By the time his second studio album "good kid, m.A.A.d city" was released in 2012, Kendrick Lamar had already established himself as one of the greatest rappers alive.
Then the dense, theatrical and incomparable "To Pimp A Butterfly" came a few years later and transcended him to an act universally celebrated as one of this generation's greatest artists.
He followed that up with the equally critically-acclaimed Pulitzer Prize-winning album, "DAMN.", which Pitchfork described as “a widescreen masterpiece of rap, full of expensive beats, furious rhymes, and peerless storytelling about Kendrick’s destiny in America”.
It would have been difficult to imagine then that five years on we’d have been starved of Kendrick’s voice.
Apart from the rare feature and the collaborative “Black Panther” soundtrack album in 2018, Kendrick has been off the radar.
But on Monday night, Kendrick damn near broke Twitter when he posted a cryptic new press release on his website that indicated that he will release his eagerly anticipated fifth studio album, “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers” on May 13.
In anticipation of this new album, we looked at what can be expected from the iconic MC:
Political commentary and masterful storytelling
Kendrick’s most recent album, "DAMN." came in the midst of so much civil unrest, rampant racial hostility and political disarray thanks to president Donald Trump’s time in office.
Kendrick, who has always owned his role as an important black voice on key social issues, didn’t speak much on these issues, and instead chose to offer some much needed respite through his layered introspective storytelling and fascinating tales of regular black American life.
On “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers”, I expect Kendrick to return to the uplifting political commentary that made "To Pimp A Butterfly" so special and important, with songs like “Alright” becoming Black Lives Matter anthems.
Despite his recent policy on “reflection of self first”, so much has happened since he last released an album that he surely must have a lot of thoughts to share.
A-list Production
Kendrick burst onto the scene with the largely Sounwave produced "Section.80" project in 2011.
At the time, no one really knew what he was about except that he was a kid from Compton and Dr. Dre was co-signing him.
While Sounwave, the little-known TDE (Top Dawg Entertainment) producer he came up with has had his hand in all of Kendrick’s project since, Kendrick has since enlisted the likes of heavy hitting producers Dr. Dre, Pharrel and Mike WiLL Made-It to produce some of his biggest records.
On this upcoming album, there's reason to expect much of the same as Kendrick’s appeal has been largely enhanced by the "expensive" beats he's hopped on from the game's most prolific producers.
Unexpected features
Virtually any artist would oblige to Kendrick Lamar’s request for a feature. But, over his decade-long career, Kendrick has kept his circle small and called on very few artists to feature on his music.
And when he has, he’s often opted for obscure and unexpected choices like Anne Wise, MC Eiht, George Clinton, Bilal and Thundercat.
With this album being Kendrick’s last under his long time label TDE and set to usher in a new era through his own imprint pgLang, we can expect Kendrick to push the envelope once more and call on even more unexpected guests than before.