Kendrick Lamar has finally delivered the Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers album, his first in five years and last on Top Dawg Entertainment.
The follow-up to 2017’s DAMN features 18 tracks across two discs. Features include Ghostface Killah, Sampha, Baby Keem, Summer Walker, Blxst, Kodak Black, and more.
Earlier this week, Kendrick revealed the project’s cover art shot by photographer Renell Medrano, featuring his children and his partner Whitney Alford. The rapper keeps his private life private, and fans were surprised to see a new baby in the family photo.
He also shared the visuals for the non-album single, “The Heart Part 5,” featuring Kendrick Lamar morphing into various famous faces using deepfake technology.
Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers is the Compton rapper’s final album on his longtime label TDE after last summer’s announcement that he was leaving.
TDE president called the departure a “full-circle moment” and spoke positively about the future for Kendrick Lamar.
“I don’t even know if I would describe it that way as ready to leave, as more so ready to build his own thing,” Punch explained to Mic in February. “That’s a grown man right now. We watched him grow from a teenager up into an established grown man, a businessman, and one of the greatest artists of all time.”
“He’s doing a great job developing Baby Keem,” he said. “It’s always been there, but now it’s just time and space where he can actually do it. It’s a beautiful thing to watch because that’s something that started with what we built in the beginning. To see it blossom, it’s a full-circle moment.”
Kendrick Lamar is booked to headline Miami’s Rolling Loud in May. He will also headline and close out one night of England’s Glastonbury Festival a month later.
Check out the project below on Spotify or here for Apple Music.
