MUSIC REVIEW: Kendrick Lamar - Mr. Morale And The Big Steppers

The wait for Pulitzer Prize winning Kenny to put an album out, finds the emcee turning in his most jazzy piece yet, and not in the best way.

“Mr. Morale and The Big Steppers” is an album syncopated : erratic, loose, and jazzy but falls short in being too inspired by the current sound of commercial Hip-Hop. Kendrick started off as an underground emcee, Compton bred, but L.A. based. But here at “Mr.Morale…” with his final farewell to the independent label (Top Dawg) that he almost singlehandedly made mainstream, Kendrick has shed all of his underdog , “Average Joe” qualities in favor of embracing an off-putting messiah complex, as illustrated on the cover where he borrows from Judeo-Christian mythology : adorned in a crown of thorns just to walk on water on the video to the album’s lead single “N95”. A rumbling lead, with “Silent Hill” coming off just as energetic as the second track on the second volume, slot number two is indefinitely the lucky number on this lightweight of a double album, which was tough to find since Pulitzer Prize winning Kenny may have accomplished a lot of things in his storied rap career, but he has fallen victim to the fact that he could not pull off the art of the double album.

Nine tracks a piece, Kendrick does explore some choice topics like health, meditation, transexual transitions (“Auntie Diaries”) and the inherent homophobia that is prevalent throughout the States, extra-marital affairs as well as ethnic identity issues through miscegenation in “Worldwide Steppers”, domestic disputes common in the mating (lower) class of the afrocentric community in “We Cry Together”, and a myriad of insecurities that are as big as his boasts in “Count Me Out”. Despite these standouts, I’ve heard other artists cover these topics better. The Alchemist produced “We Cry Together” sounded better when RZA did “Domestic Violence” on his debut album. Volume one closer “Purple Hearts” is a smooth love ballad, but Ghostface could have carried the track all himself, without Kendrick’s newfound vocal confidence in singing and experimenting with ballad form verses and hooks, giving in to the soft mainstream inauthentic radio friendly sound that pervades the national airwaves.

To penetrate those radiowaves though, easily the most catchy hook finds itself on “Silent Hill”, but it would have been better had Kodak Black found himself “pushed” off the potential single, let alone the entire album. I went through having to hear his voice on A$AP Rocky’s last effort in “Testing”, and to this day (even after living in Florida) I still do not understand the draw that true lyricists see in the jailbird hustler who obviously cares more about the flashy aesthetics of the hip-hop culture than the actual content. With Kodak present, this actually was public enemy number one as to why “Mr. Morale” has zero playback value. Summer Walker? Blxst? Why not SZA or SiR? Kodak and nepotistically supporting Keem? Whatever happened to Black Hiiipy? “Mr. Morale …” appears to be the ultimate middle finger to Top Dawg as a label with a plethora of talent, that Kendrick has been happy to mine on his past projects, and it is absolute ludicrous that he decided to forego the assets he had in-house for these talentless mainstream hacks.

“Mr. Morale and The Big Steppers” may be Kendrick’s farewell album to the independent label that put him on, but it also serves as his sell out album. Moving under 500,000 it’s first week, this may also serve as Kendrick’s first flop. And yeah Kendrick may not care about what rap purists say (just listen to self-empowering album closer “Mirror”) but after five years plus of not hearing the rap god, this departure from his discography is the biggest disappointment of his catalogue. Oh and by the way, I heard better tap dancing two years ago on Westside Gunn’s “Pray For Paris”.
With work like this, Kenny might want to consider turning in his Aftermath chain like The Game before him, because “Mr. Morale And The Big Steppers” is just another testament to the legendary Dr. Dre produced cautionary tale for all rappers who get a bubble head after all the accolades : “The Legend of The Fall Offs”. And by the looks of things this rap god, K.Dot, has certainly fell off.

Score : 1.5/5

Artist: Kendrick Lamar

Release date: May 13, 2022

Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap

Label: pgLang/Top Dawg Entertainment/Aftermath/Interscope Records