Kendrick Lamar: Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers

- I don’t think I have ever quite felt a wait like the five years between Kendrick Lamar projects. The Autumn of 2017 feels long past, and, in its dusty wake we finally arrive at the release of Kendrick’s new double-project Mr Morale & the Big Steppers. My own life has changed in eighteen-hundred days and it feels like Kendrick’s has too. Gone is the saviour mentality towards rap and black culture, a burden that the Californian rapper previously seemed eager to put upon his shoulders. Instead, in this introspective hip-hop record, Kendrick Lamar aims to overcome generational trauma.

Opening track United in Grief takes Kendrick’s jazz influences a step forward, beginning with sharp piano keys before dissolving into marching drums and electronic progressions. The atmosphere created by the production is a little unnerving at first -and purposefully so- as Kendrick describes his efforts to move beyond using material wealth as a grieving mechanism. The open and honest expression feels like it's peeling back a layer on an image that the world has come to know. it's reminiscent of Jay-Z on 4:44 but revealing a mental state much more clearly disturbed.

While N95 is the clear single for the pits at the live shows, it is nowhere near as radio-friendly compared to previous project DAMN. The production sounds very West-Coast but trades the laid-back feel of that sub-genre for a fast-paced and intense burst of bass and synths. There's no doubt at this point and hasn't been for some time that Kendrick is a top-tier rapper, but the number of perfect flow-switches and cadences on this track, it's not something you get every day. From the repetition of “take-off” or how Kendrick asserts he won't be politically correct when addressing other rappers: N95 is a different understanding of what it is to be top tier.

Father Time is a return to more conventional introspective rap as Kendrick details the effects of his father’s tough love and the emotional implications for his own approach to life. The production continues the poppier form of jazz piano and drums with guest vocalist Sampha being the perfect fit to deliver a short but sweet chorus. The toxic masculinity breakdown is hard-hitting and an important, reflective statement for any man who can even slightly relate to Kendrick’s plight.

We Cry Together is a masterwork plain and simple. A track involving a clearly ongoing and violent argument between a couple shouldn’t be highly engaging, but it just is. The Alchemist’s production is whirlwind with repeating piano lines and heavy drum strikes. Kendrick is great as the misogynistic and clearly insecure male partner, but it is actor Taylour Paige who steals the show with her harrowing cries, landing body blows of blame on her significant other, over the trials that women face. We Cry Together is a stroke of genius and something you can’t find elsewhere, not only in hip-hop but music in general.

On Crown and Savior Kendrick is still shedding the saviour persona, as well as the expectations that fans derive from para-social relationships with their favourite artists. Crown is the more moody of the two tracks with a slower pace, pianos in the lead, that wash over Kendrick’s simple claim: he can’t please everybody. That sentiment seemingly refers to his noticeable absence from recent activist activity, but might also reflect the sea of opinions the public has had on this project. Savior is a heavier hitting and more standard hip-hop track that dismantles the constant clamour, the demand for Kendrick to have opinions on BLM or COVID with the message, think for yourself.

Auntie Diaries has certainly been talked about, whether in praise or condemnation. I understand the hesitation over the track’s usage of the ‘f slur’ or its misgendering of Trans individuals but I believe there's more going on here. Kendrick’s defence of his Trans family members in the face of the religion that he has followed his entire life is admirable to say the least. On a technical level, the song is blissful with a stirring, low-key instrumental. It builds to a heartbreaking final minute in which Kendrick breaks down his own ignorance in the hope of becoming a better person for the sake of his family and generations to come.

Mother I Sober will be remembered for generations to come as a work of art and for its discussion of culture and sexual abuse. The track is a painful seven minutes featuring some of Kendrick’s best verses to date, detailing the continuing, generational trauma caused by molestation, domestic violence and its effects on his own family. It’s hard to describe the feelings I get listening to a man take apart his own psyche, down to its very core, so he can try to build himself and his community back up, in the face of ongoing pain. The track is beautifully matched by piano that almost cries in harmony with the gorgeous vocals of Portishead’s Beth Gibbons.

As Kendrick says on final track Mirror: he chose himself and his family over the expectations of the world and I am glad he did. The long wait led to an album that could only be made after an extended period of silence and the result speaks for itself. I'm not even in love with every track on Mr Morale & the Big Steppers, but the ones that are great are on a level that no other mainstream rapper can come close to matching. The concept of abandoning your previous musical and cultural identity to fix yourself is powerful, transformative and utterly riveting.

- James Chadwick.