Dissect - DAMN. | LAST SONG STANDING (E3)

Episode Date: July 28, 2022

The LSS Boyz take on their biggest challenge to date as they are forced to crown the best song on Kendrick Lamar's DAMN. Cast your vote in the poll below and be sure to follow the LSS Spotify playlist, updated weekly. LAST SONG STANDING is a new show from Dissect and The Ringer. Each season focuses on one artist in attempt to determine their greatest song of all time by debating through their ENTIRE catalog. New episodes publish Thursdays on the Dissect feed. Hosts: Cole Cuchna & Charles Holmes Producer: Justin Sayles Audio Production: Kevin Pooler Theme Music: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome everyone to Last Song Standing, a show about your favorite artist's greatest song of all time. I'm Cole Kishna. And I'm Charles Holmes. And in this first season of Last Song Standing, we're diving deep into one of the most talented and complicated rappers of a generation. Kendrick Lamar. Cole and I are debating our way through his entire catalog in an effort to decide what's the greatest Kendrick song of all time. Three episodes in, y'all already know what the L-Dubbl S boys are about. one album, two hosts, three nominees.

And at the end of the show, we both pick the best song off a project to take into the season finale, but we're going to have to whittle down our picks until there's only one last song standing. Cole, I feel like we should take the listeners to the board so we can remind them. So far, what have we picked? What's in contention for the season finale? Yeah, all right. So we started off, obviously, with Good Kid Mad City, Episode 1. we both agreed.

It was a good start. We both agreed on Mad City being the best song off a good kid, Mad City. Then last episode, we hit Mr. Morale, The Big Steppers. I chose Mother I Sober, the best song. Oh, God. Off of Mr. Morale,

you chose a good song, but not the best father time, which was on my list, to be fair. So that's where we're at. We're two episodes in, about to hit the third. How are you feeling about your list? You feeling good about it?

Not yet. Here's the thing. I feel like there's holes in my list. All right. And I wanted to ask you first, strategically, what type of songs are you looking to kind of fill out the rest of your list? You know what I mean? We got five more episodes left. I already know off the top where Mad City crowd pleaser, father time is a personal pick for me. Probably not the biggest song off that album. I think it's a popular one though. I need I need more crowd pleasers on mine, I think. I think Mad City is good, but a lot of people probably would have been like, y'all didn't go with blah, blah, blah, y'all and go with money trees, y'all didn't go with swimming pools. So I feel like I need another crowd, pleaser. What about you?

Yeah, I'm feeling good. I got a good balance between Mad City being a huge song and then Mother I Sober being an important song, but not the one people are listening to all the time. You said last episode the least. It's the least streamed, yeah. It's a least stream song on the album. So as much as I love that song, yeah, I do think you have to kind of, you know, You can't just pick your favorites.

You have to consider like reception and, you know, replayability, memorability, all that stuff. So I think my challenge is going to be not picking all the mother-eye sober type songs on every album because those are the songs I personally gravitate towards. So that's like, I want to keep myself and check in that way. Oh, that's very fair. But we're not going to give, we're not going to drop all of the sauce for y'all about our strategies because I still want to win.

So on today's episode, we're going back to 2017. That's right. If the L-Double S boys got a slap a pussy-ass nigger, we're going to make it look sexy because we're debating. The best songs off of damn. Here we go. I don't give a fuck. I don't give a fuck. I got realness.

I just kill shit because it's in my DNA. Loyalty, loyalty. Bitch, sit down. All right. Before we pick our nominees, I think it's important to get into a couple questions that I have for you going back on this album. Five years later, has our relationship to damn change? Because I will say, honestly, after doing the episode on Mr. Morale and the Big Stepers, I was shocked at how smooth the damn went down still, how easy of a listen it is. Like, I got through this album so many times, and I just had the biggest grin and smile on my face.

Yeah, I can't help listening to Dam now with Mr. Morrell in mind just because we're still so fresh with that album. And for someone like me, he was trying to, like, kind of analyze Kendrick's discography as a story, as a continual story, which I think he definitely does on the first three projects pretty intentionally and then trying to now fill in the holes between Dan and Mr. Morale. Yeah, returning to Dam has been very interesting in that light. I think, to your point, just so much smoother than Mr. Morale, which is this huge, I don't want to say clunky, but it's kind of all over the place in terms of emotion, all these highs and lows. On Dam, when you go back to Dam, it's so polished. It's so clean, so concise, articulate. He does all the things that you want from a Kendrick-Kamar album, but somehow he was able to put that commercial appeal. appeal along with it

where it's like there is no skits. There's like little interlude sections, but no, like start to finish, you can play this album front to back, literally back forwards. And it just goes down really easy, which is kind of ironic because still there's some heavy stuff on here, like very heavy

stuff on this album. It's very dark. It's a very dark album, but somehow, yeah, I get it. It's like there's also this ease of listening for some reason. Missy Elliott. on Twitter said this really interesting thing recently, how she was telling newer artists that for your sophomore album, it's going to feel basically like the world is on your shoulder.

But she was telling them, like, for your sophomore album, experiment then, because if you don't, your fans are going to kind of put you in a box. And it feels like to me, Kendrick is very much like a Jay-Z and that it's like a one-for-you album, one for me.

Or it's like you have a reasonable doubt. Everybody loves. In my lifetime, volume, all you want. I love that album. a little less regarded, then you follow with like a volume two, hard-knock life. And it seems like Kendrick is similar

where it's like, good kid, mad city, damn, crowd pleasers. These are the ones that people love. To Pimp a Butterfly, Mr. Moral, those are the more expansive, harder to get your entire arms around,

albums. And that's actually what I like about Kendrick is that he's very good at challenging you. And once he's challenged you enough, being like, all right, I'm going to take my foot off the pedal and I'm going to give y'all one that you can rock with. Yeah, and I almost wonder if that's over. Because I don't know, like, I'm still so puzzled about post, what Kendrick's going to be post Mr.

Morrell. It would not surprise me if he took Andre 3000's path at this point and just kind of did music when he feels like it. It's not his main thing anymore. Like, I don't know if that, after, you know, saying, I'm not your savior and kind of running away from the culture, as he says, I don't know. is he going to give us that commercial appeal album next? I don't know.

If I were betting, I would say no. I don't know. I'm going to say yes. I think he's too. Listening back to damn, he's too damn competitive. There's so many subliminals. Like,

he really loves this shit. So I believe in you, Kendrick, you're going to come back with a banger. But, yo, for those that have forgotten or listening for the first time, let's tell him a little bit about the rules of L-D-S.

You know, they're pretty simple. Each episode, we cover one album, and are forced to crown the last song standing. That means we could choose one song off each album, the one we think is better than the rest. Then at the end of the season, we're going to have our Royal Rumble finale where we'll bring the best songs we've both chosen

from each album and duke it out until we can agree on what is the single greatest Kendrick Lamar's song of all time. So, yo, before we get into the album and do our picks, yo, we're going to have a little bit of an ad break, but make sure you stay tuned. And we are back. Cole, do you mind if I tell the listeners a little bit about Damn, refreshed their palettes

about how big of an album this is? Yeah, let's do it. All right. So, Damn, it's released on April 14th, 2017. It's Kendrick's four studio album. It features appearances from Yana, U-2, Zaccari. The project spawns three singles, Humble, Loyalty, and Love. In its first week, it sells 6003,000

album equivalent units, which makes it, yeah, it's, especially after the Miss Morale first weeks, I went back to this. I'm like, God damn, Kendrick. It debuts, obviously, at number one. And surprisingly, actually, it wins the Pulitzer Prize for music, which makes it the first non-jazz or classical work to get that distinction. And it takes home the win for best rap album, even though it was also nominated for album of the year and loses the 24-carat magic by Bruno Mars, which, like, Ken, really quickly, this is egregious. Like, I forgot. This is like egregious, man.

At the time, it was egregious. It's, I think, over time, we have, it has proven. I think Dam has stuck around way longer than 24-Karret Magic. Absolutely. Not to discredit that album. It's fine for what it is. He's very talented. But Kendrick's really fucking saying something on this album.

And he did it in the way that is commercially appealing. I think the hardest thing to do in music. So I was so pissed when, I was so pissed when he was so pissed when he was lost to Taylor Swift for Tabim a Butterfly when you lost a fucking Macklemore for the, I mean, this is just, Grammys is a whole other covers. Oh my God, he lost to Taylor. Yeah, and then

Bruno Mars, there's like a little easier to swallow, but it's still just like, of course the the Grammy's going to do, pick Bruno's Bruno Mars, like, of course. That's a wild service, Taylor Swift, McElmore, and Bruno. God damn. That is a sick hell. But, yo, we've talked about

the facts of this album. before we get into the nominees, let's do a little bit of a dissection. Can you walk the listeners through and kind of remind them about the concepts and the themes that really anchor Dan? Yeah, definitely. I want to start with a quote

directly from Kendrick, because we actually have quotes for this album as opposed to Mr. Moral, where he has said nothing. So he said, To Pimp a Butterfly would be the idea of changing the world and how we work and approach things.

Dan would be the idea, I can't change the world until I change myself. So when you listen to records like pride, humble, lust, love, these are just human emotions and me looking in the mirror and coming to grips with them. So I think this really lays out what I think is at the heart of Dam, which is like essentially an exploration of what drives human behavior

and how the choices that we make affect our own lives and the lives of those around us. And so this is kind of framed in a central dichotomy that we hear in the very, you know, opening of the album. Is it wickedness? Is it weakness? You decide, are we going to live or die? Like, literally, the stakes are the fate of humanity at the beginning of the album, like, quite literally.

So in our interpretation, shout out to Femio Lutade, who co-wrote our season on Dysect on Dam, season five, if you're interested. Now available on Spotify. But in our interpretation, wickedness is essentially what he lays out on DNA, sex, money, murder, our DNA. It's humans' tendencies to pursue self-preservation, to pursue tribalism, to pursue retributive justice, essentially what is known as sin in the Bible. Weakness in our interpretation was the way of Jesus, humility, forgiveness, sacrificial love, and serving others over yourself. And so this is like the central choice that we have to make as humans, and we hear a story that

kind of outlines this choice as we go through the album. So essentially we hear this character Kung Fu Kenny, based on Kendra Kumar, of course, who in the second song, Yaw rejects God's commandments quite literally and said, he's going to follow his intuition towards sex, money, and murder. And then we hear over the course of album what happens when you do that? It leads to feelings of unhappiness, of suffering, feeling like you're isolated, feeling like you want to get vengeance, feeling it's a prize, of arrogance and it leaves Kendrick pretty unhappy and this all kind of culminates into the song

fear where he receives a pivotal call from his cousin Carl who says that he's going to continue to suffer and live this cursed life until he returns to God's commandments and lives in the way of weakness and the way of Jesus and then to kind of cap off the album we end on this virtuosic story that that is Duckworth and essentially what Kendrick is doing thematically there I think is giving a very specific and personal true story about how one act of weakness, one act of kindness could like transform an entire life and lead to the life of Kendrick Lamar that we know now. And I should also state that there's this whole thing about the album being able to be played forwards and backwards and then backwards and forwards. So I think the common interpretation

of that component, if you play the album in standard order, it leads to life. It leads to Kendrick choosing the way of weakness. And if you play it in reverse order, it's Kendrick choosing wickedness. And he quite literally dies at the end of the album in that order. So I know that's a lot. It's just scratching the surface. I've never, I've never, just because I'm like, this is annoying, I've never listened to it the other way. Are you having? I refuse to. I like, as principle, I'm just like, this is annoying. I find it annoying. I'm not going to do it. But one thing I will say that worked out beautifully. We did not plan this listener. is that going back listening to Damn,

I think it's actually beautiful that for Last Song Standing, we picked Good Kid Mad City, Mr. Morale, and Damn. Because to me, those are almost a trilogy where it's like to pimp a butterfly is its own thing. In terms of like with Good Kid Mad City, we discussed how this is a very Christian album of Kendrick becoming sanctified,

Kendrick beating this woman, and like becoming, or at least starting to learn about Christianity and set him on this way. I think Damn is this middle record where talking a lot about black Israelites, damnation. So much of this album I forgot,

as fun as it is to listen to, is very chaotic and obsessed with, can we be saved? Are we all going to basically burn on this mortal coil? And then getting to something like Mr. Moral, which is very much

Kendrick marrying religion with also going to therapy, which I, thing is like just in terms of what we've done on last song's standing, it was kind of wild going back to this album and realizing that he wasn't like fully finished yet. All of these ideas are almost a work in progress. And it's not until you get to Mr. Morow where he kindly makes that not the final step because we as humans will never make that final step. But he's finally turning inward where damn seems like he's turning outward in terms of like this is what's wrong with the

world. Yeah, I think he was, I mean, he was trying to do a lot. And I think, but I think the seeds are planted here for Mr. Moral in that five-year break because, like you said, like, it does end in this idea of like, we need to do this. We need to follow God's commandments. But we never hear that play out in the album. It's almost like, it's almost like an idealistic commitment where he's, he knows that's what he should do, but can't. You know, that's kind of him. That's what this album is, it's him exploring these emotions that he has that are contrary to what it says in the Bible and knowing what to do with these emotions. Like, he knows they're bad, but he's still feeling them. Like, what do you do then? And so, yeah, it's very much, it's very much like, yeah,

he reaches a conclusion, but it makes total sense that it's a little bit gray in terms of him, like, actually living out that conclusion. And then we get Mr. Morrell, which I think explains so much of like, yeah, I don't know if the religion component was enough for him. You know, he, you know, I think the song Fear on this album, like, lays the groundwork for some of that more introspection and, like, really getting into your childhood and things you need to go to therapy for, right? And he hadn't quite made that step yet. And then now, you know, five years later, we saw the real work. Like, if this album is saying, I can't change the world to, like, change myself, we didn't really, I mean, we started,

we see, like, the kernels of that here and damn. But Mr. Moral shows you, like, he's really doing that. He had really done that work. He went to therapy. He really looked at himself in his life and his relationships. We don't even know the wickedness that he's talking about in terms of him. Like, he's talking about wickedness in the macro. But on Mr. Morale, it's like, no, this is what I've done.

This is what I've had to, like, excavate, which was so interesting. Because back when damn dropped, I was like, oh, this is such a personal record. And going back, I'm like, it's still personal, but there is a remote. of like Kendrick's really not telling us the full scope of who he is, which actually made me like this more. Yeah, it's all in like, and I think that's why it's easier to swallow because it's not so specific, whereas Mr. Morale is so specific that you can't ignore it,

where it's like, I feel like, it makes total sense why like this one that Pulitzer Prize. It's like a philosophy. Like, it's like, it's all theory and philosophy. And it's,

and it lacks that personal, like very, specific quality that Mr. Morale has. And again, that's what allows you to listen to Dam a little bit more removed than something like Mr. Morrell. So I feel like we should move on to our first category of the day. Damn That's Wild. It is named after this album.

For those that have forgotten, Damn That's Wild is where Cole and I quiz each other about little known facts about this album. I got two questions. I think Cole has two. I'll start us off. We're talking about, you know, Kendrick being slighted.

So I think this is a perfect question to start off with. Even though Humble was Kendrick's first number one record as a lead artist, are you aware of what his first number one on the Billboard Hot 100 was overall? Oh. And what song it was? Give me the artist in the song. Damn. So he had to be a feature on it then?

He was a featured artist, yeah. Was it the Taylor Swift collaboration? damn you're good you're ready it's bad blood remix you're really good yeah yeah all right how did you remember that

I don't even know if I knew that but I was just thinking like who's the number one outer that he collaborated with and it was Taylor Swift or like Imagine Swift I think didn't he collaborate

with Imagine Dragons at some point but yeah the Taylor Swift one if we're talking like cringe like there's not very few times

Kendrick Lamar makes me cringe I that song I just I can't do I'm gonna be real man my favorite artist would never never do you start with this cringe can I ask are you a Taylor Swift then

I am actually really yeah some of her stuff like I'm not like a huge fan but I have two daughters so we listen to Taylor Swift she's got some bops have I ever told you this you know I'm a big Kanye fan I'm currently dating

a woman very out of my league my girlfriend who favorite artist is Taylor Swift and Harry Styles and it causes a lot of consternation. That's like my daughter's playlist. Harry Styles, I grow to love these artists because my daughters love them,

so maybe I'm a little bit... You're way better, than me, Cole. But yeah, what's your... Quiz me, what's your first question? All right, what is Kendrick Lamar's favorite song on Dam? I'll give you some hints,

but give me one guess off the top. All right, so I did a little research, so this might be bleeding into one of my questions. Okay. Is it fear? It is not, okay, so I learned this at a concert where he said it directly on stage. So I don't know if he said something else on record, but as far as I know, it's not fear.

Did you read something that it was fear? No, I was reading an article where he said that his favorite verse ever, or what he thinks is his favorite verse is all fear. Because he said, it's completely honest. The first verse is everything that I feared from the time that I was 70 years old. The second verse, I was 17, and the third, it's everything I feared. when I was 27. These verses are completely honest. So I was like, maybe it's fear.

But, yo, what's his, what's his? I'll give you one more guess. I'll give you one clue. It's also the lowest stream song on the album. And the one that you probably, you probably hate it. I want to say because it's last and because it's a concept record. Wait, no.

Is it the YouTube song? No. It's God. Oh, God is terrible. God, I should have guessed that. God is terrible. Like listening, because there's a thing, fear is a really, really, really good record.

God as a follow-up is really, oh, man. It's not my favorite song either. It has a very specific function on the album. And I can get why maybe Kendrick likes it. But to say it's his favorite song. And he closed, so he closed the damn tour every night with God. There's the last song. And it's a terrible song.

It didn't quite work as the resolution. But it worked thematically. But as a, you know, what you want from a live show, didn't quite give you that. All right. So this is going to be super easy for you, my question, because I already spoiled one of them. So I had a couple more. You already know this. I know you know this.

What was the original title for Damn? What happens on Earth, stays on Earth? I knew you would get it. I knew you would get it. All right. Yo, you're two for two. Let me redeem myself. What's your last question?

All right. I got some, I got like a, it's a list of questions, but they're all related and they'll go very fast. So, the main question is, how many successive weeks did damn chart on the Billboard top 200? Passive? Ooh, I'm going to go 65. Not even close. Successive weeks. Oh, successive.

Wow. It's a trick question because it's never left the charts. It's literally on the charts since it released. 275 weeks on the chart, which is, I think it's the third longest streak in hip hop. I'm assuming Drake has the other two. Okay, so he has a follow-up question. What album has the longest streak on Billboard?

Take care. Drake. Close, but no. There's one. Damn. Wait, give me one more. Is it Drake? Give me a hand.

Is it Drake? That's not Drake. Is it Kanye? Nope. All right. Tell me. Good kid Mad City. Jeez.

Fuck. That's it's. Your boy number two Take care, Drake is number two. But Good Kid Mad City is the longest streak in hip hop on the Billboard 200 charts. It is now spent over 500 weeks. Your boy could never.

All right. Stop. At least my boy can get a first. Your boy is literally number two. Your boy is literally number two. Someone who brides himself on numbers. Okay, let me, one more though. Only because it's kind of fun.

What is the, any album, what is the longest streak? for the Billboard 200 chart, what album has the longest streak in history. It's a huge album, not hip-hop. Think classic rock. Classic rock? It has one of the most iconic album covers ever.

Sarsia Peppers? No, good guess so. What is it? Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon. Really? Spent over a thousand weeks, a thousand weeks on the Billboard chart. I mean, I don't look at that album as like,

like that album is iconic. Don't get me wrong, but I didn't think that that was like when we're at the barbecue. It's like, I'm going to get a big floor. Yeah. God damn. Okay. All right. Well, hey, guys, that's damn.

That's wild. I learned a lot, obviously. Cole stole this as I knew he would. Now that we've set up the history and the themes of damn, it's time to get to the nominations. And the award goes to Kendrick Lamar. Damn, Kendrick Lamar. And the Grammy goes to. to pimp a butterfly, Kendrick Lamar.

All right, everyone, remember the goal of each episode of Last Song Standing is for Cole and I to determine the single best song from a Kendrick Lamar album. The songs we select over the course of the season will then duke it out in a season finale Royal Rumble where we will be forced to agree on the last song standing, the single best Kendrick Omar song. Right now, we're each nominating what songs from Dam should be in the running, and why? Cole, I feel like you should do the honors and start us off with round one, because I went first last episode. What's the first song that you're nominating? Please don't say it's Duckworth.

It's Duckworth. Wait, really? Yeah, it's Duckworth. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. Jeez, all right. Stuck up the place before back in 84. That's when affiliation was really eight years of war. So many relatives telling us, selling us, devilish work, scaling us. All right. I'm just going to start out by saying this was really fucking hard. This, because this album is like meant for a show like this. It is just like great song after

great song after great song. So I had a really hard time putting this list together. Easily the hardest one so far, but I ended up, my first pick is Duckworth. So if we're thinking back to like what makes, what's going to represent Kendrick Amar's best song, we kind of laid

out three central, at least I laid out three central things. it has to embody some kind of conceptual storytelling aspect because that's what we love about Kendrick. It has to show off his lyricism and his flow. And then thirdly, it has to have some kind of great production quality. And I think Duckworth hits all of these marks in spades. I mean, it is a story.

It showcases multiple flows. There's not a hook on this thing. It's like, you know, five minutes of just rapping. And then we have Ninth Wonder's, you know, know, three-beat, multi-sweet production that just all these beat changes. So it hits every single point, uh, I think that we want from a best Kendrick Lamar song. Um, I think it's in the running for like the best closing song of all time on any album ever. I think it's up there with, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Why? You have a problem with that take? Hell yes, Cole. Like,

here's my thing. You always say this every single time you like, Kendrick Kumar has is in the running and I'm just like, it seems like Kendrick Lamar is in the running for the greatest of all time in every single category that you've ever created. Yeah. Yeah. I can make a case for all the takes. But let's just not get stuck

there, but it's definitely in the running for that. Okay, here's what like really impresses me about this song. So like great emcees, I think, pride themselves on storytelling. Or at least they used to, and maybe not so much anymore. But your ability to tell a story was like really central in being a great MC. And you have to think about for this story to work, I think everyone knows the central concept of the story. I'm not

going to really have to outline that. But think about everything he has to accomplish to make this as impactful as it was. He has to establish a universal theme. He does that in the very beginning of the song. Life is one funny motherfucker. It kind of sets the palette up or sets us up to ingest this story as having universal implications. And then he goes on to explain a very specific story about Top Dog. He has to establish who that is and give his background. It's also about Ducky. So he has to establish Ducky his father and his background.

Then he has to establish their relationship together. He also has to establish himself in that dynamic. And then he has to tell the story in a way that actually wraps up the entire damn album and put the thematic bow tie on the album which he does so I don't know

I can't remember a story that has this level of like M. Knight Shamaon like surprise twist ending like take me back to the first time you heard this song do you remember like did it click in real time

like what he was doing did you get that like twist ending feeling or were you like what the fuck's going on? You're gonna kill me for this the first time I listened did this, and like the twist comes, I was like, oh, cute. And I just never thought, I was just like, all right, cool. Got it. Cool, Kendrick. Like, yeah, it's cool. It was literally, I was like,

cool, you did a thing, Kendrick, like, and I'd never thought about it again. Really? Oh, my God. I mean, this is why we're doing a podcast together. I heard that. I'm just like, what does it mean? I got, like, we got to go back. We got to play the album in reverse. We got to play, you know, So I get super excited about that. And then to know that you're just like, eh, well, here's the thing. Not impressed. Here's the thing.

I'm going to tell you as well. Like, I love what Duckworth does in theory. Like, I love the album theory. I'm like, oh, this is like a great way to end an album. I never go back to Duckworth ever. Really? I never go back to Duckworth. It's just not a song where when I'm listening to this album, I'm like, you know what I got to play?

I've got to play some Duckworth. I don't know. I was so impressed. with Duckworth every time I listen to it. I'm just like, because it's a five-minute song or whatever it is without a hook, without a break. So, like, to pull that off and make it interesting

the entire time and to do all the thematic stuff I kind of alluded to, I don't know. And then, like, have the foresight to, like, save it, to save this story. I think Ninth Wonder was saying something like, it's an incredible true story that most people would, most rappers would tell in their first album or their first song, even.

But for Kendrick to hold it, for this long to know that just like good kid the story of good kid mad city like he didn't use that in his mixtapes he knew that was going to be his debut album to have that foresight to to save this really impactful story for when the moment was right i don't know so like i'm super impressed with that amount of foresight all right so i have to push back really quick all right last song standing i have to ask you be honest does duckworth work outside the context of this album Yeah, it does. You think so.

Because I'll ask you this. If somebody, if you were to hand an alien who's like, show me the best rapper alive and you handed them Duckworth, they'll be like, wait, who's top dog? Who's this? Who's duckie? Who's like more of these people? Like, when I listen back to this song, I'm like, it works because it's on his third album. If it's on his second, it doesn't work as well. If it's on his first, to your point, it doesn't work.

The fact that it works is because it's the third album, because we know all these characters, in the, sequence of that. You have to know, you have to be a Kendrick Lamar fan and super fan to really, really care about this. Even when it dropped, I've been following Kendrick since OD. So even me being like, oh, okay, cool. I always wonder, do you think like your normie Kendrick Lamar fan is just like, wait, what? Probably not. I think to your, I know what you're getting at. And it's a good point in terms of like this exercise that we're doing on the show. Because I think even just the lack of the hook as much as I love that it doesn't have a hook and that it is this just virtuosic non-stop incredible flow and story because it doesn't have that hook because there's

because it is so almost like stream of consciousness just you know like freight train moving without stopping I can see it being discounted in that way of not having that kind of universal appeal that you would want in a best Kendrick Lamar song but at the same time I'm just like this is fucking art. This is like an artist at his, like, the top, like, golden pin in his hand. Like, I don't know, like, it's so impressive to me that he's able to tell this story as just the way he did. It's just so impressive to me. And I'll say what as my last kind of final point on this, only because I thought this was really interesting in our conversation around the connection between Dam and Mr. Moral, because I'm always looking for connections between the albums,

And the connection between Tipinba Butterfly and Dam is pretty clear. Like at the end of Tipinba Butterfly, he talks to Tupac. He has just inherited this leadership role. And he's kind of like, he's trying to decide what kind of leader he wants to be. And we hear that conversation with him and Tupac.

And Tupac's kind of laying out a very eye-for-an-eye type mentality of leadership where he's talking about, you know, it's only inevitable that we're going to start fighting back and there's going to be bloodshed against our oppressors. And Kendrick doesn't really say, if he agrees or not, he's just kind of like taking it in, and he shares this story about a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly. And so I think what Dam is reckoning with is like,

what kind of leader am I going to be, what kind of like profit am I going to be? Am I going to be in the vein of Tupac or am I going to be in the vein of more like a Jesus figure that's going to lead it with humility and preach forgiveness? And so we get that opening, the open opening of Duckworth opens with Beacon saying it was always me versus the world until I found it was me versus me. So me versus the world is a direct reference to Tupac's album, right? And then he's kind of like going against that saying I need to do work on myself. So I just thought this line specifically is a really like concise bridge between the two albums. Like so if we're looking at Kendrick on to Pimp a Butterfly, that conversation with Tupac and then Mr. Morale, we know,

is him looking in the mirror quite literally. I just thought that that line just stuck out in a way that it hadn't before. It was always me versus the world until it was found it was me versus me. I don't know if I articulated that the best, but I just thought that was a really interesting bridge between the two arcs of the album. That would be

my final point on Duckworth. Here's the thing, I'm trolling you. It's my job on this show a little bit. I think actually Duckworth is an inspired choice. It isn't going to show up on my list, but I was just like Cole's going to have this. It's my job is the listener. I love that you knew me so well

that you knew it was going to be my pick too. I know you love this song. My pick is not as considered. It more so comes from the soul when I hear this. My first choice is going to be, I don't give a fuck. I don't give a fuck. I don't give a.

I don't give a. I'm talking about element. You better know, if I gotta slap a pussy ass knicker, I'm going to make it look sexy. If I gotta go hard on the bitch, I love this song. It is, I think the thing that I really, really enjoy about, damn,

is that so many Kendrick Lamar albums have this feeling as if, because he's chasing a story, he's chasing a thing, he wants to teach us something. There's a level almost of like he's not willing to have fun. And I think that, like, Kendrick is, like, way funnier than we give him credit for. So just hopping on a song and saying, if I got a slap a pussy-ass nigger, I'm gonna make it look sexy.

To this day, it's really funny. Like, whenever I hear it, I kind of chuckled to myself. But I don't want that to distract from how, well, this is written. I was listening to the first verse. Like, when he ends each line with shit, you know, I'm willing to die for this shit.

I don't cry for this shit. May take a light for this shit. The forced rhyme he's using, where he's like, internally, he's rhyming, die, cried, life, eye, and vibe. and he has to force those to rhyme. But because he's ending every single bar on shit,

it's like it all flows together when I was reading it and listening back to it. I'm like, oh, this is something that sounds way easier than it actually is in reality. And the evocative phrasing of being like, I've been stomped out in front of my mama, my daddy commissary made it to commas. Like, I think, damn, what going back to it, I appreciated so much is that, as flowery as Kendrick's prose a lot of times is he takes a long time sometimes he's like i'm not going to have a chorus i'm not going to have a hook or a bridge because i need all of this time for something like element and a lot of the songs on these records he's like oh wait no i'm going

to give you the most evocative phrasing in such a short amount of time and i love how the beat on this almost sounds like it starts in like a horror movie where it's like as kendrick is getting more excited, the beat starts building around him. And by the time the drums, like, hit you in the face, it's like, it's a release. It's like, oh, my gosh, I can breathe. I was on the edge of my seat. I love this. And I don't know, are you, uh, are you a juvie fan? Are you a juvenile fan? I was more like a no limit guy in high school, but I was, I also, like, a select few cash money guys and juvenile was it. And his, his, uh, interpolation of it is, like, like so good on this song.

Wait, you are no limit soldier? Oh, yeah. I had the collect, I mean, come on, I mean,

as much as a white kid from the suburbs could be, but I had like the collection of like all those, you know, iconic album covers with the, remember they used to do like the, the jewel cases that were plastic

and they had like the, the bright colors on the side of them. Yeah. So I had a stack of those when I was a kid, or when I was a high schooler. Cole, I've never seen you act like this before. I've never been more proud of you,

buddy, this is amazing. He's like, you about to drop a soap the shot. So, yes, Seamer, I like C-Murda. He was, C-Murda was my guy. I have net, oh my gosh, this is amazing. But also, I love Element. I don't think Element to me is like the deepest song on this record, but I wanted to give it a nomination because when Kendrick's just falling in love with the art of rapping, it's so infectious. and we have to talk about, I always thought it was a subliminal, what he says, most of you all throw rocks and try to hide your hand. I was just like, that has to be about Drake. Like that was Drake, for sure. It has to be about.

For sure. It's so funny because I can't reveal all this shit I've heard, but like talking to people in the industry, I've heard stories about how that beef started and where it comes from. So every single time I hear that bar, I'm just like, it is so. funny. And I think what I love about the Drake and Kendrick beef is that because Kendrick is like such a good lyricist, he'll always drop like one

bar that's more seething than any song could ever be. It's just kind of like, if I heard this, I'd be like, yo, fuck Kendrick. And then the follow-up line to that say his name, I promise you'll see Candyman, like, holy shit. Yeah, it's such a good bar. Do you like, do you like element?

Are you an element, Finn? I really do. Like, as I, just as a, I know why you picked it and you, I'm seeing a pattern between all your picks across these episodes because they are really great songs. Obviously, this is the exercise we're doing. And in a vacuum, you can put this song on. You can put it on a playlist. Like, to your point about Duckworth, you probably wouldn't put Duckworth on a playlist or it'd be a very specific type of playlist. But the element, it hits all the, like, technical marks that we want from Kendrick, but it also plays as just a very enjoyable. listen where it gets into your body in a way that not every song on damn does where you feel like you're in your car and you're wanting to you know you just feel it in your body um and it's a great like sing-along song although i can't say like half the words in there myself but um yeah i i love this song i mean conceptually it does a lot too i'm not i won't go too far into it but like if we're talking about it being the third song on damn and on the song before it yaw where he's committing to this way of sex money and murder and then

the next song we get is element, which is him going for his enemies, threatening his enemies, like everything that Jesus tells you not to do, right? Yeah. He's really putting on the character of Kung Fu Kenny, who's out to fight everyone, right? So it does a lot thematically too, but again, like, that's the brilliance of Kendrick, is that he's able to give us these self-contained songs like Element, but they also work within the structure of the album. So, I mean, even him saying you're going to take me out of my element is like,

you feel the fact that there is still that push. even though he's Kung Fu Kenny where it's like, y'all, I don't want to do this, but the world is going to make me do this. Which I love because as you get through the album, you're getting so much of Kung Fu Kenny, but you're seeing how there's still that little bit of the Kendrick we know. Whereas like, do I want to do this? Is this the person that I actually want to be in reality? I think Ellen is just, to your point, just in a vacuum, that's why I picked it where I was like, so much a damn. I'm like, oh, shit, does this song work outside of the album? I'm like, Element is like a song that works no matter where you play it.

So that's why I chose Element. So for round one, you went with Duckworth. I went with Element. Start us off with Round Two. Are we going to agree? Are we going to disagree? I don't know. We should agree.

Because I think this is the obvious choice. Fear. How they look at me reflect on myself, my family, my city. What they say about me reveal if my reputation will miss me. What they see from me would trickle down generations. Beer on your list? Fear's not on my list, bro. You really thought I was going to pick fear?

Yeah. I think it's the more... I didn't start with it because it's kind of a heavy song and it's a lot to talk about. But it's like number one on my list for sure. Number one? All right, here's a thing. Here's the thing.

Fear, I think, to Kendrick's point, is like, arguably one of the best written songs he's ever had. going back to it, I was just like, it's another song that is very, very album dependent. Like, I could not view this in the same way I can't view Duckworth outside of this album. Fear to me is like glued, like stuck into the wall of this album where it's like what I was trying to just play it on its own. I'm like, why is it this working for me? Right. I can see that. But let me sell it a little bit.

All right. Sell it. So me on it. It's a seven and a half minute long song, which is probably two point, like a negative thing. To me, it's like a positive thing. It's like, there's only so many people that can make a seven and a half minute long song work and work as well as it does here and only rely on a single beat and make that interesting throughout. And I think a lot of that has to do with what you said is brilliantly written song. So we get these four verses, each of them, you know, from a different perspective. We get verse one, he's age seven, rapping from his mom's perspective about how he feared essentially violence as a child, but also gives us the kind of the understanding of like, you know, his mom was under a lot of pressure to like provide. And so that pressure and that

stress kind of was taken out on him, but also instilled this fear into him. And then verse two, 10 years later, age 17, he's essentially explaining what we hear in Good Kid, Mad City, fearing for his life perpetually growing up in Compton. Verse three, we get him essentially in the Tabimpa Butterfly era where he's fearing loom. using this massive wealth that he just accumulated. He's fearing what to do with his own influence. And, you know, if we're talking about, like, therapeutic songs, songs that are really trying to get to the heart of, like,

why do we behave in the way that we do? I think this gets us the closest, this is the closest Kendrick comes to, like, doing that therapy work on his own, where he's like, how much is fear from a young age influencing everything that I do? Not to mention on the last verse is where he ties together the entire album. So for someone like me, that's a conceptual kind of guy, like that last album where he's saying all the song titles, where he's like telling us, you know, essentially like giving us the key to the album. Like to do that at the end of a seven-minute song at the end of the album, I think is just impressive to me.

So I think just, yeah, I think maybe this isn't the best song because, again, it's like it has a hook, but it's not your typical, like, radio-friendly hook or even, like, a playlist type of hook. But it does, I think, showcase the best components of what Kendrick Amar is, which is a writer-first, which is someone that deals with concepts. And not to mention, we get a great beat from The Alchemist,

one of the best hip-hop producers ever, right? So I have a slight iso I'm going to go, but I want to toss it to you. Did I sell you at all a little bit more on fear? I was sold the whole time. I love Fear. is a song. It's not one of my picks. Like, fear was in the running. I think fear was probably out of the three. It was battling for that three or four spot. And I ended up not picking it,

but listening back to it, I was kind of amazed at how listeners don't kill me. But it was so funny when Mr. Morale dropped where everybody was so surprised that they're like, oh my gosh, Kendra Kalmar is a HOTEP. And I'm like, y'all, have you listened to like the end of his cousin's call when he's like the children of Israel, he's going to punish us for our inequities, for our disobedience, because we chose to follow other gods. And he's talking about the so-called blacks,

Hispanics, and natives, and American Indians are the true children of Israel. And a lot of has been written about black Israelites. I've seen a lot of that living in New York. The thing that's kind of interesting to me about fear is Kendrick's evolving viewpoint throughout his discography about how much of what African-Americans specifically are going through is in our DNA, how much of it is predetermined, how much of it is destiny, how much of it is

the root of an original sin, how much of it, when you listen to Mr. Morales, actually an internal battle, it's actually not something that may be as outside as a younger Kendrick thought, but is something where it's like, hey, I need to look inward, because what I am doing, who I am inward as a person is flowing down through the generations. I'm poisoning my kids and my father poisoned his kids. So it's interesting hearing fear with that context of Kendrick still growing as an artist. Because without Mr. Morrell, I probably would have been more harsh on this song for some of its weird politics. But going back to it, I'm like, oh, Kendrick really is.

is evolving in real time, doing the work. And I think that is actually, as someone who grew up in the black church, what's so interesting is, is that, like, if you look at Kendrick's discography as what a lot of black Christians go through, how they get into the church at a moment of immense loss, being their eyes, the avarice, the greed, seeing like, oh, wait, if I take this from Christianity, And this person over here at this church is telling me this.

And this person is telling me that. And then you get to the final destination of like, hey, religion is cool, but religion without mental health, without looking towards yourself and looking at what you are doing. Not what you think maybe you are destined to do because of this great sin, but what you are personally responsible for as a human, I think it's beautiful. So I loved fear going back to it and just kind of seeing how far. almost Kendrick was at this point, but how much farther he had to go. Yeah, I mean, that's why I'm so fascinated about his discography and what I really enjoyed about doing these episodes is just like taking a holistic look at his, at his trajectory, as a human being.

And just what I love is that, you know, he gives us these great kernels to kind of sit with on each album. They all end in this place of like, you know, thematic resolution where it's like, yeah, I can take that idea in the same way that he. he took that idea and applied in my own life or at least think about it philosophically almost. But it's never like with each album, it kind of changes, right? And it's like to your point, it's evolving. And so to see someone trying, I think that's what I love the most about Kendrick is that he is an artist, a human being that is trying to be good. And especially with his specific

story, obviously coming from where he does, like super aspirational or inspirational in terms of just someone that had every excuse to like not try right but here he is like really trying to be a good person really battling with his DNA as you brought up and all these kind of influences that he was that you know that that were upon him from a very young age all these things that he has seen and yet despite that despite every excuse to have to to go a different route he has chosen the hard path of upward trajectory of of trying to be the best person that you can. And I think that's always really what's been inspirational about Kendrick to me as an artist. And yeah, I think to your point, fear is a great building block in that ascension, right?

It's not the final destination. It's not the mountaintop. But it's that essential building block to get you to that higher place as he's continued ascending. I mean, you just said one of my most favorite things that anybody has described, Kendrick, that like actually now I'm going back. I'm like, oh, that is kind of the major theme of who Kendrick is. Like, what does it? mean to be a good person and what is that? It's almost like a hero's journey. What does it take to be good? And I actually think that,

to your point, go through this process. I'm like, oh shit, like every single album, he is in real time trying to be like, what do I need to do? It's almost never enough. It's this thing of being like, oh my gosh, like there's another plateau I need to get to to kind of self-actualize and be the person

that I want to be in the world. Yeah, that is a beautiful sentiment But you wanted to ISO Is this going to be a Is this going to be a hotter cold take or no It's not I don't really have one for this episode And I didn't want to force one So I'm going to give you an ISO moment

But maybe not not the hottest take And it builds on something that we talked about With Mad City where One of the reasons I love Mad City is because he Samples what Ice Cube sampled On a bird in the hand Which is a sample of BB King And you get this like lineage

that's kind of like built into the music, into the track emotionally. And so he does something very similar here. So the song is built on a sample from 24-Karrett Black's 1973 song, Poverty's Paradise. One of my favorite things about sampling about hip-hop is the way that you can use samples to build like a thematic foundation for your song.

And Kendrick is 100% doing that here. So poverty's paradise is all about Well, let me just read you some of the lyrics The lyrics that we hear in fear specifically is I've been hungry all my life, yeah, starve to the bone And then later on it says, I don't know how I can make it on this earth And so you're getting this struggle In the actual clips that we hear in the song

You're getting this piece of a struggle That is indicative of this larger African-American struggle in America But if you go back and listen to that song and read the lyrics, like it is Kendrick's story and what he's trying to address to the T. Let me just like read you some of these lyrics. So ever since my birth, I've had no one to care. Since my very first day on earth, I've existed on welfare. Shameful, living's been my way. Nameless giving's been my pay. Poverty's paradise. If you want it, you better think twice. Whoever said it was nice. So he's, the singer is questioning if happiness is even like,

possible for someone like him, possible for someone born into these circumstances, right? And like doubting that, and I mean, just on a human level, Jesus, like, my heart is just hurts for that. And so as the song goes on, whoever said it was nice, that human was a fool. So someone that thinks paradise is possible on earth is a fool. A poor human's life is filled with woes. No amount of food stamps can ease sorrow. This way of life demands no respect or dignity. it commands only neglect and self-pity down life's long lonely road poor has been my one and only load so it's just like jesus like you go back and listen to this song and it is so heart-wrenching and you realize so this this is the foundation i believe i'm not like a spiritual person but when it comes to music

i feel like you can feel this sentiment in the production of the track and then you have kendrick on top of that rapping from the perspective of a seven-year-old in Compton, you know, in the same environment that's, you know, being expressed on Poverty's Paradise. And you also have the feature artist at the very beginning of the track saying, why God, why God, do I got to suffer? Pain in my heart carry burdens for the struggle. You know, why God, why God, do I got to bleed? Every stone thrown at you resting at my feet. So you get the same sentiment that's built into the to the original track that's sampled of like, is how to be able to, is how to, how to happiness attainable for someone like me is suffering my fate. It's such a heavy load built into

this track. And then you have Kendrick again on top of it telling his story and how he's trying to overcome this and him trying to find the root cause of his suffering. And then we get, you know, the kind of the conclusion of like we need to go back to God's commandments and stuff. But just, I don't know, does that, like, is that resonating at all with you? Cole, I've been dissected. I've been dissected. That was a beautiful sentiment. And yeah, one of my favorite things that you've done throughout these three episodes is like connecting Kendrick to a lineage, connecting him to something that is like not new in music, where whether it's jazz, whether it's previous rappers, even rock.

This is not when it's, we're talking about black musicians especially. This thing that Kendrick is searching to answer about can someone a good kid. from a mad city, someone who's been birthed into this, can he self-actualized, can he get to a higher place, can he be a good person, can he like persist and get above it? And on top of that, like,

him feeling like having this savior leadership role, especially on Dam, where he hasn't taken that role away from himself, as he does on Mr. Morrell, you know, you have that, the weight of his personal story, of his personal struggle, but then you have the weight of him feeling like he needs to lead his people and give his people

the answer, right? Like, imagine that. I don't know. I mean, you can say it's self-induced weight, but it's still weight that was on his shoulders at this point in his life. So I'll rest my case there. Good choice. You have sold me on fear. So fear was not on your list. Element was not on my list at all. So give me number two. Number two? I got to go with feel. Fuck your feelings. I mean there's four impostas. I can feel it the Phoenix short of watch us. I can feel it the dream is more than process. I can put a regime that forms a lot. I love feel. I think feel is like a sneaky pick.

And the reason I pick feel is that one thing that I was noticing going through this album is lyrically how much Kendrick, more so than a lot of his other albums, is really leaning on repetition of phrases, whether it's DNA, you know, I got da-da-da-da-da-da-da-a in my DNA. This song, you know, when he's starting like, I feel like, I feel like, and this, it's just the writing is so tight. And what I think I like about this song so much is that there's almost a nihilism to this project where Kendra's continuously asking, who's going to pray for me? Right.

Is this what we're living here, does it even matter? All of this sin, is this cycle, something that you could escape from and feel to me is like the perfect distillation of that feeling? because so much sometimes that I cringe against is I'm like, all right, Kendrick, don't be too hopeful now. And why I probably like, damn is like, damn is weird.

Very dark, yeah. One of his more dark albums, even though it sounds so fun. And yeah, there's this feeling of like dejectedness on the first, first. He says, I feel like it ain't no tomorrow. Fuck the world. The world is ending.

I'm done pretending. And fuck you if you get offended. Like, there is this feeling like Kendrick is obsessed with the fact that the world is going to end and shout out to genius. I was going through a bunch of the annotations. And one of them linked back to this billboard article from 2015 where Kendrick is like, quote, we're in the last days, man. I truly in my heart believe that.

It's written. I could go on with biblical situations and things my grandma told me. But it's about being at peace with myself and making good with the people around me. So you have to think that this kid from Compton on top of the world, has one of the most critically acclaimed albums, he's a millionaire now, is still obsessed with the fact that everything around him could end,

the world could end, this feeling of like, is this worth it? Am I good with all the people around me? You think of something like to pimp a butterfly and the anxiety that Kendrick feels of like, I made it, but so many of the people around me have not.

And his fear of like, if the world ends tomorrow, I'm not in a good place. Am I a good person? feel to me distills that so beautifully. And I think you could probably make the argument that a second verse of this song is in the running for one of his best verses

of all time, in my opinion. When he says, look, I feel like I can't breathe, look like I feel like I can't sleep, I feel heartless, often this feeling of falling, a falling apart. My heart breaks for him so much of like, even though we talked about, how Kendrick is not looking that inward in this album in terms of like we're not learning

about what the wickedness that he's doing with any specificity. What we're getting on a song like feel is when you first go to a therapist being like, I don't know what's happening. I'm depressed. I feel like everything in my life is slipping through my hands. What is happening? And so much of him questioning trying to like hold the sand in his in his hands and be like, why is it slipping through? And even when he says something like, um, fill in the void of being employed with ball in,

streets is talking, filling in the blanks with coffins, fill up the banks with dollars, fill up the grays with fathers, fill up the babies with bullshit. Get this sense that even to me, Kendrick is like, is everything that we're doing here, whether it's rap, whether it's entertainment,

are we just kind of like conciding a generation to this fate of like, we're just feeding them with all of the shit that's not actually getting them where they need to be before all hell breaks loose, before the end of the world, Ragnarok, this thing is false, is such to me so beautiful. He's worried about the apocalypse, but he's also worried about this generation to your point of having this savior complex of like, am I preparing my people? If we're thinking of like that call from his cousin, am I preparing my people for the final

moments and looking at Damn through that lens of like Kendrick is so obsessed with being a leader who can enlighten his people and feeling like he's failing I just love this song so much. Is this, to you, is this a wild song to pick?

It's not, it's not, I would definitely not have thought you would have picked it, but I do think it's a bit of a fan favorite. Just hearing people in the songs that kind of continually get talked about feel always seems to come up where I wouldn't think it would be a song that would come up. And to your point, I think that

second verse, especially when he like ramps up his voice and he does that trademark Kendrick voice change. And he starts talking about like Lochness monsters and phoenixes. And just like every line you can just like, you know, dissect for pages on pages. But yeah,

I think it works. I love the repetition of I feel. I think that works really well. I think that like the one thing in our season that I was surprised to learn about that song is that the beat for it is the sample, the main sample is just from a stock library of samples. Yeah, I was reading.

Which is like, it works, right? And I don't know, even, I don't think that's a bad thing necessarily, but it just doesn't seem like a Kendrick or a Soundwave. I think Soundwave produces song. Yeah, Soundwave produces one, yeah. Would do it. I think it's one of the, it was one of the final songs that was made for the album. So I agree. I like that song.

I don't know. I don't know if I would pick it. myself. I don't know if it has, that was the one song I was going to give to someone. I just don't know if it would be that, right? Like, as much as it is, like, a lyrical display of, like, virtuosity, it doesn't have, like, is there even a hook and feel? I mean, there's enough repetition that maybe doesn't need a hook. I don't know if it's like a hook, but, like, I would say ain't nobody praying for me is kind of it, but it doesn't almost seem like it, because it seems like it's almost like a continuation or a pause before you get to the verse where it doesn't have

that chorus feeling of like, oh, this is something we're going to chant. It's just almost this when he's like, ain't nobody praying for me. It's this feeling that Kendrick keeps repeating this thing that is weighing on him, which I also think is like super interesting because as we've talked about through these episodes, Kendrick, if he has a savior complex, why is he so consumed with the fact that no one is praying for him, you know, he should be enlightened enough to be like, maybe that doesn't matter. Well, this is like, yeah, if you want to get into the, the kind of the story, this comes right after element, right? So yeah, it's again, it's him being selfish. It's him being a leader that is looking out for himself and not for everyone

else, him concerned about people praying for him when he should be the, if you're going to be a true sacrificial leader, allah, Jesus, like, you're not really concerned with that. You're concerned with serving others and praying for others and not really putting your well-being first. And so, thematically, it makes perfect sense this is towards the beginning of the album, because he hasn't had that transformation yet in theory where he's going to stop being concerned with everyone praying for him and him more praying for everyone else, right? So I think it does serve, definitely serves the album thematically. But that's a good pick.

I was, I would not, if I were a betting man, I would not have thought you were going to I am trying to throw you curveballs. I'm trying to throw you curve balls, Cole. So for the second round, Cole, my man, has chose fear. I chose the other F song, Feel. And right now, we're going to go into the third round and pick our final choices before we have to crown what is the last song standing. All right, before we get into round three, though, we're going to go to a quick break. So, guys, make sure you stay tuned.

We're back. And it's time for final song nominations. for Damn to recap. Cole for round one has Duckworth. Round two, we have Fear. And I have element in round one. And then I have Feel in round two.

Cole, you have your final pick for the day. Absolutely. Do not know where you're going to go with this. All right. It's between two songs. And the only reason I'm picking this one because I don't think you're going to pick it. And I think you might pick my other song.

So the song I'm going to pick is X, X, X. Wait, did you freeze? What the, Fuck. Like, Cole, Cole. No. Johnny don't want to go to school no more, no more. Johnny said books ain't cool.

The U-2 song? Yeah, the U-2 song. I mean, it's not even, let's not call it the U-2 song. Jesus. Let's not be disrespectful. I'm not. I literally thought the computer froze. No, we got a timeout on this, my man.

We can't do this. Not X-X. Like, here's the thing. It's not as bad as I thought it was when I saw the U-2 feature on that shit when the track list came out but come on man this is last song standing all right this is at least song standing please go back bro okay this song is amazing i think i mean i easily could have been like the the top of my list i love this song just ignore the youtube for now put that aside just put it aside let's talk about the first half and then we'll talk about the you two half do you like the

first half of the song yeah i like i like this song fine i like this song fine but the fact that you You're like, let's, wait, wait, let's talk about the first half, and then let's talk about the second half is everything that you need to know. Let me just lay it out, because this is, I have to do the conceptual stuff, because this is such a brilliant song, conceptually, lyrically, thematically. So we get this, like, the first half of the song is, like, this really frenetic, chaotic story about Kendrick getting a call from one of his friends whose only son was killed over a dead, it sounds like. It's not specific, but it says something about money. And he's testing Kendrick's leadership here, which is what this album, so much of it is about, right? He says to him, I know that you're anointed. Show me how to overcome.

Asking Kendrick, like, how do I not retaliate? How do I overcome these feelings of vengeance that I want to just go kill this guy that killed my son? And Kendrick is falling short in his eyes. He's saying, my spirit do know better, but I told him, I can't sugarcoat the answer for you. This is how I feel. If somebody killed my son, that I mean somebody getting killed. And he goes on that long thing about, I'll throw the blower in his lap and walk myself to the court.

Throw myself to the court like, bitch, I did that. Great. You know the song. But it really epitomizes him falling short of being this generational leader that he wants to be, him having these feelings of vengeance and not really knowing. Knowing it's the wrong thing, knowing that this cyclical cycle of violence and murder is what has gotten has led his people to a lot of trouble over the year, yet he still can't purge himself of these feelings, and he can't offer this friend advice with a good heart,

knowing that he's feeling the same way. And then we get that thing like, I've got to go speak at this convention, I'll call you back, let's talk about gun control, essentially calling himself a hypocrite, right? And so then it goes into the second half of the song, which, you two feature aside, I think could easily be considered in the top five,

Kendrick verses of all time. You have a super iconic, I mean, it says a scathing critique of America. We have, I think, an iconic opening line, Hail Mary, Jesus and Joseph, the Great American Flag, is wrapped and dragged with explosives. Like, Jesus, what an image that is.

So he goes on to, like, kind of talk about, like, the faults of America. And he has this, like, really key line where he says, look what you taught us. He's talking to America. And he goes on to say,

there's murder on Wall Street, my street, your street. corporate offices, talks about Donald Trump and like xenophobia and all this stuff like ends in this very poetic and very insightful line where he says, it's nasty when you set us up, then roll the dice, then bet us up, you overnight the big rifles, then tell Fox to be scared of us, gang members or terrorists, etc., etc., America's reflections of me, that's what a mirror does. And he says in a way that sounds like America, that's what Amera does.

and so essentially what he's saying is like everything that america promised as itself a leader and this is kendrick kind of drawing a parallel to himself as a reflection of america america set itself up to be this this liberating uh destination for oppressed people to come here right and it was going to be a safe haven for all our gates are open immigrants come here we are immigrant population, all this stuff. Yet it's sin and really what is at the heart of America is the way that we treat minority peoples and the way that we exploit them and use violent force against them. And Kendrick's saying, look what you taught us, saying like you can blame all of our problems on us and our communities, but these values are instilled in America.

Like you can you can preach yourself above them and sugarcoat it, but no, like this is a national problem. This is not a communal problem, right? And he's really kind of like, I think, like, I don't know, that that closing line, America's reflections of me, that's what a mirror does. He's saying this is, this is America's fault. This is like, these, these kind of sinful values are, are what America is based on. I'll stop myself there, but I don't know. I just think that is just like a very poignant observation about America in a way that, and the way that ties it to his own story. I thought it's just very brilliant. How's that sounded to you? Am I reaching here? You are not reaching here. You're preaching. You're preaching, Cole. It's my job here to push back.

I like this song. I think this is actually like sneaky, good pick in terms of like a deep cut. I could respect this if maybe this was like your second choice. You know what I mean? I think the surprise I had is this is I'm like, man, like this is the third pick where it's like, if I'm looking at your list, you've got three deep cuts. This is wild. It's the entire, yeah, back after the album for sure. Here's the thing, I do actually, to your point, like, forget the YouTube of it all. I agree with you.

This has some of his best rapping, some of his most elastic rapping, what he's doing with his voice. The sirens going off in the beat. It just, it paints this wonderful picture. I love listening to this song in the course of listening to this album. almost a treat because every single time I'm like, man, fuck this song. And then let's do it. Damn, you really like X, X, X, X.A.

Like, you really like this song. Yeah. It's just, I'm still a little shell shock that this would be your third pick, man. Okay. All right. Well, let's move it on. Let's hear your third pick. All right.

Before we get to that, I have to give you my trolling for soup, our segment where I give you my hottest taste. Oh, geez. Okay. You want to know what my song isn't. The song that has aged like milk on this album. Oh, interesting. Love?

No. Well, yes, but even more so. Age like milk? That's the only one I can think of that in God. Maybe you're not going to say loyalty, are you? I can't listen to loyalty. That is also not aged well, but not like milk. People are going to get mad when I say this,

and this is a song that I thought for sure was going to be one of my picks. I'm like, I'm definitely going to pick this. It's super obvious. This is a fan favorite. Come on. It's the biggest song off this record. But the minute I played Humble today, I was like, Nope, not picking it.

I just like, Humble is just not it anymore. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's because it was played so much. Like I remember the day, the day it dropped. Yeah. I went to like this like Ritzy, like New York club with this like DJ there, a bunch of white people standing around. And it's like the first or second day Humble had been out.

And he plays humble just to see it go off. And like, to be clear, you can't play that many Kendrick Lamar songs in the club at all. And whatever Michael did with those drums, like people were actually fucking with it. So it pains me. Like, listener, I'm not trying to be a troll right now. It pains me to say this. I could not get through humble.

In all of my listens to this album in prep, I was just like, why am I so allergic to this song? Kind of a hot take only because that's like his biggest song and it's huge and people love it. But I'll be honest with you. I have never liked the song. Oh, what? Yo, all right. Yo, Kev, can we put some?

Blah, blah, blah, blah. It'd be like a funk flex. Boom. That is a whole bomb. That's a dissect bomb that has just been dropped. You've never fucked with this song. No, it's never been my favorite. It doesn't feel like Kendrick Lamar to me.

It gives me swimming pool vibes. Like, it gives me, this is my big single. And then you learn, like, this was for Mike Will's compilation album or his, his, his, his, yeah, his solo project. It wasn't supposed to be on damn. He was writing for that. that album and then people thought it was going to be such a huge song that they ended to put it on the album obviously but it always sticks out to me like it it serves its purpose

beautifully i think obviously it goes off live it really does go off live it was it was one of the best songs live for sure when i saw him but as a song i i have just never been into it it doesn't really showcase what i think kendra lamar represents um if we're going big picture and again i don't want to downplay because it is i mean it's a hugely successful song. No, we get it successful. Listeners, we get it successful. We get that live.

If he was playing it live, I would sing along. I'm not saying that this is like a bad song. I think Cole, you and I are actually agreeing for once where I'm like, I'm not saying it's a bad song. It's just the song when I listen back to this album. Like, to your point, it just sticks out. I'm like, this is actually like, it kind of stops the momentum for me. Yeah.

Yeah. No, for sure. It's definitely like, I've saved my most skippable song is God. I just don't like hearing that song usually. But Humble might be number two. Like the one that I wanted, I'm going to reach for the... I can't, one of my picks can't be a song where he says, show me something natural, like ass with some stretch marks.

Like, come on, bro. We should have known. Like, we should have known that he was a little gremlin, a little horny gremlin. But I was like, I've been getting it. Like, let me tell me about this time. I was fucking white girls. I'm just like, God, listen to Humble.

We should have known. But that's trolling for suit for this episode. Guys yell at me. It's fine. don't care. My actual pick, dog. Tell me something. You motherfuckers can't tell me nothing. I'd rather die than I'll listen to you.

Woo! Use a bitch. You almost probably switch inside your DNA. Yeah, I knew you're going to pick this. I was hoping someone had to pick this song. Come on. We can't not talk about this song. DNA is the song on damn.

I don't care. Like when we're talking about a song where humble to me feels like, to your point, the swimming pools. It's like, Kendrick making a song to me, it's like I almost, the song that Kendrick thinks that this is my single, where I'm like, Kendrick, that's actually not why I come to you. You don't have to do that. DNA is actually one of those songs that works as a single, even though I don't think Kendrick was thinking, like, oh, this is going to be it. This is Kendrick doing what he does best, putting words together, rapping. If anybody as someone who's like, I like Kendrick, but if like a Kendrick Stan is like,

I'll put DNA up against any song from your favorite rapper in terms of like showing what this person can do when you like unleash them on the world. Right. DNA gets me pumped every single time. I talked about it in the previous episode like when like I don't like beat switches. I don't like that. Not that I don't like them, but like Kendrick uses them too much in my opinion. This is the one where I'm like each part of this song. It's every time.

Yeah. I remember. I remember vividly hearing that second half of the song where it does the switch. And he says the line that you quoted, tell me something. You motherfuckers can't tell me. Tell me nothing.

I had it turned up so loud that by just my car started to shake and I was like, what the fuck is going on? It was such a like visceral moment. Oh my. And it gets you every time. I get so pumped to listen to that part of the song. Going back to this album, DNA made me smile each and every single time I played it.

Because it's just, it's so fun. But the fact that Kendrick can still tie it to the theme of this album, Kung Fu Kenney, this is the song that really feels like Kendrick is showing us that dichotomy. Because when the beat switches, it's like, oh, he's inhabiting this character. He's inhabiting this wickedness. Even something like when he's rapping, these are the times level number nine, look up in the sky, 10 is on the way, sentence on the way, killin's on the way, motherfucker, I got one is on the way, like that paranoia of him looking at the sky, knowing that the apocalypse is coming.

And the music makes you feel like that. That to me is what is so brilliant about Kendrick Lamar's. A lot of times people just hear dope beat and they're like, I want to rap over it. Kendrick is thinking about his musicalistically, where he's like, what I'm rapping about, what I'm saying, how my voice is saying it, the anger, whether I'm going using my falsetto, whether I'm going to go super, super low. The gravelly, the texture, the tone of it matches, everything that's happening around him in the beat is what I love about this song. I mean, that first part when he's like, I know murder, conviction, burn is boosters, burglars, ball is dead, redemption. scholar's father's dad with kids in like yeah it gets me every single i know i sound like a dumb little kid being like crap he's amazing that's what it does to me that's why i love kentrick

because every single time he like does that shit i'm like music is amazing it can make you feel ways am i being a normie kendrick lamar fan for picking dna no i'm actually like i'm almost like did i fuck up. Like, is this just the obvious choice? And did I try to be, like, too small? I thought you were going to pick it. That's why it's like, I put it at three. Because I'm like, he's going to pick it. Okay, well, that's why I picked X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X. And I was like, I wanted to pick DNA, and I was like, I wanted to talk about XXX, so I kind of cheated. What I love about Kendrick is, like, you just laid out all the kind of, like, visceral rap, you know, just like, just the, put your head away, like, just the emotional appeal of this song.

And I think that's why it's so successful. But again, the brilliance of Kendrick is that he's able to give us that at the same time setting up the entire album. Like, if this album is about the exploration of what it means to be human and what drives human behavior, what better way to start a song with DNA, like literally what's in our veins, right? What the blueprint of who we are is. And the way that he, you know, even talks like, yeah, he just lists all these kind of dichotomous, like, conflicting emotions. Like, this is all in my DNA, and I'm trying to work it out. And it is chaotic.

But then it's just a banger of a song, too. Like, that's why I love Kendra. Like, this to me is like on par with Mad City, functionally, right? Like, where Mad City gives you the visceral. It's a great song. It goes off live. It's a fan favorite. But it's also very deep and very, it gives you all the stuff we love about Kendra Kumar.

So you're getting, kind of hyping me up where I'm like, damn, am I actually going to, like, pick? You can't. you can't go back. You can't go back. You already even if it's not on my list, I can still pick it, right? No, you can't go back. You can convince me. I didn't make it my last song standing and you can convince me that it could be the last song standing even though it wasn't on my list.

Ooh, you're right. I think that's in play, right? It's only until I say this is the best song on the album. Well, I will say this too. I love what you said because this is essentially what Kendrick's doing is like, what if I put my mad scene? song first. And then what he's doing too, what you reminded me of is like when his cousin is talking about how this connection of Israelites and how this original sin, we don't have to talk

about the politics of that. But I think it is so interesting that he's saying loyalty, got royalty inside my DNA, cocaine quarter piece, got war in peace inside my DNA. Because to your point, it's these dichotomous, like, words of being like, oh, we come from royalty, but also talking about the 80s, you know, we're going to talk about Section 80. Kendrick talking about, like, oh, going from royalty, going from Egypt, being in the U.S., connecting it to, like, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, the song that you picked, being like, how do we get from that? How do we get from this, like, blessed people to where we are now?

and him being like, well, we have to look at America. We have to look at slavery. We have to look at all these things. But starting with DNA, something that is so infectious, something that is so immediate, had to pick it. Also, I'll say, like, we haven't talked about the Fox News thing that, like, this as a reaction to the Geraldo clip,

is just so great every single time when you hear him say, you know, hip-hop has done more to, I forgot what exactly he says, like, does more harm to black people than racism? You're just like, what the fuck? And then he comes back with this, like, Like, like, fuck you, like, and just, like, goes off on him. This is why I say that hip hop has done more damage to young African-Americans than racism in recent years. But here's the thing, it just comes in the bridge.

But it comes at this part where I'm like, this isn't supposed to sound epic. But this sounds so fucking epic. Oh, wow. I'm feeling really, really good. You know, we have to roll into it because I'm on such a high. We've made a case for what songs from Damn are in contention for Kendrick's best of all time. Each of us must choose our last song standing, the song we're bringing with us to the season finale Royal Rumble. I'm cheating. Cole, I was going to give you, we're going to say your song.

I'm picking DNA. Like, I've talked to myself into it where I'm like DNA. It's DNA. It's always been DNA. I'm picking DNA. I don't know, man, because I'm feeling like I should pick DNA in my heart. But then I'm looking back on my picks, Duckworth. Okay, so here's what I'm battling, I guess. in my head, a song like Duckworth or a song like Fear should be the winner. theoretically.

Yes. But is my heart saying that Duckworth or fear should be the winner? Or is it saying the obvious choice is actually DNA. I actually think,

am I, if I'm going to cast my vote for you as your friend, I believe that you need to go with either, I would say you probably should go

with something like fear just because if we're talking about best written songs, I think you can back me in a corner on our season finale that like show me a song that is like better written than this. I think DNA is a well-written song, but objectively speaking, if we're in a poetry class, fear does more, in my opinion. Like fear just does more. Yeah, yeah. Okay, I appreciate. I appreciate you throwing me a bone here. It's a big decision here. Got say, because I always come in thinking that I'm going to have the one. And then it sometimes changes,

it changed with Mad City, didn't change with Mr. Moral. And I came into this episode thinking that I was going to pick fear. And so I guess it's between fear and DNA. Do I go with the head or the heart? That is the eternal question, right? We can't agree to it tomorrow. We're going to, we're going to burn the,

brand down the L-WS boys are debating okay we can't let people know that we're our friendship is this strong you got to pick fear all right I'm going to pick fear because yeah I'm going to pick fear because we have to keep in mind this is leading up to our Royal Rumble and I think if we're thinking about battling songs battling I'm going to get more time you're going to make a case for DNA which I love and you might win that case but I'm going to have some time to to make a build up a case for fear. And so let me give myself that option. So I'm going to go ahead and pick fear.

This is a strategic choice. So I'm picking fear as the best song on damn. Yo, guys, make sure you go to social media and you bully Cole. Like, go to the ad-disek podcast. And I want you guys to go in, be like, Cole. How could you? To the trap, guys. I knew it.

Can't go back. He already picked fear. Woo! My list is looking better and better. But guys, yo, that has been our episode of last song Standing. We ended with a bang. All right, guys, make sure you go to at Dysect Podcast and at Charles X. Holmes on all the socials.

Yell at us. Tell us which song we were so dumb to leave on the board. We want to hear it all for y'all who have forgotten, okay? For right now, Cole's list is Mad City, Mother I Sober, and Fear, while my list is Mad City, Father Time, and DNA, okay? I want to tell y'all, we're dropping it now. Next week's album, we're going back to the past, baby. That's right. We're doing Section 80. Make sure you tap into that. And I want to send a special shout out to our producers, Justin Sales, our audio production producer, on the boards, Kevin Pooler. And thank you to Devin Ronaldo,

who made our sweet, sweet things. Cole, I'm halfway through. Bo Burnham's inside. Oh, well, you've only made it halfway? It's been wrong. You failed your homework. How'd you do in school? You've just failed your first homework inside.

I was a great student for most of my existence, and then it got kind of iffy. Man, I'm not going to. What do you think? Because the first, okay, let me just preface this with, like, you have to watch the little thing. It doesn't make sense without watching thing. The first half is so literally

the film is divided in half to the second, literally. You got it. So just let me hear your first thoughts though. Let me hear your first thoughts. I know why it's so popular. I do. Like I know, like it's the hard thing about comedy before the

pandemic I would go to a lot of comedy shows. The hard thing about comedy is that you either think it's funny or it's not. And like logically I'm like, I know why this is funny. This is somebody injecting the past decade of Twitter into my fucking veins. I don't like it.

It's just, I get it. Like, I think he's charming. What I will say is that, like, yo, some of the songwriting craft, like, he has that lonely island thing where it's like he knows what makes a pop song work. Like, just structurally and just like, he knows what melodies to use.

He knows how to use repetition. Like, he's actually very, very smart in terms of like, oh, no, this is how you make a dope song. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He's a really good musician, for sure. I just can't fuck with this, man. I got to, I got to a white girl Instagram and I was like, enough.

Like, I was like, enough. Okay, but you got to, just do me this. You got it. You got to watch this. I'm going to finish. I'm a bad student. I'm a bad student. I'm going to finish.

I went into the last minute. And I was just like, oh, man. I don't think I'm going to fucking make it. I'm going to listen to the rest for the next episode. Cole, I have to ask you, did you do your home? You did, oh, you watched it, though. You just didn't, did you, you watched it too. No, I'm watching, I'm watching it.

I'm watching it. Okay, okay, okay. I said, listen. Okay, cool. Okay, I'm watching it on Netflix. Don't worry. I'll send you a screenshot. Okay, how the world works with the sock puppet.

I think that is like one of the most brilliant songs of the past like, what, five, ten years. No, no, no. It's so clever. It's so good. Like, he's playing like the dumb, like, typical white guy and then Sacco's like the communist. Okay. It's so brilliant. Anyways.

all right so I had some homework yep I did listen to Sierra I'm gonna say okay let me preface this with I understand this music is not made for me so this is my problem with like critiquing music that is so obviously like not for me like who the fuck am I to like critique Sierra

like who the fuck cares but I will say I will say I did I have heard one two step Like, obviously, I've heard that. I just never knew it was Sierra. I listened to mostly goodies. That's her bigger album. That was the one with the hits on it.

Yep. That was with one two step and her other single. I forgot the name. So I respect it for what it is. It's like, it brought me back to early 2000s. It was so funny to hear like that. Remember the formula, which was like, have an R&B female singer and then pair him with the hottest rapper.

He's going to give you this like eight bar verse. Yep. So there's a bunch of those songs, ludicruses on there. All right, ludicrous's verse, I don't ever want to hear you say

anything about ludicris's verse. It's amazing. Cool. Well, Missy killed it on one, two-step, and I love Missy.

So I respect it for what it is. It is not made, clearly not made for me is not something I'm going to return to. But I did like the exercise. I enjoyed the exercise of returning to it. But if I'm, like, trying to choose between

Confessions and Sierra, confessions is, is, did you listen to Genuine, 100% genuine. Was that on my, no, I did not.

That was, All right, that's your next, that's your next homework. I need you listen to 100% Genuine. It's a great genuine album. We're keeping this R&B train running. Okay. I'm going to finish Bo Burtum, okay? I'm a bad student.

Like, you can kind of tell that I'm kind of the slacker of the two of us. All right? But like, this is a great exercise. I will say, though, if I'm going to be positive about inside, I get why people like it. And I was, like, smiling just at how much I was like, fuck this Bo Burnham with his like catchy songs. The songs are catchy. Yeah. Oh, and you got to keep in mind, he did this entirely by himself. Like, that's fine. Don't, don't let that, the filming,

like every, every single component, like, it's very impressive. All right, Connie made five beats a day for three summers. What? The Bo doesn't get a quick. All right, all right. All right. We'll see y'all next week. Peace. Peace.