DAMN. by Kendrick Lamar

DAMN., Kendrick Lamar's fourth album, dropped on April 14, 2017 through Top Dawg, Aftermath and Interscope, and it trades the sprawling jazz-funk canvas of To Pimp a Butterfly for something leaner and meaner. Lamar rounded up a small army of beatmakers, from Sounwave, DJ Dahi and Mike Will Made It to James Blake, Steve Lacy, BadBadNotGood, Greg Kurstin and the Alchemist, with Rihanna, Zacari and, of all people, U2 dropping in as guests.

It still thinks like conscious hip-hop, but it moves like trap and flirts openly with R&B and pop. "HUMBLE." is all swagger over a stabbing piano loop, "DNA." is a clenched fist, and "LOVE." and "LOYALTY." soften the edges. "HUMBLE." gave him his first Hot 100 number one as a lead artist, the album topped the Billboard 200 and won the Grammy for Best Rap Album, and in 2018 it made him the first artist outside classical and jazz to take the Pulitzer Prize for Music.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.