Damn. - Kendrick Lamar Inspiration

In January of this year, 2021, I had an episode of feeling completely gutted inside. The pandemic placed me at a crossroads on my meaning and purpose on Earth.

I felt sad, bitter, angry, and had a complete lack of respect for myself. Negativity swirled in my mind as I knew the musical work I was trying to create meant nothing to the world and perhaps never would. 

As this new year began, I needed a jolt of inspiration to move me forward in my life. I hung on to decisions of the past and truly was at a breaking point of giving up on my musical journey.

However.

Suddenly.

In a span of 3 days.

I curated my greatest musical project of 2021.

I had the weekend to myself and I felt no desire to see people. I wanted to be alone as I don't enjoy expressing nor having others deal with the problems I experience.

With the weekend to myself, I opened a new musical project with no expectations and began creating music that little did I know would inspire me to continue forward with my musical journey.

In other words, on the brink of collapse I curated my greatest musical project to date.

During the creative process, I pursued as much variety as possible. I forced myself into a realm of endless possibilities. I worked over 12 hours straight and over 50 hours the whole weekend. I worked with over 150 different instruments, 50 samples, and had 10 different versions of my individual masterpiece. And when I mean masterpiece, I mean in comparison to my other work.  

After draining myself through my work, my vision came to be. The project is remarkable. And from an accomplishment stand point, it has the potential to transcend my audience and the rest of the world through an unforgettable emotional musical experience. 

2021 was a year of belief and accomplishment. And I am capping it off with a celebration of this project in releasing a music video and the project itself across all platforms.

It will be here for eternity, whether people listen to it or not, frankly,

doesn’t matter.

Here is my philosophy, you have to pretend that no one listens. Pretend you are only making music, or whatever you create, for yourself. Because when you do make something for yourself, and only for yourself, and it translates to everybody else:

that’s true genius.

You eventually realize you are the only variable.

The only difference is you.

In making the decision to create a musical project on the weekend of January 14-17, I inhibited the ideology that the decisions we make is within our control; we just simply have to make it.  

You're the only thing that’s different. And the imagination we enable our mind to become is what sets the world in motion. And I mean “YOUR WORLD” in motion. 

So to celebrate setting my world in motion, I’ll be releasing the project titled “Damn.” to my audience and the rest of the world for as long as the world keeps rotating. 

Kendrick's elaborate work is what I want to cultivate in the musical projects I create. The level of patience he has in his craft is reflected on this track. And I couldn't imagine the creation of Damn without recognizing Kendrick Lamar for how he has impacted my creativity and guidance through life's journey.

I hope the experience of this track is both inspiring and unique. I hope it makes you understand that dark places can bring light to our greatest and most influential work and provide a sense of meaning to our lives. 

The track is to bring light to your world. Particularly to those who are in a dark place. 

My individual accomplishment in music is not what I want to be remembered for, what I want to be remembered for is that my music serves others to pursue the dreams and passions they have of themselves. 

So please, do me a favor, listen to the track on it’s release Dec. 30th 9pm PST and take the time to listen to the entire 4 minutes and envision yourself in my shoes learning music for the first time and somehow putting this project together. 

And I guarantee you you will smile and shake your head in disbelief. 

Just like I did.