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Music

Humble Thyself, Kendrick Lamar's 'DAMN' Has Arrived

K Dot's fourth studio LP features collaborations with Rihanna and U2, as promised.

Kendrick Lamar has released his fourth studio album, DAMN. We hope you got your shit together.

Kendrick signaled that the follow-up to 2015's critically lauded To Pimp a Butterfly was on the way three weeks ago, when he deleted everything from his Instagram page save for an image featuring the roman numerals "IV." "The Heart Part 4," released a day later, made his feelings clear—"1-2-3-4-5 / I am the greatest rapper alive"—and set what seemed to be a release date for a new project. "Y'all got 'til April the 7th to get your shit together," he rapped.

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"Humble," released Thursday, March 30, had the Compton rapper setting his sights on the club with a heavy Mike WiLL Made-It beat and a dismissive, boastful hook. The video for the track, directed by Dave Meyers and the Little Homies, was a mini-masterpiece in itself.

But a week later, when April 7 rolled around, no record materialized. Instead, an April 14 release date was set on Apple Music and scraps of information were pieced together by enterprising Reddit users. Soon after, Lamar formally announced DAMN, shared its artwork, and confirmed collaborations with Rihanna (!) and U2 (!!).

Sit down. Be humble. Listen to DAMN in full below.

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