Damn

Kendrick introduces the two main forces that interact through the album—"wickedness" and “weakness.” The most obvious example of this is that he alternates between a wicked and weak attitude throughout the album. There are songs like “HUMBLE.,” where he’s wicked, boasting with pride and there are songs like “PRIDE.” that show his weaker side.

On a deeper level, these interact with each other in each track. “LUST.” as the wicked counterpart of “LOVE.” also shows the weakness (he is tempted) caused by the wickedness (temptation) of this sin.

This dichotomy serves as a way to represent a vicious cycle. Wickedness causes weakness and vice versa. At the start of the album the listener has the perspective of Kendrick as weak, he was killed trying to help, so the songs that follow should be interpreted as such. By the end of the album Kendrick’s dad is dead, so he becomes wicked by the second listen. Now you can interpret this track as the lady being killed by Kendrick, evidenced by the way he says “you’ve lost your life” to the lady. This is an endless cycle, brought on by generations following the wrong moral compass, and it will only be broken by the listener following the morality that God imposes.

Here are some of the examples of this duality:

• “DNA.”: the general tone of this track is of “wickedness” as the appearance is that he’s empowered by the doings of his past generations, but ¡n some lines he shows us the negative side of the royalty he inherited like “sex, money and murder" that is the “weakness.”
• “YAH.”: the general tone is “weakness” because he’s being pushed by other people’s opinion, he feels forced to sin. At the same time the sins he commits affect other people, like when he double parks, that is the “wickedness.”
• “ELEMENT.”: A “wickedness” track, it is a direct attack on other rappers. The “weakness” is expressed on the first verse as he attacks out of fear.
• “FEEL.”: a “weakness” track because of its general theme of wondering who will pray for him, in direct relationship with the fear presented ¡n the last track. It is also a song about being sensible to the problems of the world, and what these feelings might lead him to do. These feelings of wanting to give up on humanity is the “wickedness.”
• As Kendrick said, “I think like a week after the album came out, [fans] realized you can play the album backwards,” he said. “It plays as a full story and even a better rhythm. It’s one of my favorite rhythms and tempos within the album. It’s something that we definitely premeditate while we’re in the studio. I don’t think the story necessarily changes, I think the feel changes,” he added. “The initial vibe listening from the top all the way to the bottom is … this aggression and this attitude. You know, ‘DNA,’ and exposing who I really am. You listen from the back end, and it’s almost the duality and the contrast of the intricate Kendrick Lamar. Both of these pieces are who I am.”

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