At long last, Kendrick Lamar has released his new album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, his final album for Top Dawg Entertainment. Lamar officially announced the record last month with a link to his Oklama website, which revealed the LP title and release date. The album is split into two volumes of nine tracks; it features a string of notable collaborators, such as Portishead’s Beth Gibbons, Summer Walker, Ghostface Killah, Thundercat, Baby Keem, Sampha, and others. Listen to Kendrick Lamar’s new album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers below. (Pitchfork earns a commission from purchases made through affiliate links on our site.)
The album repeatedly features the voice of Eckhart Tolle; the spiritual teacher and author narrates multiple songs. Lamar’s partner Whitney Alford is credited as a narrator on several songs, including “We Cry Together,” which also features a Florence and the Machine sample. Producers across the album include Pharrell, Duval Timothy, the Alchemist, Beach Noise, Boi-1da, Sounwave, Dahi, FNZ, J.LBS, Bekon, and many more.
Lamar alludes to cancel culture throughout the album, and Kodak Black is a notable presence on several tracks. Last year, in a case relating to a 2016 incident, the rapper pleaded guilty to the first degree assault and battery of a woman who had also accused him of rape. (He denied the latter charge.) He is an outspoken supporter of former President Donald J. Trump, who commuted his four-year prison sentence on a weapons charge in early 2021.
On “Father Time,” which features Sampha, Lamar alludes to the rivalry and reconciliation between Kanye West and Drake. “When Kanye got back with Drake, I was slightly confused,” he raps. “Guess I’m not as mature as I think, got some healing to do.”
Lamar has been teasing his “final TDE album” since August of last year, when he launched his mysterious Oklama website and released an allusive statement on his next body of work. “I feel joy to have been a part of such a cultural imprint after 17 years,” he wrote of Top Dawg Entertainment. Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers follows his Pulitzer Prize–winning 2017 full-length Damn.
Earlier this month, Lamar posted another link to his Oklama site, this time leading to a black folder containing a page called “master.” Upon that page was a photograph of a hand holding both a book with Lamar’s name and “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers” on the cover. Two CDs were held on top of the book—one with “Morale” and the other with “Steppers,” each marked as a master copy.