Dissect - S5E20 - Season Finale: DAMN. by Kendrick Lamar

Episode Date: January 28, 2020

We conclude our season on DAMN. by recapping the album’s narrative in standard track order before speculating on an alternative narrative when listening in reverse track order. Finally, we present a new theory about the album’s track listing (did someone say “chiasm”?). Stay connected over the break by following @dissectpodcast on Twitter and Instagram. Purchase Dissect merch at https://shop.dissectpodcast.com/. Listen to original Dissect themes on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2k8BsZM. Megaphone. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From Spotify Studios, this is Dissect, long-form musical analysis broken into short digestible episodes. I'm your host, Cole Kushner. Today we conclude our season-long analysis of Damn by Kendrick Lamar. On our last episode, we dissected the album's final track, Duckworth. There we heard the fascinating true story of the chance encounter between Kendrick Lamar's father, Duckie, and the owner of its record label, Top Dog, Anthony Tiffith. Kendrick details how Duckie's small act of kindness saved Duckie. from being killed by Anthony, thus allowing Kendrick to grow up with a father's guidance,

as well as allowing Kendrick to sign to Top Dog Entertainment, stay in the recording studio, and avoid the dangers of his street life in Compton. Both his father and his music saved Kendrick's life, enabling him to flourish into the greatest rapper of his generation, thus influencing millions of people around the world with his story and message. If it weren't for that single act of kindness, of weakness, Kendrick hypothesized his life would play out much differently. Because if Anthony killed Duckie top dog could be serving life while I grow up without a father and die in a gunfire.

Kendrick speculates his life would have ended at the hands of gun violence as a teenager. Meanwhile, his father would also be dead and Anthony would be serving a life sentence in prison. All three of their fates in this alternate life would be succumbing to the curse of being born in black male in contemporary America. Instead, Kendrick sees Duckie's act of kindness as the pivotal choice that reversed the curse, displaying the gravity and exponential effects of our individual choices, both for ourselves and this life and for the lives of generations after ours. Of course, Dam ends by rewinding or reversing the entire album, forcing us to consider the implications of playing Dam and reverse order,

from the last song to the first. Would this ordering change the album's narrative? If so, how? We're going to unpack these questions in today's episode. But before we do that, we're going to recap the album's narrative and themes in standard order. We'll then study the implications of playing the album in reverse order before examining the significance of the album having 14 total tracks. And so with that, and for the last time this season, let's dissect.

You want to be remembered and deliver the message that considered the blessing of everyone. This is your lesson for everyone. Say what shit hit the fan issues. While Blood may be the first song on Dam, there's ample evidence to suggest that the album's narrative is a direct continuation of Kendrick Lamar's previous album to Pimp a Butterfly. Having overcome the temptations of Uncle Sam and Lucy, the album's final track, Mortal Man, finds Kendrick declaring himself to be a prophet like Moses, who works to free his people from mental slavery and lead them to blessings through his divinely inspired lyrics.

At the same time, Kendrick acknowledges. that his prophetic role means he'd have to endure abandonment, opposition, and resistance from the very people he came to serve. Kendrick openly wonders how he should respond to the resistance he'll inevitably face. This question leads Kendrick to seek advice from the spirit of Tupac, who expresses his intuition to fight fire with fire. confronting resistance with resistance. Tupac claims this tendency to fight back is a trait embedded in his DNA, a core part of his family heritage. Tupac also claims that for black people to survive in America,

black men need to exhibit maximum strength to fight back against their oppressors. Hence Tupac prophesized that the next wave of race rights in America would trigger mass bloodshed, as black people would finally rise up in an armed rebellion inspired by Nat Turner's 1830. slavery revolt. I think that niggas is tired of grabbing shit out the stores and next time it's a riot, it's gonna be like a bloodshay, for real. I don't think America know that. I think America think we was just playing.

It's gonna be some more playing, but it ain't gonna be no plan. It's gonna be murder. You know what I'm saying? It's gonna be like Nat Turner, 1831 up in this motherfucker. In response to Tupac's assertions that black people must use violence and strength to rise up in America, Kendrick reads Tupac a poem about a strong caterpillar who transformed into a weak butterfly. Ironically, only after the strong caterpillar became a weak butterfly, was he able to shed light on his environment and bring an end to what Kendrick describes as the eternal struggle,

i.e. the generational cyclical struggle of black people living in America. This poetic parable thus seemed to contradict Tupac's advice of violent resistance, leading Kendrick to ask Tupac for his perspective on the poem. perspective on that. Tupac never responds to Kendrick's question about the weak butterfly. To pimp a butterfly thus ends with the cliffhanger, as we're left wondering whether Kendrick will choose to fully adopt the life of a weak butterfly or revert to the mentality of a strong caterpillar.

In other words, will Kendrick continue to be a prophet who spreads Jesus' message of love, or would the spirit of Tupac inspire Kendrick to become a prophet like Nat Turner, leading his people to revolt? Kendrick later noted that this cliffhanger ending was strategic. It's a decision that I left hanging on the album. That's the real trick. It has undertones of what I want to do, but it never says what I'm going to do because...

Two years after the release of Topimp a Butterfly, Kendrick's choice between Caterpillar and Butterfly would transform into the central dichotomy heard at the beginning of Dam's opening track, Blood. This opening statement, presents us with an ominous choice that seems inspired by the prophetic words of Moses and Jesus. The dichotomy between wickedness and weakness suggests that in order for us to live, we need individuals who follow Jesus' example of humility, forgiveness, and sacrificial love.

However, we soon find reason to question if choosing weakness will lead us to life when the track's protagonist is shot while trying to help a blind woman. You've lost your life. This parable seems to illustrate how America routinely assassinates those who try to speak out against the nation's injustice. This pattern is further supported by the inclusion of a Fox News clip, wherein their hosts attempt to assassinate Kendrick's character. Lamar state his views on police brutality with that line in the song, quote, and we hate the po-po, want to kill us in the street, for show. Oh, please. I don't like it. Upon hearing the criticism from Fox News, Kendrick responds with a vicious display of

Bragadocio that is to attract DNA. Here Kendrick expresses the confidence he inherited from his father, Kenny Duckworth. However, DNA also depicts Kenny as a conflicted prophet, who hatefully attacks his critics at Fox News and thus demonstrates his unwillingness to forgive his enemies. I'd rather dielling to listen to you. My DNA not for imitation. Your DNA in abomination. With DNA, it's quickly established that our newly ordained prophet is now conflicted. Clearly, Kendrick is not exemplifying the way of the weak butterfly,

but rather the vengeful way of the caterpillar. As we discussed throughout the season, Kendrick's story about a conflicted prophet resembles the story of Jonah, an Israelite prophet who rejected God's call to prophesy against the world's most powerful nation, because he was not ready to forgive the injustice caused by his enemies there. Jonah's rejection of God's call and his desire for God to rain fire upon his enemies caused Jonah much turmoil.

By the end of his story, we realized Jonah's unwillingness to forgive his enemies is a reflection of humanity as a whole and our own inability to forgive. This idea of a universal conflict told through the specific story of a single individual is the same narrative structure Kendrick uses over the course of Dam. Indeed, this universality is implied at the end of DNA, as Kendrick reveals that the pursuit of sex, money, and murder is a destructive tendency that exists not only in Kendrick Lamar, but in the collective DNA of all humanity.

After expanding the scope of the album to include, each and every one of us, the beginning of the next track, Yaw, zooms in, focusing now in the album's protagonist Kung Fu Kenny. It's here in Yaw that the main conflict of the album's narrative is revealed, as Kenny expresses his conscious decision to follow his intuition by pursuing sex, money, and murder, traits he names real N-word conditions. Kenny's choice to disregard God's commandments and follow his own intuition soon leads to an increasing amount of interference, ultimately causing Kenny to reject God's call. It's here that we come to understand that the narrative about to unfold and damn

is a cautionary illustration of what happens when a person chooses to reject God's commandments and seeks self-gratification through sex, money, and murder. This idea is cemented in Yaw's second verse, wherein Kenny's cousin Carl, warns him that he would be cursed for refusing to obey God's commandments. Despite Kenny's knowledge that God walks the earth, Kenny remains unable to resist the temptation to pursue sex and money. Moreover, as the album continues with the next track element, Kenny also attempts to justify the use of violence as a way to protect his family's economic security. Kenny's refusal to abandon his vengeful mentality causes him to continue his associations with the criminal element in Compton.

These associations, combined with ongoing investigations by federal agents, leaves Kenny feeling like his only option is to fake his death and flee overseas to Cuba, the very place that Tupac was rumored to have fled after an assassination attempt. However, as Kenny fantasizes about his escape, he is soon blown off course by a storm of feelings that caused him to distrust the very friends and family he'd just been willing to kill for. I feel like you may be the problem. I feel like it ain't no tomorrow.

Fuck the world. The world is ended. I'm done pretending and fuck you if you get offended. Rather than taking responsibility for Al's actions contribute to his state of mind, Kenny puts the blame on everyone except himself. Ironically, Kenny even complains that no one is praying for him, even though he's the one who rejected God's call. Having abandoned his loyalty to God and questioned the loyalty of friends and family, Kung Fu Kenny joins forces with bad girl Riri to question the nature of loyalty itself.

The two artists plan to start a secret society, in which all members are ultimately loyal to King Kenny and Queen Riri. Eventually, Kenny and Riri suspect that people around them have become shifty and untrustworthy. The two subsequently demand that those around them articulate who they are ultimately loyal to. In an ironic twist, Kenny and Riri's questioning of what others are loyal to

force them to ask themselves the same question. In a sudden reversal of his earlier disobedience, Kenny declares that God is the one who everyone should be loyal to. This loyalty to God above any human king or queen requires a level of humility that Kenny and Riri find difficult to develop. Thus, the two end the song by acknowledging their need for God's mercy. The importance of developing humility is further highlighted by a new dichotomy that opens the next track, Pride. Kenny's recognition that pride will lead away from love and towards an endless cycle of death

forces him to recognize how his imperfections have poisoned any hope in the world becoming more perfect. Having acknowledged his own imperfections, Kenny tells the whole world that God is the only one who is perfect. While the track Pride seems to be a breakthrough moment in which Kenny was finally able to humble himself before God, the next track Humble reveals that his overwhelming pride continues to inspire Kenny to exalt himself above others. This track thus reveals that Kenny is still suffering from the real N-word conditions he spoke about on Yaw. This is made all too clear by the end of Humble, as Kenny boasts about his ability to kill other black males.

After the track Humble reveals the extent to which Kenny has been overcome by pride, the next track reveals that Kenny has also been overcome by lust. The demonic forces that influence Kenny use him to command the crowds at his concerts to follow a daily routine of pursuing sex, money, and murder. However, after getting up money, think about money, kick your feet up, watch you a comedy, take a shit, then roast some weed up, go hit you a lick, go fuck on the bitch,

don't go to work today, cop you a fitter, maybe some... However, after getting caught up in a cycle of one-night stands, manipulation and predatory behavior, Kenny wakes up to the realization that lust is causing him to become an enemy of the Lord. This realization leads to another sudden reversal as Kenny turns back to God and opens the next track with another dichotomy.

Down. With the track Love, Kenny seems to finally have overcome his lust for sex and money. Hence, rather than feeling cursed, Kenny is able to experience the blessings of his girl's love. The track Love thus appears to signal. a transformation in Kenny's life. At the same time, though, the track ends with Kenny repeatedly saying that he's still on the way. The fact that Kenny has not yet arrived seems to suggest that he's not fully overcome the final vice that led him away from the way of weakness.

While Kenny is now able to love his friends and family, his ability to love his enemies is brought into question when a friend whose son has just been murdered calls him to ask how he should overcome his troubled feelings. him closer to the spiritual my spirit do no better but i told him i can't sugarcoat the ass for you this is how i feel if somebody killed my son that means somebody getting killed tell me what you do for while love displayed how kenny had overcome his desires to mindlessly pursue sex and money xxxx reveals that his love for family and his feelings of passion continue to make murder an attractive choice thus rather than serving as a vessel to bring his friend closer to the spirit of god

Kenny becomes a vessel for the spirit of violent retaliation. Still in the midst of Still in the midst of All right kids, we're going to talk about gun control Right, funny. Still in the midst of inciting us to commit acts of violent retribution, XXX reveals itself to be a satire. It demonstrates the absurdity of trying to address gun control in America

without addressing the demonic forces that are causing Americans to move in unison to the same murderous rhythm. Having established that America is the nation that Kung Fu Kenny was called to prophesy against, Kenny uses the second verse of XXXX to reveal America's history of injustice from a divine perspective. America's reflections of me, that's what America does. Within 16 bars, Kenny shows how America is the one who teaches that violence is the best way to make oneself great. Thus, while America is quick to blame minorities and immigrants for its troubles, America has no one to blame except itself.

Ultimately, XXX reveals that the character of Kung Fu Kenny is what America sees when it looks in the mirror. The entire narrative that detailed Kenny's role as a prophet, Kenny's rejection of God's call, Kenny's self-destructive pride, Kenny's repeated assertions that he's the greatest, and Kenny's hypocritical pattern of violence, are merely a reflection of America's own fault from grace. Given that Kenny and America have proven to be unreliable prophets, Kenny's cousin Carl Duckworth offers an explanation for their descent into destruction. Deuteronomy 28 and 28 says, the Lord shall smack it with madness and blindness and astonishment

of heart. I can feel like you got a kiss. Fear begins with cousin Carl asserting that the mental anguish Kenny has expressed throughout Dam. It's a manifestation of the curse Kenny was under after choosing to disregard God's commandments. However, like the failed prophet Jonah, this diagnosis is not yet sufficient for Kenny or Kenny's other cousin Charles, who continues by asking why God allows them to suffer and why God is not destroying the world,

the apparent source of their suffering. We are then taken back in time to hear a detailed account of Kenny's childhood. I beat your ass, keep talking back. I beat your ass. Who bought you that you stole it? I beat your ass if you say that game is broken. In fear's first verse, Kenny wraps from the perspective of his mother,

giving a litany of reasons why she would beat seven-year-old Kenny's ass. In doing so, Kenny reveals that physical punishment was his greatest fear at the age of seven. In fear's second verse, Kenny goes forward in time 10 years and gives a litany of reasons why he would probably die. In doing so, he reveals that dying was his greatest fear at the age of 17. In Fear's third verse, Kenny goes forward in time by another 10 years and reveals that becoming rich and famous by the age of 27 has not allowed him to overcome his fears. Rather, his fear of death has now been replaced by the fear of losing his riches and fame. However, as Kenny reflects on his fears, he realizes that his greatest fear should be the loss of love and the compromise

of his loyalty to God and others as a result of his own pride. Ultimately, Kenny's breakthroughs his belief in a future resurrection, and recognizes that his relationships to God and others were the only thing he could take with him when he leaves this earth. The peace and security that Kenny derives from his external relationships is then echoed in Cousin Carl's concluding message. Cousin Carl asserts that God is a loving father who disciplines Kenny so he'll learn to follow God's commandments, be freed from destructive emotions, and experience a new kind of feeling. Having overcome the spirit of fear, Kenny is able to be filled with the spirit of God, a spirit that provides Kenny with power, love, and self-discipline.

Moreover, Kenny's trust that he'll be loved and forgiven by his heavenly. father enables him to confess his sins, failures, and shortcomings without the fear of being judged. Don't judge me, my mama caught me with a strap. Don't judge me. I was young fucking other brats. Don't judge me. Even though Kenny is now filled with God's spirit, his troubles did not evaporate at once. Kenny continues to face conflict from hostile forces and was tempted to fall back into old habits. But in the midst of this daily struggle, Kenny finds a way to transcend his environment. I got a bad habit.

Leverate, ducking haters. Oh my, my heart is rich, my heart is famous. Though Kenny previously acted out of the fear that he'd lose his riches and fame, now that God is in his heart is his heart is his heart is famous. This moment is the conclusion of the main narrative of Dam. Kenny turns away from wickedness and towards the way of weakness, the way of peace, the way of the butterfly. Fittingly, Dam's final track, Duckworth, opens with a reference to Tupac's seminal

1995 album, Me Against the World. This reference effectively took us all the way back to Mortal Man, the final track of Tipinpa Butterfly. As you know, it was there that Tupac expressed his inclination to fight back against anything and anyone that threatened him. When we first heard the conclusion of Mortal Man, it was unclear whether Kendrick would adopt Tupac's combative mindset and become a prophet like Nat Turner. Indeed, the opening line of Duckworth indicates that like Tupac, Kendrick grew up thinking it was him versus the world, and thus the world was responsible for his problems, both their causes and their solutions. However, Duckworth's following line, until I found out it's me versus me, reveals that at some point

Kendrick learned that his struggle is not against others in this world, but rather his struggle is with himself, with his own pride, his own ego, his own vices, his own emotions. This maturation of thought underscores Kendrick's transformation from Caterpillar to Butterfly and his newfound ability to shed light on situations that Tupac never considered, all with the intent to, as he stated on mortal man, and the eternal struggle for all of his people. After Duckworth's opening lines, DJ Kid Capri informs us that we're about to put it in reverse. On the surface, this seems to indicate we're about to go back in time, much like we did on the track Fear. Sure enough, Kendrick goes on to tell a story

about the fateful interaction between future TDE Kingpin Anthony Tiffith and Kendrick's father, Ducky. Pay attention, that one decision changed both for their lives, one curse at a time, reverse and manifest a good comment, I tell you why. You take two strangers and put them in random predicaments, give them a soul so they can make their own choices and live with it. When Anthony robbed the KFC, he decided to spare Ducky's life due to the kindness that Ducky had shown in the form of free chicken and extra biscuits. According to Kendrick, that decision reversed the curse on two black men who seemed to be destined to end up dead or in jail. Moreover, because these two men chose the way that leads to life, they were both alive to reap the blessings of Ducky's son, who ends up being the greatest rapper of his generation.

Kendrick then reimagines his fate had Anthony instead chosen wickedness and killed Kendrick's father. In Kenneth killed Duckie type dog could be serving life while I grow up without a father and die in a gunfire. In Kendrick's alternate reality, Anthony kills Duckie, leaving Kendrick to grow up without the guidance of a father. As a result, Kendrick gets involved in gangs and is killed in a gun battle. We of course then hear the album go in reverse, all the way back to the beginning of the parable in the album's first track. So I was taking a walk the other day. The cryptic end of Dam forces us to question whether there's any connection between the

end of Duckworth and the parable in blood. One possibility is that the events in blood are chronologically the last events in Kung Fu Kenny's narrative. This would explain why Kenny was still alive after the track, blood transitioned into DNA. Placing blood at the end chronologically would imply that as a result of committing to the way of weakness and learning to quote unquote fear God on the tracks fear and God, Kung Fu Kenny tried to help a blind woman. The idea that Kenny is shot by the blind woman after choosing to follow the way of Jesus would be a perfect illustration of Beacon's claim that

love's going to get you killed. However, another interpretation could be that the parable in blood never happened. Rather, the parable represents part of the alternative reality Kendrick presents at the end of Duckworth, where he grows up without the guidance of his father and subsequently dies in a gunfight as a teenager. Moreover, the idea that Anthony's robbery at the KFC could lead to the death of Duckie and later to the death of Kenny would be the perfect illustration of Beacon's statement, Pride's going to be the death of you and you and me. We're thus faced with two interpretations of how blood fits into the larger narrative of Dam. We could argue about which interpretation is better. However, it may just be the case that both interpretations are equally valid. And allowing for these

two opposing interpretations, Kendrick could be giving us yet another duality to ponder. That is, to quote the beginning of blood, he's letting you decide, letting you work through your own theories and suspicions on why Kendrick is shot and what it means, both narratively and philosophically. Moreover, Kendrick could also be illustrating the inescapable truth that each of us is going to die one way or another. And in this way, Dam asks us how we're going to respond to death, specifically when death threatens to take away not only our own lives, but also the lives of those we love and consider to be part of our tribe. The natural human tendency is to combat death with more death and resistance with more resistance as Tupac discussed during mortal man. As Tupac observed,

this tendency to fight back is in our veins, in our blood, in our DNA. However, in Dam, Kendrick challenges us to have faith in midst of our impending death and destruction. He challenges us to examine our own flawed intuition that was formulated by our environmental and biological inheritance, two things we have no control over. He challenges us to discipline and reprimand ourselves as much as we might try to discipline and reprimand others. He challenges us to consider our own agency and improving the circumstances of our life and the lives around us, and reversing our inherited curses by using our free will to choose humility over pride, love over lust, forgiveness over vengeance, weakness over wickedness.

To paper butterfly would be the thought of changing the world and how we work and how we approach things. Then would be the idea of I can't change the world until I change myself. You know, 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, you know? Thinking of the idea of the world and self and combine them in two records, I will hope the listener can take heed and grab something from both of them to ideas and carry out their day to the best potential of themselves they see. By the end of Dam, Kenny seems to have chosen to remain faithful to God and his commandments

in the face of the overwhelming emotions he battled and likely will continue to battle. Unlike many storybook endings, much of what makes Dam so uniquely powerful is that its conclusion is not so much a permanent resolution, but the establishment of a way of life that helps deal with the many challenges and inevitable suffering we face in this life on earth. Like Good Kid Mad City ending with Kendrick's recitation of the civil, sinner's prayer and turning over his life to Jesus, like to pimp a butterfly ending with Kendrick meaning God in the form of a homeless man, and subsequently humbling himself to spread his message of love. When we listen to Dam and Standard Order, Kendrick Lamar finds resolution

and letting go of his troubled and unreliable feelings so that God's spirit can guide him forward into a new kind of life inspired by God's commandments. At least that's the case when we listen to the album in Standard Order. We should remember, of course, that the end of the of Duckworth, rewound the album back to the parable of the first track Blood. This detail suggests that the one final way to understand the placement of blood within the narrative of Dam is to examine the album in reverse track order, and we'll do exactly that, right after the break. Welcome back to Dysect. Before the break, we recap the themes and narrative of Dam when listening in standard track order. We looked at how the entire narrative can be viewed as a continuation of Kendrick's conversation

with Tupac during Mortal Man, and the ongoing challenges of committing to a life inspired by the weak butterfly. Lastly, we noted that the reversed audio at the end of Duckworth suggested that we need to consider what happens when we listen to the album in reverse order. As we've discussed throughout the season, this idea of reversals is a central motif that appears throughout Dam. One expression of this motif is the frequent use of reverse sound sources, including the main sample on Yaw. the reverse Bruno Mars sample on loyalty, and the reverse drums on lust. The track Fear also contains a prominent section

in which Kenny's vocals are played in reverse. And of course, Duckworth ends with the sounds of the album being played in reverse. In addition to the use of reversed audio, we also heard two explicit usages of the word reverse on Duckworth. The first came when Kid Capri said, we gonna put it in reverse. The second came when Kenny explained that the curse on Anthony and Duckie was reversed after Anthony decided against killing Duckie. When Dan was released, that one decision changed both for their lives.

in April of 2017. Careful listeners noticed how prevalent the theme of reversals are throughout the album. This plus Kendrick's history of constructing complex narratives led some listeners to theorize that Dam actually contained two albums, the album in standard order,

and the album in reverse order. These theories were confirmed during an MTV interview in which Kendrick explained that Dam was designed to be heard in reverse. A lot of fans took to maybe mean there was a partner album or there were a lot of theories

that the partner album was the album itself played in reverse. Was that something that you thought about at all? Yeah, definitely. Many of my fans know my albums get real intricate, and there's always details in there. And for the most part, they usually have a good listening ear to figure out what's going on, you know. So I think like after a week of the album came out,

you know, they realize you can list to the album backwards and it plays as a full story. And even a better rhythm, you know, it's one of my favorites. favorites, rhythms, and tempos within the album. So, you know, they're pretty on top of the game. And it's something that we definitely premeditate while we be in the studio. Kendrick made the reverse order official in December of 2017 when he released a collector's edition of Dam, featuring the same exact tracks as the original album but in reverse order. While the collector's edition cemented the concept of reversals as a pre-eminent theme in Dam,

and should be noted that Kendrick seems to have been developing this motif in his work prior to the album. For evidence, we turned to Untitled Unmastered, an album released a year before down. On the song Untitled, I can see our days been numbered, revelation greatest as we hear in the last trumpet, all man, child woman, life completely went in reverse, I guess I'm running in place trying to make it to church. On the song Untitled One, Kendrick wraps, I can see our days been numbered, revelation greatest as we're hearing the last trumpet. All man, child, woman, life completely went and

reverse. This line is then followed by sound sources being played in reverse. In the broader context of the track, Kendrick is rapping about the destruction of the current world order as depicted in the final book of the Bible, the revelation of Jesus Christ. As we discussed previously, the English word revelation is a translation of the Greek word apocalypse. The depictions of destruction in the revelation explains why in modern times the term apocalypse is the word used to describe cataclysmic events that lead to the end of the world. It's thus interesting to note that Kendrick describes the apocalypse as a time in which man, child, woman, life completely went in reverse. Kendrick's connection between reversals and the apocalypse is consistent with the motif throughout the Bible,

where wars, deportation, environmental devastation, and worldwide floods are depicted as reversals of the created order established by God. These reversals represent a return to the primordial state of chaos due to the destructive effects of human wickedness. The Apocalypse is also referenced directly in Dam during the track feel and seems to be connected in some way to Tupac's debut album Tupaclips Now. If we go back and listen to Tupaclips Now, we find yet another layer of connection to reversals. The album actually begins with a reversed audio sample on the opening track, young black male.

On the opening track of Tupaclips now, Tupac depicts himself as a prototypical young black male who's caught up in the destructive pursuit of sex, money, and murder as a result of being born into a harsh environment. Of course, this way of life would eventually lead to Tupac getting shot to death by an unknown assassin. Given that references to both Tupac and the Bible appear over and over throughout Kendrick's catalog, it seems likely that Kendrick has been thinking about the connection between reversals, death, and destruction for a long time.

Hence, as we listen to Dam and Reverse Order, we keep in mind the Bible's use of reversals to illustrate how human wickedness destroys God's established order and how Tupac's music and story display a tragic trajectory of another young black male destined for destruction in the United States of America. In the reverse order rendering, the direct connection between Tipinpa Butterfly and Dam is made unmistakably clear,

as the album now begins with Duckworth and its direct reference to Tupac's album, Me Against the World. Also, hearing Duckworth first changes our expectations of what's to come on the album. The song's end details the alternate reality in which Kendrick grows up fatherless and dies young due to Anthony's act of wickedness. This primes us to consider that the album in reverse order is set in this alternate reality, or at the very least will display what happens when one chooses wickedness, just as the standard order seems to display what happens when one chooses weakness. And in the same way that the track Blood acts as a preference in the standard order, so too does Duckworth in the reverse order.

The narrative begins proper with the second track God, and it's in this reverse order that the song's opening lines take on a new context. We compare these opening lines to the early lines in the song DNA, the second track in standard order. I was born like this, it's born like this, emaculate conception, I transformed like this, perform like this, what's y'all's you a new weapon. Of course, both verses begin with an origin story, citing a younger version of Kendrick and his transformation from a kid from the streets of Compton to a superstar rapper.

this way, the song God makes sense as a narrative opener, and like DNA, the track showcases both the good and evil tendencies that reside in Kenny. Another interesting thing to note is that in the standard track order, we find Kenny making its way toward God, both the song God and God himself, but in reverse order, will now witness Kenny moving away from God as the album progresses. The reverse order track listing continues with fear. Again, like God, fear's retrospective look at Kenny's life over two decades, functions now as backstory, not a self-reflection that leads to revelation. We learn how much fear was instilled within Kenny from a young age, and how that fear will continue to guide his choices going forward in the reverse order narrative.

We're also aware much earlier of the suffering Kenny endures despite his success, and cousin Carl's words of advice are less of a revelation, and more of a forewarning as Kenny continues on his journey. As we just heard, in this, disordering of damn, the transition from fear to XXXX is seamlessly bridged by both cousin Carl's and Beacon's reference to America. Also, hearing Kenny's violent and vengeful response to the death of his friend's only son directly after Carl's advice to follow God's commandments, shows how Kenny is blatantly ignoring Carl's advice, turning away from God, and instead relying on his own untempered feelings, his own destructive intuition. This stands in stark contrast

to the feeling we get in the standard track order, where Carl's words are meant to console Kenny after his emotions get the best of him. Once we reach the middle of the reverse order track listing, there's not much that stands in contrast with the standard order. That's because the middle section of the album finds Kenny wrestling with his emotions, wavering between dualities of love and lust,

pride and humility. It's interesting to note, though, that in reverse order, there is this prominent progression toward wickedness if we look at the track list alone. Kenny moves from love to lust, from humble to pride. By the time we get to the song's feel and element, we clearly see how Kenny is chosen to embrace wickedness,

rather than feel establishing the emotional turmoil caused by the violent tendencies expressed on Element, and the reverse order, element becomes the conscious decision to choose unforgiveness, violence, and nihilism due to Kenny's isolation and the feeling that nobody is praying for him. I feel like the whole world, want me to pray for him but who the fuck praying for me?

Ain't nobody praying for me. So ain't nobody praying for me. I'm on your head. And so rather than element and feel, establishing character flaws, Kung Fu Kenny will eventually transcend. In the reverse order, these songs establish the person Kenny has become

after succumbing to his more vengeful and spiteful tendencies. This idea is further confirmed by the next pair of tracks, Yaw and DNA. In the standard order track list, Ya functions as a formal introduction to Kung Fu Kenny, who is receiving a call from God, a call he chooses to ignore. Hearing this early on in the standard track order

again establishes the flawed choices Kenny makes that leads to him wrestling with his emotions over the course of the album. In reverse order, Ya is the second to last song and cements Kenny's willful choice to reject God and follow his intuition towards sex, money, and murder. many theories and suspicions.

I'm diagnosed with real nigger conditions. Today is the day I follow my intuition. Keep the family close. Get money for bitches. Having already heard Cousin Carl's voicemail back on fear, Kenny's decision to willfully ignore Carl's words here on Yaw is all the more troubling, as we now lose all hope of Kenny being able to transcend his wickedness and choose weakness. Having firmly established Kenney's

And Deuteron of me say that we all been cursing, I know he walks the earth But it's money to get bitches they hit Yeah Zero's to flip Having firmly established Kenny's choice to follow his intuition and turn away from God's commandments We now hear the song DNA Where in the standard track list we heard DNA as the explosive reaction to Fox News In reverse order, we hear DNA as the persona

Kenny has chosen to fully embrace He's brutal, arrogant, and unforgiving of his enemies. Perhaps most compelling about hearing DNA as the final song on Damn is the track's conclusion. Knowing that in the standard order track's track list, Kenny is eventually able to transcend or at least keep at bay the sex money and murder in his DNA. Hearing it now in reverse order, it effectively becomes Kenny's final statement on the album. There's a feeling now that Kenny sees no way of transcending these wicked tendencies and thus succumbs to them, accepting destruction as our inevitable fate. As he said on Yah,

he knows God walks the earth, but there's money to get and bitches to hit, and thus his final decision in the reverse order version of Dam is to embrace wickedness. This leads us directly into the reverse orders final track, Blood. Rather than the revelation of discovering it was him versus him expressed on the intro of Duckworth, the album now ends with a question, is it wickedness, is it weakness? Of course, next we hear Kenny encounter the blind woman who shoots him dead. In this rendering, there is no reversal of the gunshot, no reversal of the inherited curses Kenny was born into. Without his father's guidance, without the music opportunity granted by Anthony, Kenny was not able to control his emotions and intuition. Rather, it would appear that Kenny's decision to choose wickedness

has led to his death, which seems all but confirmed by what we hear after the gunshot that kills Kenny. You've lost your life. In the standard order, we viewed this reiteration of the question to be more of a comment on the act of wickedness perpetrated by the blind lady. Here in the reverse order, it seems much more of a comment on Kenny choosing wickedness that led to his death at the hand of the blind lady. Remember that Duckworth foreshadowed Kenny's fate of dying in a gunfight as a teenager, presumably in the streets of Compton. A perception of the Fox News clip that immediately follows Kenny's death also changes, as it's now the final thing we hear on the album. Kenny becomes another black male statistic cynically commented on by Fox News, his premature death

used for a percentage, and his story ending in blood, not the redemptive blood of Jesus, but the blood of a young black man spilling in the streets of the United States of America. Views on police brutality with that line in the song, quote, and we hate the po-po, want to kill us in the street for show. Oh, please. I don't like it. Having now established some of the more common theories regarding the reverse order narrative of Dam. It seems right that we consider what Kendrick himself said about listening to the album in reverse. In an interview with MTV, Kendrick says that while the feel changes, the narrative does not really change. How does the story change playing in the different directions? I don't think the story necessarily changes. I think the feel changes.

Kendrick's statement about Dam's narrative not changing might be confusing to some of us. Why release the collector's edition? Why so much emphasis on the idea of reversals? Why end the album with the album itself rewinding back to its beginning. Well, one possible idea that we're going to explore is that Dam and its two track listings are constructed as a mirror, something that we look at to see an identical world that happens to be in reverse. We talked at length about this idea of Kung Fu Kenny being a mirror of America, as revealed in the track XXX.

But the idea of mirrors seem to also appear in some pivotal moments in Dam. The first possible instance is on the track element, specifically when Kenny compared himself to Candyman. As we noted in our episode on Element, Candyman was a black man who was tortured to death by racist white men and women. He then became a vengeful spirit who killed anyone who said the name Candyman five times while looking in the mirror. The significance of the mirror is further highlighted in the film's sequel Candyman Farewell

to the flesh. In a pivotal scene near the end of the movie, Candyman reveals himself to his great granddaughter Annie and explains how he became a vengeful spirit. The mirror is the secret of my strength. The keeper of my soul is not always this way. This is who I become. I became the reflection of their hatred. There. Candyman says, The mirror is the secret of my strength, the keeper of my soul. I was, was not always this way. This is who I've become. You must see what they did. Be my witness. See how I became the reflection of their hatred, their evil. See what it means to call me by that name, Candyman. This speech from Candyman establishes the motif of a vengeful black man inciting others to take revenge, while using a mirror to reveal himself as a reflection of the

hatred and evil perpetrated by America, the beholder. The terrifying black man is a America's self-concocted nightmare, fabricated entirely from the nation's own historic hatred and evil. This same idea was expressed by Tupac in the track Words of Wisdom from the aforementioned album, Tupaclapse Now. Nightmare, that's what I am. America's nightmare, I am what you made me, the hate and the evil that you gave me. Given that Kenny specifically mentioned Candyman on Element and later referenced Apocalypse Now in the next track feel, it seems Kendrick's depiction of Kung Fu Kenny as a mirror

reflection of America in the track XXX is more than mere coincidence. And so Element and XXXX seem to be alluding to this idea of mirrors, specifically how certain vengeful and violent black individuals who are hated and feared by some Americans are in fact a reflection and product of America's own history of hate, violence, and fear. But things get extremely interesting when we realize that Element is the fourth song in Dam's standard order, while XXX is the fourth song in its reverse order. The fact that these two tracks mirror each other in their use of motifs, themes, and track positioning should make us look closely to see if every track on the standard order of Dam mirrors the track at the same position in the reverse order.

We begin by examining the first track in the standard order, Blood, which of course begins with Beacon singing an introductory dichotomy and continues into a story about Kung Fu Kenny, choosing to show kindness to someone with a gun. Meanwhile, the first track in reverse order is Duckworth, which also begins with Beacon singing an introductory dichotomy, and also continues into a story about Kenny Duckworth choosing to show kindness to someone with a gun. The main contrast between these two tracks is that in blood Kung Fu Kenny gets shot, while in Duckworth, Kenny avoids getting shot. The second track in standard order is DNA, which expresses the feeling of confidence that Kenny received from his father, beginning in childhood up into the present day. Meanwhile,

the second track in reverse order is God, which expresses the confidence that Kenny received from his heavenly father, beginning in childhood up until the present day. The main contrast between these two tracks is that in DNA, Kenny receives confidence from his earthly father, which leads him to pride, while in God, Kenny receives confidence from his heavenly father, which leads to humility. The third track in standard order is Yah, where Kenny hears from his cousin Carl who tells him that he's cursed. In addition, the reversal of Kenny's prophetic role is emphasized by the track's use of a reverse sample. Meanwhile, the third track in reverse order is fear, where Kenny also hears from his cousin Carl, who tells Kenny that he's cursed. In addition, the reversal of Kenny's

mental state is emphasized by the track's use of reverse vocals. The main contrast between these two tracks is that in Ya, Kenny turns away from God, while in fear, Kenny turns toward God. The fourth track in standard order is element, where Kenny expresses his inclination to protect his family by taking murderous revenge against his enemies. Meanwhile, the fourth track in reverse order is XXX, where Kenny also expresses his inclination to protect his family by taking murderous revenge against his enemies. The main contrast is that an element, Kenny flees from America to avoid his prophetic calling, while in XXX, Kenny fulfills his prophetic calling by prophesying against America. The fifth track in standard order is feel. Here, Kenny expresses his desire for the prayer of others. Meanwhile,

the fifth track in reverse order is love. Here Kenny expresses his desire for the blessings of his significant other. The main contrast is that in feel, Kenny considers walking away from the people he's committed to, while on love Kenny is on his way towards the person he's committed to. The sixth track in standard order is loyalty, a song that begins with Kenny expressing his desire for sex, depicting himself as a king who gives orders to his loyal subjects, before ultimately realizing he needs to humble himself before God. This reversal of mindsets is further emphasized by the track's use of a reverse music sample. Meanwhile, the sixth track in reverse order is Lust, a song that begins with Kenny expressing his desire for sex, depicts himself as a hip-hop king who gives orders to his loyal fans

before he realizes that he needs to humble himself before God. This reversal of mindsets is also further emphasized by the track's use of a reverse drumbeat. The main contrast between the two tracks is that in loyalty, Kenny initially appears to be the one in control, while in lust, we see that Kenny is being controlled by demonic forces. Finally, at the very center of the album, the seventh track in the standard order is Pride. In Pride, Kenny ironically expresses the exact opposite trait from the one indicated by the title. Meanwhile, the seventh track in the reverse order is humble. In Humble, Kenny also expresses the exact opposite trait from the one indicated by the title. Of course, the critical contrast here is that the two tracks titles are the two central opposing spirits of the album,

pride versus humility. And so having gone through this analysis, there seems to be enough evidence to propose that the similarities between the standard order and the reverse order of Dam are intentional. That is, Kendrick seems to have designed Dam so that each track in the standard order mirrors the themes and motifs of the track in the same position in the reverse order. Further evidence for this theory comes when we realize that this narrative design isn't actually original to damn, but rather has a long history in ancient literature. This mirror-like design is a technique known as keastic structure, which is defined as a literary device in which a succession of words, grammatical constructions, or concepts from the first half are mirrored in reverse

order in the second half, often in a modified form. Keastic structure is actually a prominent feature of the Bible. In the Old Testament, one can find chastic structures and poems and stories such as as Noah's art, and even in entire books, such as the book of Ruth, Daniel, and the first half of Jonah. Jesus' life itself is also chieastic in structure, as his story moves from life to death to resurrection into a new eternal life. The chastic structure of Jesus' life is most clearly seen in a letter written by Paul the Apostle, which became the first known hymn about Jesus, In his letter, Paul instructs followers of Jesus to adopt Jesus' humble way of life, saying, quote,

Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself. Each of you should be concerned not only about your own interests, but about the interests of others as well. You should have the same mindset of Christ Jesus, unquote. To exemplify his point, Paul then quotes a poem that, tells how Jesus was God at the very beginning, but he did not take advantage of his status. Rather, he humbled himself by becoming a human, and then a servant, obedient to his father even to

the point of death on a cross. The poem then reverses, and tells of how God raised Jesus from the dead, exalted Jesus to become king of heaven and earth, and decreed that Jesus is Lord. And so if we take an overarching view of this poem's structure, we see how it's keastic or mirror-like in design. It begins high, with Jesus as divine ruler. His humility and obedience eventually brings about his death, the low point of the story, and the hinge with which the story reverses itself. Jesus is then raised back up and exalted high into the heavens as divine ruler, the same place the story began. Hence, the first known hymn about Jesus reveals how the narrative presented in the Gospels is a chasm centered around the humility of Christ. For all those who follow his

example, the struggle for humility would become a universal quest, the same quest Kung Fu Kenny is depicted undergoing over the course of Dam, which in our view is itself a chasm, also centered around the universal human struggle to be humbled. In the reverse order, Kenny's struggle ends in defeat, as he's overre as he's overcome by his feelings, leading to a cursed existence and ultimately to death. However, in the standard order, Kenny is able to overcome his pride and let go of his negative feelings, which leads him to the blessings of eternal life in the kingdom of God. The importance of Kenny overcoming his emotion seems to be why the climax in the standard

order occurs when Kenny says that the 14 tracks of Dam are what it will take for his feelings to disperse as he searches for resolution until Jesus comes back. Fear. What happens on nerve stays on earth and I can't take these feelings with me. So hopefully they disperse within 14 tracks carried out over wax. Searching for resolutions until somebody get back. Fear. Given that Kenny directly referenced the number of tracks on the album, we might wonder whether the number 14 has any larger significance to the message of the album.

One explanation could be that 14 is a multiple of 7. As we've discussed a few times this season, the number seven is often used throughout the Bible to symbolize completion. Hence on one level, the use of the number seven seems to indicate that Dam's narrative contains two complete cycles that are neatly divided into two halves, further evidence that the album is chiastic or mirror-like in structure. A second reason could be that the number 14 is an allusion to the 14 stations of the cross, which refers to the 14 shrines constructed along the road that Jesus was thought to have walked when he was carrying the cross in Jerusalem. Each shrine depicts a moment in Jesus' life on Good Friday, which you know is the day that

Dam was released. Interestingly, the number of stations initially varied until settling to a canonical series of 14 images. Moreover, five of the eventual 14 images depict moments that do not exist in the biblical gospel accounts, meaning that additional moments were later added to get to the number 14. Of course, this begs the question, what's so significant about the number 14? Well, we needn't look any further than the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 1, the first chapter of the New Testament. Here Matthew provides a genealogical list of fathers leading up to Jesus. For example, the genealogy begins by saying, Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah.

The list continues with many more names, all which are organized around four key events. We're going to briefly summarize those key events here, and as we do, pay attention to how the location alternates between Babylon and Jerusalem. The first event described in between the genealogical list of fathers is when Abraham accepted God's call to leave his birthplace in Babylon and go to the promised land, the land that would eventually become the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The second event is when King David established a unified kingdom of Israel and Judah with David's throne and God's temple in Jerusalem.

The third event is when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, conquered the kingdom of Judah, destroyed the temple, and deported the Israelites to live as exiles in Babylon. The fourth event is when Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem on Good Friday by those who rejected his claim to be the long-awaited king of Judah. After mentioning these four events and listing the sequence of fathers between those key events, Matthew then summarizes his account of Jesus' genealogy by saying, quote, From Abraham to David there are 14 generations, and from David to the deportation of Babylon, 14 generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to Christ, 14 generations.

It's established here that the number 14 is important because it's the number of generations between the key events that would eventually lead to Jesus' death and resurrection. Moreover, as we pointed out, the key events oscillate between Babylon and Jerusalem. This is significant because within the biblical narrative, Babylon is the predominant symbol of experiencing the curses of death, destruction, and exile, as a result of rejecting God's commandments. In contrast, Jerusalem is the predominant symbol of experiencing the blessings of God's life, God's love and God's forgiveness as a result of following God's commandments. Hence, the 14 generations

between Abraham and Babylon and King David and Jerusalem represent a period in which the Israelites learned to follow God's commandments and move forward from curse to blessing. The next 14 generations between King David and Jerusalem and the deportation to Babylon represents a period in which the Israelites followed their own intuition and saw their blessings reversed into a curse. Finally, the 14 generations between the deportation to Babylon and Jesus' crucifixion in Jerusalem represents a period in which the Israelites rededicated themselves to following God's commandments, which allowed Jesus to reverse the curse into a blessing. This back-and-forth journey from curse to blessing back to curse and then back to blessings

in 14 generations is what we're meant to experience if we listen to the 14 tracks of Dam, forwards, then backwards, then forwards again. It's in this oscillating pattern of listening that we see the essential human struggle against the negative traits that have been passed down through the DNA of generations of fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters. As we discussed back in the very first episode of the season,

Kendrick's mission to reverse generational curses goes all the way back to Good Kid Mad City's track sing about me, I'm dying a thirst. like you need to be told cursing the life of 20 generations after her soul exactly what happened if i ain't continued rapping or steady being distracted by money drugs and four fives i count lives all on the years. Kendrick raps cursing the life of 20 generations after her soul exactly what had happened if i ain't continue rapping or steady being distracted by money drugs and four fives.

In previous episodes we discussed how these lines represent a pivotal turning point, specifically Kendrick's realization that his actions today could curse the lives of numerous generations after him. However, after listening to Damn, we know that Kendrick is a mere reflection of those of us living in America, as well as the entire human race who share 99.9% of the same DNA. Kendrick and his choices, Kenny Duckworth and his choices, Anthony Tiffith and his choices, your choices, my choices, and on and on, they're all interwoven. all invisibly interconnected across time, and the butterfly effect of each individual decision and action we make on a daily basis, cannot and should not be underestimated. With Dam,

Kendrick zeroes in on his personal story to give evidence to this idea, showcasing the eventuality of our intentional pursuit of growth and perfection, or the eventuality of our negligent, self-serving destruction. Hence, having dissected Dam over the course of 20 episodes this season, If we take Kendrick Lamar's message to heart, we should each of us recognize that if we get distracted by the selfish pursuit of sex, money, and murder, of lust, greed, and revenge, our actions have the potential to curse the lives of numerous generations after us. And by the same token, if we choose love, selflessness, and forgiveness, our actions have the potential to reverse the curse and bring blessings into the lives of countless generations to come.

And so we're going to conclude this season by asking you, the listener, one final time. How are you going to contribute to the ever-mallible legacy of human existence? Are you going to succumb to the demands of anger, jealousy, greed, and contribute to the world's decay, its destruction? Or will you, despite its difficulty, choose to transcend the negative aspects in your DNA and contribute to the world beauty, reciprocity, love, and kindness. Are you going to choose wickedness or weakness? Thanks everyone for listening. I'd like to take a moment to dedicate this season to my mother-in-law Alice,

who recently passed away after a battle with cancer. Alice was a lovingly devoted mother and wife, and her kindness and warmth was felt by the many people she touched during her time here. Alice was listening to this season during her final few months, and the many meaningful conversations we shared about the ideas presented in this album brought us closer together, and our conversations all always cherish. Fittingly, Alice was the epitome of the biblical idea of weakness, of Christ-like self-sacrifice, compassion, and generosity. We talked a lot this season about how small, everyday actions had the exponential power to shape the world for the better, now

and to the future. Alice was the gold standard of this idea. Her spirit now lives on through the countless actions she made guided by kindness and humility, and the world is truly more beautiful, having had the privilege of her presence. Rest in peace, Alice, we love you.