Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, Kendrick Lamar’s final album for Top Dawg Entertainment, has finally been published. Last month, Lamar made the record public by posting a link to his Oklama website, which disclosed the album’s title and release date. The album is divided into two volumes, each with nine tracks, and has a number of renowned collaborators, including Beth Gibbons of Portishead, Summer Walker, Ghostface Killah, Thundercat, Baby Keem, Sampha, and others.
Eckhart Tolle’s voice may be heard throughout the album; the spiritual teacher and author narrates several songs. On numerous songs, Lamar’s partner Whitney Alford is listed as a narrator, including “We Cry Together,” which includes a Florence and the Machine sample. Pharrell, Duval Timothy, the Alchemist, Beach Noise, Boi-1da, Sounwave, Dahi, FNZ, J.LBS, Bekon, and others are among the album’s producers.
Throughout the album, Kendrick Lamar makes references to cancel culture, and Kodak Black appears on numerous tracks. Last year, the rapper pled guilty to first-degree assault and battery of a woman who had also accused him of rape in a case involving a 2016 incident. (He refuted the second charge.) He is a vocal admirer of former President Donald J. Trump, who in early 2021 had his four-year prison sentence on a weapons charge commuted.
Since August of last year, when he opened his mysterious Oklama website and made an allusive statement about his next body of work, Kendrick Lamar has been hyping his “last TDE album.” He remarked about Top Dawg Entertainment, “I feel joy to have been a part of such a cultural imprint after 17 years,” Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers is the follow-up to his Pulitzer Prize-winning full-length Damn, released in 2017.
Lamar tweeted another link to his Oklama site earlier this month, this time to a black folder holding a page labeled “master.” A snapshot of a hand holding a book with Lamar’s name and “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers” on the cover appeared on that page. On top of the book were two CDs, one with “Morale” and the other with “Steppers,” both identified as master copies.
Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers’ album artwork, shot by Renell Medrano, has already been revealed by Lamar. Lamar wears a crown of thorns while carrying a child whose stare pierces the camera in an intimate bedroom scenario. A woman sits on an unmade bed in the background, carrying a baby. Lamar, who has a revolver tucked into his jeans, looks out the window, as if on the lookout for danger.
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