kendrick lamar - mr. morale & the big steppers (2022)

his guest verses on the baby keem album were definitely offbeat, and "range brothers" especially had lots of goofy moments ("top of da mornin'", k dot's ad-libs)

A crown or frickin’ thorns?

possibly the best rapper of all time is about to make his most important statement yet

Wait is this the Jack Harlow thread?

i like how the cover echoes good kid maad city. he was the baby then, the father now.

kinda cool this hasn't leaked (or if it has don't tell me)

we don't even have a track list & he only just revealed the cover art

i'm sure it'll leak whenever ufo and the rest of the aussies get it in full

Billy Woods has been my go to rapper since DAMN along with Ka. Very much looking forward to this, but indeed Kendrick is considered royalty, and the expectations had on this record and anything he drops is going to be up there with pre Yeezus Kanye or any other all timer you can name.

I mean the dude won a Pulitzer ffs

i'm sure it'll leak whenever ufo and the rest of the aussies get it in full

idk sometimes with these very big albums they hold them back for a worldwide release aligned with the usa

xps we’re not sharing

It’s one thing to come into an album thread after listening to it and saying “eh, I’m not feeling it” but the mad dash a couple of you are making to let everyone know how over this as-yet-unreleased album you are is virtuosic ass-showing

otm. also maybe kendrick is having tons of fun. sure sounds inspired on the new track.

Has Kendrick done anything to make people acknowledge key hostile to him? I get why people can be annoyed by fan’s love, but they are fans. They’re excited.

Omg, my autocorrect is a monster. I meant “has Kendrick done anything to have people low key hostile?” I apologize for the errors.

Afaik he has nailed it in every step he has made. Also compared to other artists (ahem, Kanye) I appreciate how private he is about his personal life. I wasn’t even aware he had two children until I saw the new album cover.

Only “controversial” bit I can remember is him threatening to leave Spotify if XXXtentacion music was removed.

many xps had not gotten the Nipsey Hussle references, that may open the song for me, thx

that baby keem song still sounds great to me - prefer it to the new heart song thing

idk sometimes with these very big albums they hold them back for a worldwide release aligned with the usa

It doesn't seem to be on Spotify in New Zealand yet.

Kendrick is so wild because he's the only rappity-rap-rap rapper that cool-kid discourse hasn't completely abandoned or deemed an anachronism

freddie gibbs? earl?

earl is kind of a avant-garde dude now but Gibbs is a good one

What about Tyler the Creator? Or does he not really fit in a box?

i think what you guys are forgetting is that kendrick's "rappity raps" are better than anybody else's.

it's like daryl dawkins breaking backboards; lots of folks have done it, nobody rained glass down on people like him tho.

Tyler did like a whole album with no rapping on it that won a Grammy

Pusha?

pathetic pusha t moments

Tyler did like a whole album with no rapping on it that won a Grammy

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Thursday, May 12, 2022 1:05 PM

tyler fucked lucy for a grammy.

yeah, but Pusha just got a 7.8 in p4k. Not sure if that's cool kid discourse anymore tho.

Tyler did like a whole album with no rapping on it that won a Grammy
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Thursday, May 12, 2022 1:05 PM

Yes, and then he put out an album last year that did have rapping on it, and also won a Grammy.

Unless, winning a Grammy disqualifies you from being part of the Cool Kid conversation, which is understandable. Grammys are for old out of touch folks.

kendrick has more grammys than tyler has albums.

should've made that a link to dawkins shattering the backboard.

not that grammys mean a fucking thing. but if that's the scoreboard we're going by . . .

not sure how legit this is.

Bad Bunny’s release followed that same schedule so it was a surprise release worldwide so I think it could be true.

can a mod lock this thread if anyone else mentions the grammy awards?

make me mod and i'll lock every thread except this one. literal #onethread now what?

LEVITATE
LEVITATE
LEVITATE

okay, i'll stop now.

his new song is really refreshing. i see what whiney is saying, and my thought is that rappity-rap-rap should come back in vogue.

How many rappity-rap-rappers must get dissed?

Kendrick is so wild because he's the only rappity-rap-rap rapper that cool-kid discourse hasn't completely abandoned or deemed an anachronism

doesn't that make him something of an anachronism anyway or just that the others have been deemed more explicitly retro-throwback acts etc.

Kendrick has never really seemed like a throwback though. When he did his Compton album it didn’t sound like gangsta rap, his jazzy album didn’t sound Soulquarian.

there is realism at the center of his work which makes it contemporary no matter what sounds he is working with.

it also sets him apart from many other rappers on the radio who trade in fantasy.

oh yeah i shouldn't have said 'explicitly', he's not a throwback, just still very distinct in the current landscape

what i was trying to say more is that 'if he's the only one of those left isn't that in itself something of an anachronism'

18 songs, 73 minutes, let’s do this

Quickly glanced the track list to see what kind of wild guests would be on this

And motherfucking Beth Gibbons is on the penultimate track

oh it's shorter than TPAB lol

about the same if you chop off that tupac “interview”

true

oh yeah, i'm total fanboy for this album but skip certain tracks every time, for reasons.

however none of those tracks has ever been, is not now, nor will ever be "rich spirit", which i find to be just as delightfully classic presently as i did the instant i heard it. i suppose you could say it was an instant classic.

It’s a double album? 78 minutes is like a Redman CD in the late 90s

yo shoutout to redman, pioneer of longass albums😄

When Helen Mirren said "you texted me at two o'clock in the morning" there were a couple ways it coulda gone and honestly I wish it'd gone the other way.

"United in Grief" is such an an amazing song

it's nice to go back to these type of "event" albums and listen to them after all the discourse is over

seemed like the discourse was over with this one a few days after release

"Rich in Spirit" is still such a jam, one of his all-timers.

yeah that's great

"Father Time" sticks out to me more now, the way that jazzy beat keeps morphing is really cool

the Kodak Black part could still go though

Man did I sleep on this. Got this email at 10:30 am but didn't see it until now:

KENDRICK LAMAR LIVE & IN PERSON AT ROXY CINEMA, TONITE!

Kendrick Lamar will be joining us TONITE for a Q&A after an exclusive screening of his documentary THE BIG STEPPERS TOUR: LIVE FROM PARIS. Get your tickets now for what promises to be an unforgettable evening!