Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers is released

Why it matters

Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers came out May 13, 2022, on TDE/Aftermath/Interscope. It is Kendrick Lamar's fifth studio album and his final TDE release. Pgot, Sounwave, Dahi, and others produced. The album is a double-LP, eighteen tracks across roughly seventy-five minutes, and the most explicitly therapy-derived structural document Kendrick has released. The album is, broadly, about Kendrick processing the consequences of his fame, his relationships, and what he describes as his own generational trauma, with a Whitney Alford voicemail framing several tracks. It is not the album most listeners wanted. The reception was mixed; the album was treated, by some sections of his audience, as less commercially welcoming than the rest of his catalog. Critical reception was largely positive. The album won the 2023 Best Rap Album Grammy. Mr. Morale is the album Kendrick made between good kid (2012) / DAMN. (2017) / and the post-2024-Drake-beef GNX. The arc through it is real. You should hear it patient and at low volume. It is not a record made to celebrate.