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

kinda cool that we have no conception of what this might possibly sound like

big boi-ass album name

the whole thing is actually a collab with inflo.

one song includes tony allen's final performance.

there's a spoken word cameo from bill withers.

a significant part of the album is just kendrick reading the constitution in a real whiny, mocking voice over "more bounce to the ounce."

it's only about twenty minutes long.

^Big if true

I'm actually surprised that this was announced with still about a month to go. His last few albums were announced two weeks or less in advanced of their release date. Granted, To Pimp a Butterfly was pushed up from it's initial announced release date, and that could still possibly happen.

This name is still hilarious to me

he's a troll haha: https://oklama.com/theheart

huh.

in any case, this is an exciting time to be a hiphop fan.

new song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAPUkgeiFVY

So this is maybe/probably not on the album, right? Great track either way.

well my eyes sure bugged out!

almost definitely not gonna be on the album, if he follows the pattern of the previous “the heart” releases. they’re the amuse bouche

also ??? at him thanking the South Park dudes in the notes

he announced he's making a film with them earlier in the year

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

but we should use the new album thread

― ufo, Monday, 9 May 2022 03:35 (one hour ago) link

also learned earlier that the deepfake tech in the video is from the SP dudes

glad that it seems to be a double after getting us to wait so long

new song is really great, very promising if the album's vibes are anything like this

I'm looking forward to the album and looking forward to dissecting it with my son. Kendrick is one of our biggest shared enthusiasms, we went together to see him in 2018 in Atlanta. He's the one who came bounding down the stairs last night going "There's a new Kendrick track!"

so this is gonna be a return to the adventurous jazz-ish rap of Butterfly, right?

More U2 collabs please

I've held off on saying anything about this so far because what can you say? The expectation going in is that possibly the best rapper of all time is about to make his most important statement yet — and the new song is right in line with that.

Having difficulty putting the magnitude of my excitement into words at this point.

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

fucking hell

do people really think that?

you don't understand, there is music and then there is music royalty

easy to forget as well that this is a classic rock forum, and that kendrick is classic rock

(he's great though so I am excited to hear it, just as I am unexcited by ILM's response to it)

I'm sure some people think so, and in general I'm very happy for the phenomenon of Kendrick Lamar, wish him all the best, great that he's getting so many young people into rap. Tipsy's story really made me smile.

But just to balance the thread a bit, I've never really loved his style, and I don't find the single amazing.

I did find this couplet witty:
I said I'd do this for my culture
To let y'all know what a n**** look like in a bulletproof Rover

I think I'd be more excited for a Kendrick Lamar album if I was still listening to any new hip hop, which I have stopped about the time of Untitled Unmastered. I don't think I remember anything from Damn except the annoying "Bitch, be humble" line. His number of features was also ridiculous at some point. But will be happy to listen to the new one about 15 weeks after everyone else because I still love everything he did up to TPAB.

“I did find this couplet witty:
I said I'd do this for my culture
To let y'all know what a n**** look like in a bulletproof Rover”

This is a Jay-Z verse originally, I think.

yeah, from Izzo - just a funny interpolation

He's verging on becoming Too Important. I miss the fun, a little.

yeah that 3rd verse is---not my kinda conscious

it's not that it's pretentious but more that it's vague, abstract, generalistic, missing the quotidian profundities that would make it fun and real

I think I'd be more excited for a Kendrick Lamar album if I was still listening to any new hip hop

good news, that’s a quality you share with a large percentage of the people who are excited for this album

I am excited to hear it, just as I am unexcited by ILM's response to it

this is so dumb lol, if you think that ilm is gonna be unduly hyped about this album, then i invite you look literally anywhere else on the internet and see what hot air really looks like

“this has nothing on the new quelle chris album” - imago, in two days

quelle chris is mad underpraised!! but this will probably be better, let's see lol

within seconds of release other parts of the internet will be picking apart lyrics for clues and easter eggs like it was a season one episode of True Detective

do people really think that?

― groovemaaan, Tuesday, May 10, 2022 10:55 PM

do people really not think that?

it's not that it's pretentious but more that it's vague, abstract, generalistic, missing the quotidian profundities that would make it fun and real

― corrs unplugged, Wednesday, May 11, 2022 5:30 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

the video helps–he's rapping from nipsey hussle's perspective and forgiving the man who killed him.

additionally, there's a ton of references to nipsey's neighborhood.

also it's funny to me-

(lifelong hiphop fan gets excited to hear highly anticipated new material by one of the music's acknowledged virtuosos.)

some of ya'll: ABSOLUTELY NOT

the collective listening experience is overvalued and if you've lost your enthusiasm for an event album like this, well . . . as a smarter person than myself once said: i can't do nothin' for ya, man.

He's verging on becoming Too Important. I miss the fun, a little.

― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, May 11, 2022 6:07 AM (seven hours ago)

i think this is the discourse suffocating the actual art a bit. damn had some fun moments! "loyalty" was a great pop single, "DNA" and "element" are banger type songs. i don't love "humble" but it's a pretty fun single. he's obviously a serious and ponderous artist at his core but there's always a balance w/ his albums, even to pimp a butterfly there's "king kunta," "alright," "hood politics" etc. i wouldn't necessarily take the new song as some sort of strong indicator of where the album is going to go

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

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

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!