Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers - Kendrick Lamar: Review
Kendrick Lamar
is a California rapper who spent the 2010's becoming one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful artists in all of music. 2015's To Pimp A Butterfly was one of the most universally acclaimed albums in decades and the follow-up 2017's Damn. served to break Kendrick directly into the mainstream. Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers comes 5 years later and was released as a double album with no singles and very little promotional material.
Review By Lav:
How do I even start a review like this? If you asked me what my favorite album of the 1960's was, the 70's, 80's, 90's, or 00's I could give you an answer but only after an agonizing amount of pouring through my favorite records trying to separate something from the pack. Two and a half years ago when I called Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly the best album of the 2010's it felt like a formality, the OBVIOUS pick. How do you tackle someone who climbed the mountain to reach that level of success? Especially when he followed it up with a commercial breakthrough that contained a number one hit.
The most recent music we've heard from Kendrick was last year when he appeared on a pair of tracks for his cousin Baby Keem's breakout album. One of which became one of the most beloved hit singles of the year and ended up winning a Grammy, the other spawned one of the most ubiquitous music memes of 2021. So yeah, he still has pull. I was kind of surprised by the way this record was dropped given that a good single could have done massive numbers. But now that I've digested the record in its entirety I realize that releasing it all at once wasn't a promotional decision, it was a thematic tool.
This is a concept album. You may not think so, I certainly didn't the first time I heard it, but it is. How exactly it works in that regard is something I'll talk about a lot in this review but we'll get there. For now we've got an 18 track double album that kicks off with United In Grief, an amazing intro. Kendrick makes it clear from the opening lines that he's "going through something" which is an understatement given how many issues he addresses head on across the entire record. The beat features some jarring car crash samples and a random flip into a stuttering drum beat but the entire time Kendrick maintains lethal flows firing off on themes we will hear throughout the album. While it lacks some of the hallmarks of a conventional intro it does a remarkable job of setting up this record.
The first disc of this record has some huge highlights and I don't want to waste another second not talking about them. N95 is the song emerging as a big fan favorite with some single potential and it has a hook that I guarantee will catch on. It's exciting and more importantly it's hilarious plus the instrumental is a wiry flip on the familiar trap sound that's very enticing. By the time Kendrick kicks into his u voice on the third verse I'm pretty much sold. Speaking of good hooks, Father Time has a Sampha chorus that removes my soul from my body every time I hear it. This is also the first song where Kendrick really digs into a specific theme, fatherhood. More specifically is details how fathers, or the absence of fathers can damage the sons that follow them. The details are enthralling and Kendrick holds nothing back.
This record details numerous traumas of Kendrick's personal life and it is absolutely uncompromising. Nothing is too tragic, toxic or traumatizing to be analyzed in excruciating and explicit detail. So many of the highlights here thrive in their unflinching honesty and raw demeanor and there's no better example of that than We Cry Together. I'll level with you guys this is one of the best things I've ever heard. Kendrick and actress Taylour Paige play two sides of an explosive argument that they're literally having throughout the song. The sheer vitriol of the performances are absolutely intoxicating and on top of it the writing is phenomenal. They find one way after another to cut each other deeper and deeper with a genuinely explosive musicality to all of it. The track is unbelievably dynamic and The Alchemist's instrumental is a perfect accompaniment, it's amazing.
Worldwide Steppers is the first of a number of songs on the album with a very lowkey instrumental approach in order to really lean into the lyrics. Even though Kendrick does deliver some excellent individual lines on the song I wouldn't say it's a thematic highlight over all. Kendrick detailing every time he's fucked a white girl is certainly one of a couple outright hilarious moments on the album. I'm even less crazy about the beat switch-up in the second half because it comes at pretty much the same point where the refrains get less impactful.
Die Hard is the next in a line of Kendrick songs that I would describe as sentimental pop rap. Previous offenders include Real and Love, both of which are among the weaker tracks on their respective records. The beat isn't great and I think Kendrick's vocalizing on the song sounds more silly than is intended. The one thing I absolutely LOVE about the song is the hook where Blxst out-sings everyone by a mile. Rich Spirit is another track I'm not crazy about. It's introduced by the Kodak Black fronted Rich - Interlude and shoots for another funny hook but it doesn't translate nearly as well this time. The vocal style Kendrick chooses barely elevates him from the already quiet mix and the reserved R&B flavored trap drums are also doing very little to give the song interest.
The first disc ends on a strange note, a track that I like almost every part of but one that comes together in a confusing way both sonically and thematically within the album. Purple Hearts pairs Kendrick Lamar, Summer Walker and Ghostface Killah, let that all sink in for a second. I've been a Summer Walker skeptic in the past but her verse here is excellent and absolutely soaked in the charm and a great R&B singer promises. Honestly Ghostface Killah delivers too, contributing a very dramatic and spiritual conclusion to the song that I didn't even know he had in him. I don't have a ton of complaints about the track but I'm not sure how the pieces are all supposed to fit together.
Disc 1 of this record is solid with some great highlights, Disc 2 is spectacular. If there's one point where it lapses in perfection however, it's the opening track Count Me Out. It certainly feels like an intro into the second half of the record but right when it starts to sound like it's shifting into being its own song entirely it doesn't go all the way. It's important in the context of the record but I think it would struggle to stand out on its own.
Silent Hill is a track that grabbed a lot of people's attention immediately as it features Kodak Black. Long before he joins the song it introduces another wiry take on trap standard instrumentals that I really enjoy. On another memorable hook that is genuinely pretty funny Kendrick disses his haters by literally "pushing them off". While I've always been a big critic of Kodak I have to say he is fine on this track. Nothing he says is all that insightful or interesting but his ability to actually sound alive and present on the song is an improvement and that's really all I can ask for. Mr. Morale is a big shift in intensity late in the record with a bouncy synthetic beat that Kendrick delivers one fiery flow after another on top of. It details the ways that people either succumb to, or overcome generational traumas. It doesn't aim to be the most grand or spectacular thing but I still like it.
Everything else here is great, not just great, spectacular. Crown is an extremely sparse piano ballad that leaves Kendrick out to dry solely on the strength of his lyrics. Thankfully Kendrick delivers an extremely artful and impassioned meditation on his role as a leading figure in hip hop and black culture. As usual he has some incredibly profound thoughts but unlike previous records who angled those reflections on society, Kendrick shifts the focus to himself and his own successes and failures while "wearing the crown". These themes continue onto Savior but through the lens of other leaders of the black community. In the intro Kendrick mentions J. Cole and Lebron by name giving them their deserved credit while also wondering if they are really equipped to be "saviors". There are highlights throughout from Sam Dew's background vocals to Baby Keem's memorable hook and even Kendrick calling out Kyrie by name for his high profile vaccine skepticism.
While we're on the subject this track is preceded by the Savior - Interlude which is Baby Keem's real moment to shine and he is absolutely ready for it. He takes on an orchestrated beat with all the vocal swagger that's been his trademark over the past year and even has some worthwhile stuff to say here and there. The real treat of the track is how often he switches up his flow and style across the beat while sounding so seamless throughout.
Mother I Sober is the next incredible standout moment on the record which once again returns to concepts of generational trauma through an eerie 6 minute piano ballad. It has vocals courtesy of Beth Gibbons from Portishead and she really is a great choice for the track because she's always been able to play her vocals lowkey but still inject so much impact into songs. That part is absolutely necessary for the song where she plays the role of a brief respite from the incredibly brutal subject matter Kendrick is rapping about. This time he is taking on sexual abuse and the toxicity of brash sexuality throughout his entire life. The song deals explicitly with the abuse his mother faces and even Kendrick's own history of cheating. It's an extremely heavy song but the gentle hand it's dealt with is brilliantly composed. It's the point on the record where the honesty and raw power of Kendrick's vulnerability really comes to fruition. It feels less like Kendrick wanted to unpack his deepest traumas, and more like he needed to.
We have to take a break from the critical part of the review. In case you haven't heard there's a song on this record called Auntie Diaries which a LOT of people have been talking about. First let's just talk about what the song is. It features another unflinching narrative but this time it focuses on two of Kendrick's transgender relatives told through his own perspective as he grows older and he begins to understand their struggles more clearly. It starts with his "auntie" who's "a man now" and how as Kendrick grew up he began to better understand their decisions. The second story is about Kendrick's trans-feminine cousin who he grew up with and knew before and during her transition. The conclusion lies in a pretty interesting place where Kendrick is confronted by religious driven transphobia and chooses his humanity over his religion. It's actually a kind of triumphant finale that applies some of the basic principles of love Kendrick has always infused his political commentary with.
All of this makes it really easy for me to judge this song as a critic, it's excellent. The track is sonically wonderful and goes on a genuinely engrossing thematic journey that I enjoy every time. The first person perspective that Kendrick applies to the song gives it a universality even though it's inherently political. Rather than telling you why you should accept trans people, Kendrick shows you how he learned to accept trans people and in the process subtly indicates that the only reason anyone doesn't is a lack of perspective. It's great. But the track has been controversial for a reason. Though I do work as a music critic, I am also a person outside of that perspective; a trans woman with some complicated thoughts on this song.
The first point of controversy is Kendrick's use of the word "faggot" when rapping about his past ignorance on the song. Whether Kendrick knows it or not, the word is deep in the process of being reclaimed. Young queer people, primarily cis gay men and trans women are working overtime to rob the phrase of its venom as a scepter for homophobia and transphobia, so this is a very different conversation than it would have been 5 years ago. The reason so many people have rushed to his defense in the wake of the song's release is the application he chooses to use the word in. It's clearly meant to be a statement of past mistakes, used to authentically represent the ignorance he had and to contrast where he is now, having overcome it. While the debate of whether or not Kendrick Lamar, a non queer person, should be using the phrase is an evocative one, I can at least see the intention behind his actions and understand the decision making.
What I can't justify is Kendrick's repeated deadnaming and misgendering throughout the song. Despite being an excellent writer Kendrick deadnames almost every single person in the track and plays pronoun soup throughout the verses even after establishing immediately what the right identifiers are for both individuals. All I can say is that I hope if the people in this song are real, that Kendrick cleared it with them beforehand. But just as important given the universality of the song's message of acceptance, the trans people he raps about serve as a surrogate for ALL trans people. So when Kendrick repeatedly misgenders them in the past tense until they look convincing enough for him to switch, or until they have "the surgery" as he refers to it, he's playing into outdated and shallow allyship. For someone who has always had their finger on the pulse of social change in the way Kendrick does it feels like this was a really obvious mistake and one that can't be justified in any way as making the song better. In fact you could argue that it fumbles and actively undermines the entire point of the track. It can be easy for me to feel like this is a win given the tsunami of transphobia crashing over the US right now. A genuinely positive message of acceptance from a place of massive exposure that is in some ways worth celebrating. But giving Kendrick a pass for his mistakes doesn't do anyone any good and it brings into question if he's really come as far as he seems in the song's finale.
Speaking of finales, let's get back to the review proper with the closing track Mirror. I think it's easy to undervalue this song if you really don't view this as a concept album. But once you realize that Kendrick has been exercising all his shortcomings for a reason, it reframes the entire record. On Mirror Kendrick apologizes for choosing himself, but if you've been paying attention to the album up to that point you know he has no reason to apologize. He's spent his career trying to fix the world around him, being a leading voice for black people in America, a savior. But on Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers he spends nearly every moment of the record justifying to you why he can no longer do that. Then on Mirror he finally announces his decision. He can't fix the world until he fixes himself, and everything he's told us along the way is exactly why. It adds another dimension to the already intoxicating level of uncompromising rawness of the album and while it doesn't really feel sonically like a conclusion, thematically it feels like the last stop of a ride we've been on since the album's very first line.
This is a big record with a lot going on, far more than I could summarize in a paragraph here. But there are some facts to be known. This record is longer than it needs to be, cuts certainly could have been made. This record is remarkably personal, even exposing some of Kendricks toxic traits, both intentionally and unintentionally. And this record absolutely could have only been made by Kendrick Lamar. From the versatile collection of instrumentals to the dynamic self reflection all the way to the incredible talent as a vocalist and lyricist, only Kendrick Lamar could have made Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. The record won't change the world and it won't please everyone. But more than any other record in Kendrick Lamar's career this was for one person and one person only, himself. 8/10
Album Cover Review by Tyler Judson:
This cover is an amazing photograph. I love the slice of life, film stylistic approach. The tones and subject placement makes the frame feel complete without feeling overly complicated. There could be some small branding or text in the top corner just to make it a little more noticeable as an album cover. This is incredibly successful. 9/10
For more hip hop check out my review of Pusha T's It's Almost Dry here
