The five-year wait for a new album by
Kendrick Lamar — the
Pulitzer-anointed, voice-of-a-generation rapper — is finally over.
اضافة اعلان
“Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers,” Lamar’s fifth studio LP and one of
the most ardently anticipated new albums in years, was released overnight on
digital services, with big hopes from fans and big questions looming about his
next career steps.
The album arrived divided into two nine-track sides and features
production from a wide array of musicians across sounds and genres, including
Lamar’s frequent collaborators Sounwave and Dahi, plus songwriting trio Beach
Noise, veteran hip-hop beatmaker the Alchemist, Pharrell Williams, and more. Featured
guests include Beth Gibbons of Portishead, Sampha, Ghostface Killah, Baby Keem,
Summer Walker, and repeat appearances from controversial rapper Kodak Black.
Typically dense, introspective, confessional, and self-lacerating, “Mr.
Morale & the Big Steppers” includes recurring mentions of therapy (“United
in Grief,” “Father Time”), “cancel culture” (“N95”), “daddy issues” (“Father
Time”), and tumultuous romance. “We Cry Together,” which incorporates a
Florence + the Machine sample, takes the form of an argument between Lamar and
a woman, voiced by actress Taylour Paige, about their relationship. Throughout
the album, Lamar’s longtime partner Whitney Alford and German self-help guru
Eckhart Tolle are credited as narrators.
“Writer’s block for two years, nothing moved me,” Lamar raps on the third
track, “Worldwide Steppers.”
Lamar, 34, is one of the few major figures in the contemporary music scene
— where a regular flow of new content is seen as a necessity — who can keep
fans waiting for such a long stretch without sacrificing fan loyalty or
critical prestige. Even after Lamar’s extended absence, “Mr. Morale & the
Big Steppers” is expected to make a sizable opening-week splash on the
Billboard albums chart. On Friday, Lamar also announced a world tour that will
begin July 19 in
Oklahoma City and then head in the fall to Europe, Britain,
Australia, and New Zealand.
Lamar cemented himself as one of the most ambitious rappers of the
millennial generation with his major-label debut, “good kid, m.A.A.d. city”
(2012). For his follow-up effort, “To Pimp a Butterfly” (2015), he brought in a
host of players from Los Angeles’ fertile jazz scene, including Kamasi
Washington and Thundercat. That album, “a work about living under constant
racialized surveillance and how that can lead to many types of internal
monologues, some empowered, some self-loathing,” as Times pop music critic
Jon Caramanica wrote, includes “Alright,” which became an unofficial Black Lives
Matter protest anthem.
His 2017 album, “DAMN.,” won five Grammy Awards, though it lost album of
the year to Bruno Mars’ “24K Magic.” (The rapper has 14 total Grammy wins.)
Lamar, who grew up in Compton, California, and has made that area’s culture and
struggles a central part of his music, also became the first rapper to receive
the Pulitzer Prize for music. “DAMN.” was cited in 2018 as “a virtuosic song
collection unified by its vernacular authenticity and rhythmic dynamism that
offers affecting vignettes capturing the complexity of modern African American
life.” Lamar embraced the accolade, appearing in concert with a “Pulitzer
Kenny” banner behind him.
Also in 2018, Lamar and the head of his record company, Anthony Tiffith
(known as Top Dawg), were the executive producers of a companion album to the
film “
Black Panther.” A track from the LP, “All the Stars,” by Lamar and SZA,
was nominated for an Academy Award for best original song. Visual artist Lina
Iris Viktor sued, saying her work was used without permission in the track’s
video; the lawsuit was settled in late 2018.
Since that eventful year, Lamar has kept a low public profile, making a
handful of guest appearances on other artists’ songs and, last year, joining
Las Vegas rapper (and his cousin) Baby Keem for two songs on Keem’s album “The
Melodic Blue,” including the Grammy-winning “Family Ties.” In February, Lamar
took the stage at the Super Bowl LVI halftime show alongside Dr. Dre,
Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, Eminem and Mary J. Blige, which put him in the odd position of
being either the only relative youngster in a hip-hop oldies show or —
performing songs up to a decade old — perhaps already being a bit of a
throwback himself.
Read more Music
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
