Is Kendrick Lamar set for resurrection with second new album Nation to join Damn?

Fresh from the release of Kendrick Lamar's new album, Damn, on Good Friday, fans on Reddit believe that a second new album is set to be dropped by the artist on Easter Sunday (16 April).

Users on a sub-Reddit dedicated to the rapper claim to have pieced together cryptic messages from the lyrics and imagery within Damn, its preceding single The Heart Part 4, and social media messages posted by producer Sounwave, as evidence for their claims.

1 . 'I wanna die just like Jesus Christ'

The theory places heavy emphasis on Damn's narrative. Lamar's apparent death is documented on the opening track, Blood, and the words "you have lost something, you've lost your life," coupled with the release date and Lamar's well-documented Christian beliefs, which suggest an implicit reference to the crucifixion of Christ.

For the resurrection aspect, fans point to primarily to lyrics in The Heart Part 4, specifically: "My next album, the whole industry on a ice pack... with TOC, you see the flames."

Theorists believe TOC is an acronym for "the other colour". But which colour?

2. Another brick in the wall?

Lamar's album cover and, to some extent the title itself, lacked context. But Reddit users claim the key lies in the colour of the ominous red bricks behind the Humble hitmaker on the artwork.

The symbolism of this, particularly when combined with the title, feels a little clear. Lamar is close to hell, a figure eternally damned, lured by the devil and his temptations.

Amid the album's release, producer Sounwave, who features on the record, posted:

Some fans believe this reveals the other colour as blue. Morpheus, The Matrix character, whose image Sounwave used in his tweet,famously offered Neo, the film's Christlike protagonist — otherwise known as "the one" — the opportunity to choose between a red pill, which would keep him in false consciousness, or a blue pill, that would release him from the computer-simulated Matrix and into the free world.

Within minutes the banner on Lamar's Spotify changed from the cover shot of him standing in front of red bricks, as per the Damn album cover, to a blue set.

3. DAMNATION

For all the pre-release talk of Lamar's new material being less politically charged than 2015's To Pimp a Butterfly, that was not the reality. Under the spectre of US President Donald Trump, Lamar is more angry than ever and wants it to be heard.

If Lamar is suggesting he took the blue pill, social media and Reddit users have argued this could mean the second album is titled Nation, which, together with the fist album title, spells Damnation.

Deeper still, perhaps, the 29-year-old is offering a choice: lived damned, or educate and free yourself from ignorance in his nation.