Part three of this year’s countdown begins below. You can read about picks 40 through 31 here and picks 30 through 21 here.
16. Kendrick Lamar, Damn (Top Dawg/Interscope)
On his latest album, Kendrick Lamar strips down the layers of samples and beats that usually support his complex rhymes, leaving behind something simpler and more direct, with more overtly head-nodding grooves—but otherwise his music remains as dense, confrontational, and lyrical as ever. I’m not proud to admit that I haven’t kept up with hip-hop’s rapidly changing landscape—in part because I’ve been so repelled by the part of it that draws inspiration from shitty pop and/or emo—but among the records I’ve managed to hear, none comes close to matching the nuance, richness, and creativity of Damn. In this job I often listen to a record in a concentrated burst, but I never did that with Damn—instead I kept coming back to it, and each time I was surprised anew, discovering new details and ideas. It feels like an album that will keep rewarding me far into the future.
