Kendrick Lamar is one of the most praised and accomplished artists of this generation, winning Grammys, Pulitzers and more. However, his last official album was released five years ago. Within that time, Brockhampton’s career started and ended, and an entire presidency and pandemic occurred.
As teases and public appearances emerged, many speculated that the rapper was finally brewing something.
This announcement of Kendrick’s album was disclosed in a slightly odd way: through his Twitter account.
A tweet from Feb. 13 by user @raptalksk posted “Kendrick Lamar is officially retired,” a post that the rapper himself quote tweeted on April 18 with just the following: "oklama.com."
The link leads to an official report of an album release and a letter from Kendrick himself. This news led to social media going into a frenzy, as this may be the most anticipated album of the year, and so far this decade.
What to expect
With this being Kendrick's final LP before he takes a leave from music production company Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE), fans will be expecting nothing but his best.
The album's title "Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers" has a soulful or funkadelic feel of artists from the 70’s and early 80’s. Kendrick has always had obvious influence from the older generation from artists like Al Green, James Brown and the Isley Brothers. In addition, the rapper has been taking a more exploratory approach with his delivery in songs like “Range Rover” and the way he has handled his newest label.
This may be leading to Kendrick taking a whole new sound.
Predicted features
Kendrick has always had unique collaborations in his project, but was never feature heavy. His last project “DAMN” only featured five artists, not including production credits. The only collaboration that fans have a consensus opinion on is the appearance of Kendrick Lamar’s cousin Baby Keem, as the pair already has two songs together.
With Kendrick also transferring over to his new label, there may be a chance to feature his newest signee Tanna Leone as well. After this, fans can only hope on who will also work on this project. The renowned bassist Thundercat could appear since they already have a long history together or maybe even his fellow TDE member SZA. Some fans have even speculated a J.Cole or Frank Ocean feature, but that may be too good to be true.
With less than a month left till the album release, music fans can only hold their excitement for so long. This year has already gifted the world with projects from The Weekend, Pusha T, Gunna and plenty of other talented artists.
However, there is no doubt that Kendrick will outshine them all.
