When Kendrick Lamar dropped ‘The Heart Part IV’ a week after Drake talked his talk about being the best rapper alive on ‘Gyalchester’ from More Life, the entire world of hip-hop and pop culture listened with rapt attention.
‘Hoppin out before the vehicle crash/I’m on a roll/Yellin one-two-three-four-five/I am the greatest rapper alive,’ sent out an unmistakable signal that “Kung Fu Kenny” would be doubling down on his GOAT talk through the course of DAMN., scheduled to drop two weeks later.
And when DAMN. did arrive, music and basketball fans alike vibed out to numbers like ‘Humble,’ ‘DNA’ and ‘Element’ all summer long. TNT overplayed ‘DNA’ to the point where it’s the only song I can remember from broadcasts of Kevin Durant lifting the Larry O’Brien for the first time.DAMN. went on to become Kendrick Lamar’s most successful commercial release at the time of writing. By August 13, 2024, DAMN. was the only hip-hop album from the 2010s to record over a billion streams in 2024, which speaks to the record’s impact on culture – it may be the last true certified hip-hop classic!
Every NBA reference made by Kendrick Lamar on DAMN.
Lamar has always been a huge basketball (and sports) fan, often citing the influence of the Lakers and Kobe Bryant through his mixtape run and later in his albums. Consequently, he threw in a smattering of NBA-related references on DAMN., which would become the first (and only) hip-hop album to win a Pulitzer.
We take a look at the 3 of them that we could find:
#1 The Heart Part IV
Kendrick has prefaced each of his album releases with a song from his acclaimed ‘The Heart’ series. Ahead of his 3rd major label release, he released the 4th installment of this series.
The NBA references on this joint are in the extended 2nd verse, with lines such as:
“Tables turned, lesson learned, my best look/You jumped sides on me, now you ’bout to meet Westbrook/Go celebrate witcha team and let victory vouch you””Just know, the next game played I might slap the shit out you/Technical foul, I’m flagrant, I’m foul/They throwin’ me out, you throw in the towel”
People also assumed that a line preceding this, referring to LA county sheriff Lee Baca, was initially about Serge Ibaka. However, subsequent listening sessions proved that it was a reference to the police officer.
#2 FEEL.
FEEL. is one of Kendrick’s most introspective yet powerful songs. Rappers like Nipsey Hussle, among others, have spoken about how this song touches them.
