Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers
When Kendrick Lamar popped up on two tracks from Baby Keem’s *The Melodic Blue* (“range brothers” and “family ties”), it felt like one of hip-hop’s prophets had descended a mountain to deliver scripture. His verses were stellar, to be sure, but it also just felt like way too much time had passed since we’d heard his voice. He’d helmed 2018’s *Black Panther* compilation/soundtrack, but his last proper release was 2017’s *DAMN.* That kind of scarcity in hip-hop can only serve to deify an artist as beloved as Lamar. But if the Compton MC is broadcasting anything across his fifth proper album *Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers*, it’s that he’s only human. The project is split into two parts, each comprising nine songs, all of which serve to illuminate Lamar’s continually evolving worldview. Central to Lamar’s thesis is accountability. The MC has painstakingly itemized his shortcomings, assessing his relationships with money (“United in Grief”), white women (“Worldwide Steppers”), his father (“Father Time”), the limits of his loyalty (“Rich Spirit”), love in the context of heteronormative relationships (“We Cry Together,” “Purple Hearts”), motivation (“Count Me Out”), responsibility (“Crown”), gender (“Auntie Diaries”), and generational trauma (“Mother I Sober”). It’s a dense and heavy listen. But just as sure as Kendrick Lamar is human like the rest of us, he’s also a Pulitzer Prize winner, one of the most thoughtful MCs alive, and someone whose honesty across *Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers* could help us understand why any of us are the way we are.
On his fifth album, Kendrick retreats from the limelight and turns to himself, highlighting his insecurities and beliefs. It’s ambitious, impressive, and a bit unwieldy.
The vulnerable, exposing Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers is a reminder that an artist like Kendrick Lamar is once in a generation.
The rapper overcomes "writer's block" to triumph with a collection on which his observational skills go into overdrive
The Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper avoids the pressure of expectation by looking deep, deep inwards
'Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers' rejects conformity and leaves its flaws in on purpose, featuring some of Kendrick's best and worst songs of his career.
Rapper’s first album in five years is a haunting and surprising meditation on fatherhood and family
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When Kendrick Lamar, one of this generation's most influential artists, dropped future Pulitzer Prize history-maker DAMN. some 1,800 days ag...
Half a decade in the making, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers sees Kendrick Lamar take us through the rollercoaster ride that has been the last five years.
“Tell them the truth,” pleads fiancée Whitney Alford in the opening seconds of Kendrick Lamar’s new double-album, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers.
The Pulitzer prize-winning rapper<em> </em>grapples with Black trauma and his own family’s struggles on this brave, electrifying fifth album
Kendrick Lamar is back, ready to change what it means to be a rapper once again. His new album is flawed but very rewarding indeed
Kendrick Lamar's 'Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers' is a gripping treatise on the relationship between inner turmoil and the cultural landscape.
On 'Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers', renowned rapper Kendrick Lamar observes the strife plaguing his kingdom and consciously abdicates the throne.
Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers by Album Kendrick Lamar Album Review by Greg Walker. The full-length is out now via Aftermath/Universal
After a five-year hiatus, the Pulitzer winner returns with an exhilarating hip-hop feast that ties personal pain to collective trauma – and lets no one off the hook
I’m not sure there’s any concise way to take on this album. I say “I” to very consciously abandon any pretension of “this writer”: Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers simply defies anything but a visceral, personal reaction. From the get go, it’s clear things are different. “I've been goin' through somethin' / One-thousand eight-hundred and
Kendrick Lamar - Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers review: My brain hurts a lot
While Miss Welch and her Machine produce a tour de force, Kendrick Lamar takes a look at himself and The Smile release their debut