Last Thursday at 11pm, Kendrick Lamar dropped his highly anticipated “Damn”. An album with all of Kendrick’s signature flows, high level lyrical ability and newly revealed musical talents as seen in Element and Pride. Usually this combination of talent with a well-timed album drop would leave the Hip-hop community satisfied, but this wasn’t the case.

Not even 24hrs after the initial drop hip-hop fans devised theories of a second album. Admittedly some of these theories were very convincing, so much so that I myself got caught up in some of them. For example Kendrick’s use of Jesus metaphors and him dying at the beginning of the album only to have the circumstances of his death reversed at the end(resurrection) was one of the more logical theories, especially since the album dropped on Easter weekend. It also didn’t help that TDE was hinting at something beyond the initial release, either that or they were just goading fans; something which the company has been notorious for. By the end of the official release day, dozens of forum posts and articles were made pointing to different theories as to why a second album was going to drop on Easter Sunday. But why were we all so caught up in the theories of a second album, wasn’t the first album good enough? Well the truth is that most of us felt like something was missing from “Damn” that was ever-present since “GKMC”.

Looking at Kendrick’s last 2 album releases barring Untitled Unmastered, they told elaborate and moving stories with a clear narrative. “GKMC” contained a plot mirroring the movie “Boys in the Hood”, telling the story and struggles of young man growing up in Compton and the temptations surrounding escapism through drugs and sex. Two years later, Kendrick gave us “TPAB”; an insider’s perspective of the external pressures of success coming from someone who used to live in the hood and the at fear of losing oneself. These albums not only vividly painted a picture, but the messages were clear. These albums were made in a way where each song held the listener’s hand through the narrative and made sure they got all the plot points. In GKMC’s case, the skits towards the end of each song and vivid lyrical storytelling made it easy for the listener to follow along, it almost felt like watching a movie. In the same respect TPAB contained poetry at the end of each song to let the listener know what struggle the protagonist was going through, even wrapping the story up neatly in a box for you with a brilliant ending skit featuring 2PAC.

“Damn” had none of these things, it didn’t hold your hand while telling it’s story nor did it have any interludes dropping key plot-points for us to catch up or follow along. Without carefully and patiently listening to the album, the listener is bound to miss a lot of the complex messages and story-telling. Admittedly I fell into this category as well, my first few listens of “Damn” for felt light, I didn’t know what to make of the album. It felt like many other releases, a few bangers, some anthems combined with a beginning and end skit to wrap it all up. To many listeners, I feel this was the same case for them, that neatly packaged narrative found in Kendrick’s past releases was missing, leaving them to their own devices and wanting to fill a narrative hole they expected to be filled. This wanting is the root cause of why people really wanted a second album, so that it could make sense of the first one for them.