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

Tickets for the tour went on sale today. Barclays got cleaned out fast, wound up settling for the Long Island show, which was far easier to get into. Plenty of good seats available too.

Got some for Oakland. Missed out on the DAMN tour so looking forward to this

had to take a rest from this album. with some distance, i really do like it a lot more than DAMN. i love that his message to the audience is ultimately: "everyone needs to take a good, hard look at themselves." the magnified caricatures, the problematic kodak black feature, the blurred lines between is this a projection or his real feelings? — dense and summed up brilliantly in the intro on "we cry together": this is what the world sounds like. do you like what you hear?

and also the actual beats and music are fucking stellar. 4.5 mics. goat candidate status confirmed.

I know it's old news at this point, but holy shit at ticket prices.

DAMN. was an amazing tour. (I only wish I had caught the one in Chicago, just to see Chance the Rapper join him on-stage.) Considering what a shitty time it was to be in the U.S., it was probably the only concert that I saw that gave me real hope for the future. Not to hear like-minded people complain or commiserate - all things I do and all things I would have expected from a like-minded audience - but to be surrounded in an arena packed with mostly high school age and college age students going out of their minds and repeating virtually every word of Kendrick's songs. And to see one single guy all by himself on stage with that kind of command and having that effect on his audience, that was ridiculously impressive.

prepare for even more of that\m/

Hey Josh, I'm not sure if this is what you're dealing with in Chicago, but I noticed that in NY, some venues like Barclays switched to SeatGeek as their primary sales agent but kept Ticketmaster as a secondary one. That is, if you go to SeatGeek, tickets are MUCH lower than what's being displayed on Ticketmaster.

Also if you can travel away from the city (like say go to Long Island rather than Brooklyn here in NYC), they're not selling out at all - in fact, it's driven down their prices due to dynamic pricing. I got good seats for a good price at UBS Arena (which uses Ticketmaster as its primary sales agent) and prices have gone down even more since then.

and also the actual beats and music are fucking stellar. 4.5 mics. goat candidate status confirmed.

― Let's disco dance, Hammurabi! (Austin)

Agree, the beats and music on this one are probably the best he has worked with yet. The whole album sounds great on decent headphones / soundsystem.

rolling sevens i aint read for no coffin

This album is astonishing.

The track I've played most is "Rich Spirit." It's aqueous and beautiful.

3 tracks in, this glastonbury headline set is GOOD.

and crowd surprisingly not shit

3 tracks in a row from Good Kid... killing me here.

Could do with being louder tbh.

OK, I think they've sorted that.

I'm just glad people are raving over someone at Glasto who isn't Guy Garvey. Not heard the new KL album yet.

"Rich Spirit" is my favorite song in here and it's quickly becoming one of my favorite songs of him in general. Wouldn't be surprised if it ends up being my most listened song of 2022 come eoy on spotify.

I don't think I had noticed the production of his previous albums as much as this one. It might be one of my favorite produced hip hop records in years.

yep

"rich spirit" instant classic

― Let's disco dance, Hammurabi! (Austin), Thursday, May 12, 2022 10:35 PM

definitely my favorite song of the year. beat is the sci-fi synth funk of the promised land and verse 3 especially is very rhyme of the month/hiphop quotable-

Frat brother, real n/gga, that brother
We just upped the score, give me dap, brother
Spirit medium, I don't rap, brother
We headed there now, are you strapped brother?
Ayy, peacemaker, but I'm not naive, brother
Ayy, gotta watch your homies and police, brother
Ayy, clout chasing hell of a disease, brother
I'm fasting four days out the week, brother
I pray to God that you realize the entourage is dead
I pray to God that you not lackin' when you off the meds
I pray to God she know them Cabo trips don't last forever
Bet she argue with her momma, go and get them kids
I pray to God you actually pray when somebody dies
Thoughts and prayers, way better off timelines
False claimin' not cute, I'm mortified
The new Earth in hot pursuit, two-hundred lives

the little mannerism he takes on in the section i emphasized still makes me giggle. his charisma and ability to deadpan such convincing satire remain unmatched. sounds like paul mooney the rapper sometimes. love love love.

Once I took "We Cry Together" out of the track listing, this album is very very very good. "Father Time" and "Purple Hearts" probably my favorites but there's a lot of songs near that level, like "Rich Spirit"

literally just now realizing that the song is called "mother | sober" not "mother i sober"

hahaha I also thought it was mother i sober

real n/gga

flagged

Father Time is killing me tbh

I need to come back to this again soon, but right now kinda stuck in TPAB mode because of Sequoia Maner's new 33 1/3 book about it.

I have been playing this on headphones a lot and it's really, really satisfying

This often leaden mess is my favorite Kendrick release since 2015.

Basically a double LP (running over 73 minutes), at minimum there's enough for a really good 50 minute LP, maybe even a great one.

I no longer believe in trimming double albums, sorry! Keep everything.

I actually agree with that sentiment in principle - unless they were simply clearing the vaults or the scraps off the floor, an artist (usually) puts out a double album for good reason, like this is everything they want to say and every piece has its place. But in practice, that still doesn't stop me from hitting the arrow on my remote.

somebody better tell these musicians that people out here can press arrows

ghostface's verse on "purple hearts" is just too good. he's the best rapper ever.

xp for better or worse, it's like a presidential veto in button form

ghostface's verse on "purple hearts" is just too good. he's the best rapper ever.

― in places all over the world, real stuff be happening (voodoo chili),

The way he folds "Elohim" into the verse.

it's a beautiful, ecstatic moment, and ghost does the "my voice is cracking because i just can't handle all the things i'm feeling" delivery better than anyone.

otm!

This album is astonishing.

― castanuts (DJP), Tuesday, June 14, 2022 10:37 AM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

OTMFM

I am not here for any take that doesn't start with "we are lucky to be alive when a talent like Kendrick's is around"

Pretty much yeah. I haven't listened to GKMC in a couple years now, but Mr. Morale might honestly top it for me - hard to believe. Maybe it's just that I haven't played out the new one yet

this is me and i'm blessed.

anybody fightin through the stress?

I guess this isn't the thread to admit that I think the album is mostly astonishing with a few significant flaws that I'm having a hard time dismissing as easily. Will wholeheartedly cosign the "we are lucky to be alive when a talent like Kendrick is around" part though, absolutely.

jon that's disappointing that you feel like it's not appropriate to discuss music on a music discussion board. sorry if i did anything to make you feel like that.

i.e. i would like to hear your criticisms and i welcome them with open ears. i like listening.

(also: yes, this album has some major problematic elements. that's part of what makes it so engaging.)

xp - no worries, I was being a little sarcastic wet to JCLC's line drawn on takes.

This guy's run right now is like Radiohead's run from The Bends up to Amnesiac.

Which reminds me - is Radiohead the biggest, most canonical band without a double album? Kendrick joined the club with Morale... might make a good thread.

No need to be insulting.

saying "we are lucky to be alive when a talent like Kendrick's is around but this album could be edited down a bit and be better" would fit with JCLC's parameters ha

true