ELEMENT. is a brutal meditation on Kung Fu Kenny’s intuition toward preemptive violence. But upon analysis we realize that beneath Kenny’s aggression is an underlying fear of his family going back to a life of poverty. In this way, the track exemplifies how self-preservational pride tilts toward death and destruction.

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Cole and Femi discuss Kanye West's new album Jesus Is King, including a song-by-song thematic analysis.

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YAH. formally introduces DAMN’s protagonist: Kung Fu Kenny, a prophet who rejects God’s call. Kenny chooses instead to follow his intuition toward sex, money, and murder -- the very traits named on the album’s previous track DNA.

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In Part 2 of our DNA. analysis, we dissect the song’s dramatic second half. Triggered by the disparaging comments by FOX News, Kendrick goes ballistic in a now icon extended verse. While we may have originally thought DNA. was about Kendrick Lamar, the song ends with the diagnosis that sex, money, and murder are traits shared in each and every human being.

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DNA. lays the philosophical groundwork for the album DAMN. In the song’s first half, Kendrick defines his genetic makeup as a mixture of biological (family), environmental (Compton), and cultural (hip-hop) inheritances.

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We begin our season-long analysis of DAMN. with the opening track BLOOD. We unpack the many layers of the wickedness/weakness dichotomy presented as well as the cryptic parable in which Kendrick is shot by a blind lady -- or shall we call her Lady Justice?

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We revisit To Pimp a Butterfly with a special focus on how its ending connects directly with the opening of DAMN.

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Season 5 is dedicated entirely to Kendrick Lamar’s Pulitzer-Prize winning album DAMN. Today’s episode dives into Lamar’s upbringing in Compton and the developing spiritual beliefs encoded in his early discography. As we’ll come to find out, these beliefs become the basis of the underlying question DAMN. serves to answer: Is it wickedness or weakness?

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Dissect Season 5 premieres Tuesday, October 1st on Spotify (and a week later everywhere else). For clues about what album is being dissected, follow @dissectpodcast on Instagram and tune into IG Stories all week.

Today’s special episode dissects Tyler, The Creator’s 2019 album IGOR. After a thorough dissection of the album’s narrative, we hypothesize about thematic and narrative connections between IGOR and Flower Boy.

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Stay in touch over the break by following @dissectpodcast on Twitter and Instagram.

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