Kendrick Lamar has revealed the cover artwork for his new album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. It features Lamar in a crown of thorns holding a child; in the background is a woman with a baby. Find the cover artwork, shot by Renell Medrano, below. Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers is out this Friday, May 13.
Lamar recently shared his new song “The Heart Part 5.” It arrived with a new music video which showed Lamar’s face morphing into deepfakes of OJ Simpson, Kanye West, Kobe Bryant, Nipsey Hussle, Jussie Smollett, and Will Smith. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s studio Deep Voodoo was behind the video’s unsettling visuals; Lamar is co-producing an upcoming comedy film with Parker and Stone.
Lamar first shared news that he had an album on the way in August 2021 with a new website dubbed Oklama. He said that it would be his final release with the label Top Dawg Entertainment. “I feel joy to have been a part of such a cultural imprint after 17 years,” he wrote. He announced the project’s title and release date on April 18, 2022, echoing Michael Jordan’s legendary comeback fax in his letterhead statement.
Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers is the rapper’s first album since 2017’s Damn., for which he won a Pulitzer Prize and an armload of Grammys. He’s filled his years between solo LPs with several other projects and collaborations, making guest appearances on tracks by Busta Rhymes, Terrace Martin, Sir, and Anderson .Paak.
In March 2020, Lamar and Dave Free launched pgLang, a “multi-lingual, at service company” that has ushered forth a few different multimedia efforts, including an ad campaign for Calvin Klein. Among pgLang’s other projects was new music from Baby Keem, Lamar’s protégé, who brought his mentor on for “Vent,” “Range Brothers,” and the Grammy-winning “Family Ties.”
Prior to pgLang, Lamar had made a foray into the film industry at the helm of Black Panther: The Album, the soundtrack to Ryan Coogler’s Marvel blockbuster. “All the Stars” from the project netted him an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song in 2019, but the track ultimately lost to Lady Gaga’s and Bradley Cooper’s “Shallow” from A Star Is Born.
After taking the stage during the Super Bowl halftime show in February, Lamar is set to headline both Glastonbury and Rolling Loud Miami later this year.
Revisit “Waiting for Kendrick” on the Pitch.
