{"id":48524,"date":"2022-05-13T13:42:06","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T12:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/?p=48524"},"modified":"2022-05-13T14:22:06","modified_gmt":"2022-05-13T13:22:06","slug":"mr-morale-the-big-steppers-kendrick-lamar-releases-his-final-album-for-top-dawg-entertainment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/mr-morale-the-big-steppers-kendrick-lamar-releases-his-final-album-for-top-dawg-entertainment\/","title":{"rendered":"Mr. Morale &amp; The Big Steppers \u2013 Kendrick Lamar releases his final album for Top Dawg Entertainment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>It\u2019s here.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>After hints and teasers for more than a year, <em>Mr. Morale &amp; the Big Steppers, Kendrick Lamar\u2019s<\/em> long awaited, anticipated album, has arrived on streaming platforms. As a follow-up to <em>Damn<\/em>, his 2017 studio album, <em>Lamar<\/em> has finally quenched his fans&#8217; thirst for new music, with his final album for <em>Top Dawg Entertainment.<\/em>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">It\u2019s officially been 0 days since Kendrick Lamar dropped an album. My kids are now well-fed. Me and my wife have remarried. I have stacks on stacks of cash. My life is restored. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ANQU96PxUg\">https:\/\/t.co\/ANQU96PxUg<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Alex (@_ajlores) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/_ajlores\/status\/1524983958060118016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 13, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Last month, <em>Lamar<\/em> had officially announced the new album with a link to his<em> Oklama <\/em>website, which revealed its title and release date. An unexpected surprise, his first single <em>The Heart Part 5<\/em> soon followed with a music video to go with it. His narrative progresses from the evocative streets-to- prison cycle, to society\u2019s proclivity to numb their pain with drugs to a recollection of performing in Argentina on the night of late California rapper, Nipsey Hussle\u2019s death.<em> Lamar<\/em> then speaks from<em> Nipsey\u2019s<\/em> perspective, offering&nbsp;a posit of what he may have thought when he was shot, telling his family that he\u2019s watching over them and for his brother, <em>Black Sam<\/em>, to take care of his children. It is very chilling, yet powerful.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fans already know to expect dense and complex lyrics from the fourteen-time, <em>Grammy<\/em> award winner, but yet the single\u2019s accompanying video adds even more layers, which some fans may find hard to digest. The music video, employs the \u201cdeep fakes\u201d of black celebrities of various measures of notoriety: O.J Simpson, Kanye West, Jussie Smollett, Will Smith, Kobe Bryant and Nipsey Hussle.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the convincingness of the deepfakes is wary, nonetheless they still serve their purpose in accommodation to <em>Lamar\u2019s <\/em>lyrics,&nbsp;helping to envision complicities in black representation and the pressures of being a celebrity.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One user on <em>Youtube<\/em>, <em>Grizz Hood<\/em>, wrote: \u201cKendrick is like the smell (of) grandma\u2019s food cooking in the kitchen. You wait a long time but the wait was definitely worth it.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lamar\u2019s <em>The Heart Part 5<\/em>, gave fans a taste of what was to be expected on <em>Mr. Morale &amp; The Big Steppers <\/em>and now, early this morning, the album has released with the likes of well-known and respected collaborators such as: <em>Ghostface Killah, Summer Walker, Kodak Black, Thundercat, Baby Keem and many more.<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The album has caused mass discussion and gratitude from fans on social media, but it obviously wouldn\u2019t be a<em> Kendrick Lamar<\/em> album debut if it didn\u2019t crash the internet. Just a few hours after the album had appeared on streaming services, <em>Apple Music <\/em>then began experiencing technical difficulties. Whilst some&nbsp;complained of songs getting skipped and removed, others complained of the album not being available in their region.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/AlijahOVO\/status\/1524963450442719245\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">People at Apple HQ trying to figure out how to put back the Kendrick Lamar album <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/XwAIc97axd\">pic.twitter.com\/XwAIc97axd<\/a><\/p>&mdash; jmartn (@jlmtn123) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jlmtn123\/status\/1524976601758371844?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 13, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether it is unsure if<em> Apple Music<\/em> developers have found a solution and fixed the issues on their servers, Kendrick Lamar\u2019s album is available on other streaming services such as <em>Youtube <\/em>and <em>Spotify.<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Click down below to have a listen to <em>Mr. Morale &amp; The Big Steppers:&nbsp;<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: Mr. Morale &amp; The Big Steppers\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/1atjqOZTCdrjxjMyCPZc2g?utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption><br><br><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLjB_8hSS2lEMY-ap4zdPv0-mbTwxtN7KW\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLjB_8hSS2lEMY-ap4zdPv0-mbTwxtN7KW<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Words: Kira Bruce<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>References:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.grammy.com\/artists\/kendrick-lamar\/17949\">https:\/\/www.grammy.com\/artists\/kendrick-lamar\/17949<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s here.\u00a0 After hints and teasers for more than a year, Mr. Morale &amp; the Big Steppers, Kendrick Lamar\u2019s long awaited, anticipated album, has arrived on streaming platforms. As a follow-up to Damn, his 2017&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":48525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","category-youtube"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48524"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48543,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48524\/revisions\/48543"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}