KENDRICK LAMAR – DIGITAL PAINTING & ALTERNATIVE ALBUM PACKAGING

This is a brief look at my digital painting process. I began this piece in the spring of 2017: a simple portrait study of Kendrick Lamar as he appears on the cover of his then new album, DAMN. I finally returned to finish the full portrait in February 2018, incorporating nearly a year’s worth of thoughts on the album.

Frankly, I don’t know anyone for whom DAMN. is their favorite Kendrick album. Much of it feels incongruous: its lyrics are Kendrick’s most fanatically religious to date, yet its sound is his most radio-friendly. Its concept is his most ambiguous to date, yet its cover art is his most singularly iconic and meme-worthy. Additionally, the album’s world tour (The DAMN. Tour) displayed extensive Chinese influences in its design and promo materials, yet outside of Kendrick sometimes referring to himself as “Kung-Fu Kenny,” those influences never appear in the lyrical content, musical palette, or physical packaging of the album itself.

Upon DAMN.‘s initial release on Good Friday of 2017, fans struggled to make sense of its incomplete nature. They started rumors suggesting Kendrick might drop a surprise companion album at the end of the weekend, on Easter Sunday 2017, and thus stun the world with an expansive, unexpected, two-disc concept album allegory about Christ’s Resurrection. (The companion album was even presumed to be colored blue and called NATION., making the full project’s title DAMN.NATION.) This would have been astounding, but unfortunately no companion album was ever released.

Failing that, and desperate to make sense of the album on its own merits, fans then began declaring DAMN. two albums in one; they alleged that a separate concept and storyline revealed itself when listening to the album in reverse. This theory eventually dominated so much press around DAMN. that a reversed version was officially released in December 2017. However, many fans (myself included) remain unconvinced that this was ever anything more than a marketing gimmick designed to appease fans in denial; fans incapable of admitting their favorite artist had released a dud.

I think of DAMN. for its year in pop culture more-so than its songs. I wanted my portrait of Kendrick to reflect all of its memes, inconsistencies, and disappointments, yet remain a version of the DAMN. album cover that’s truly more epic than its original. To do this I made Kendrick’s portrait half light and half dark, half full and half empty, symbolic of the disappointing and unsubstantiated double album rumors that have followed DAMN. since its release. To keep one half of the composition empty, I refrained from displaying the album title. To keep the other half of the composition full, I cluttered it with backwards lyrics symbolic of DAMN.‘s “reversed version.” These lyrics are displayed in a Blackletter typeface as irrelevant to DAMN.‘s original artwork and packaging as The DAMN. Tour‘s asian aesthetic also was, but at least Blackletter typography alludes to the religious aspect of the album. Functionally this portrait may be viewed as a substitute album cover or a critical review of the album through art.