truth is, Kendrick Lamar is messy, complicated and deeply flawed-and he’s been trying to tell us since the beginning. He became a Progressive Liberal champion, the neat idea of what a Black man ought to be in this country. To Pimp A Butterfly, for as great as it is, put a curse on Kendrick. as a sounding board to chip away at the surface of his traumas, hoping he’d done enough good to outweigh the demons he felt were destined to pull him down to internal damnation. He made a whole album reconciling with the title, using DAMN.
The savior complex bestowed upon him after he echoed agreeable pro-Black politics on To Pimp A Butterfly at the tail-end of the Obama regime has been rejected.