Well first off, that's not the only interpretation of that line. I'm assuming a lot of people thought it was just a reference to how the song goes back in time to tell a story.

Of course, but I meant the people behind this record aren't dumb enough not to realize the double meaning of this line.

But also, this is just a hint at how the album works. I'm sure you were on this sub when this album dropped. So many people on this sub and people I know dismissed the idea of this album meaning anything in reverse. If it really were designed specifically to grab attention, it would've been obvious to those people. It also wouldn't enhance the meaning of the album.

Well, of course this sub didn't buy it because we are a bunch of aporetic cynics who treat hip-hop with high regard. Gimmicks are typically frowned upon and nobody is going to believe that "Kendrick would even stoop that low."

But there were tons of people who aren't on r/hhh and were completely hooked to the idea of it being supposed to be played in reverse. It wasn't exactly subtle and I can't help but doubt that the people behind this album thought it was.

Kendrick not confirming it till later doesn't help him either. More dedicated hip hop fans might return to the album, but it's not gonna pull casual listeners in who don't even listen to albums all the way through.

Everybody, dedicated hip hop fan or not, has more reason to listen to this album now.

Plus, if this album was advertised as being listenable backwards people would have most definitely dismissed this as being gimmicky. TDE went the smart route.

Also, the fact that the album isn't reliant on the reverse order saves it from being a "bad gimmick" as well.

I'm not saying it's a bad gimmick, but it's still a gimmick.

It depends on where you look to define it, but most sources define a gimmick as a thing designed primarily to attract attention, with little real value. With DAMN this is obviously not the case.

I don't know about that being the common definition of gimmick, but whatever; it's irrelevant. What they did most definitely still attracts attention. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to want attention for an album but if they truly didn't want attention, they wouldn't have had Kendrick say this.

If you use a super general definition like what you used, you could say everything released commercially is a gimmick because it's intended to attract attention.

What they did is use a trick/device to attract attention and that's what a gimmick is. You could say everything released commercially is a gimmick because it's intended to attract attention if you really wanted to.