Before you say your big Kendrick Lamar take or entertain someone else's Kendrick take, just make sure you address the main message.
This is not a review. This isn't a"Five Takeaways From Kendrick Lamar's..." article. This is someone who likes to read reviews and likes to hear other people's music opinions making sure we're all on the same page.
Kendrick Lamar is not above critique, but critiquing this album is pointless. Kendrick doesn't care, and if you — the Kendrick fan, the Kendrick hater, or the casual Kendrick onlooker — are looking for an early review of Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, you missed the main point of Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.
People will still search for what to think of the album, publications will assign it a high number, or attach a flame emoji or say something like "Mr. Morale and The Big Steppers is Lamar's most [insert word most likely to get clicks or increase the likelihood of a Kendrick Lamar interview] of his career."
With that understanding of supply and demand for music opinions in mind, I want to do my part in the conversation by making sure we're all aware of the most important part of the album.
Speaking of supply and demand for music opinions, stream UNHEARD:
Okay, back to the topic at hand.
Kendrick Lamar just announced his retirement. Well, actually, he announced his retirement a few weeks ago.
When Kendrick first announced Mr.Morale & The Big Steppers, it seemed like he was announcing his unretirement. The link led to a Michael Jordan-Chicago Bulls-esque press release announcing the album's name and release date. The quote retweet and the Jordan press release seemed like a simple message: an all-time great was coming out of retirement. Cool.
The crowd clapped, stood up from their seats, and said: "That was good. I enjoyed my time."
Turns out, the unretirement theme was a red herring, a purposefully misleading clue.
Kendrick Lamar wasn't unretiring by quote retweeting some random tweet from three months prior; SK's tweet was the foreshadowing of Kendrick Lamar's actual retirement, and Lamar's quote retweet was the official confirmation.
The next piece of evidence pointing at a Kendrick retirement doesn't come until Side B of the album, because as Kendrick puts it on "Rich Spirit": "The morality can wait, feedback on low latency," — or in other words, "y'all aren't ready yet."
Side A of Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers follows that "y'all aren't ready yet" message throughout. Kendrick clearly has interesting things to say, but he's not ready to reveal his main message without playing the role of savior one more time.
On a recent episode of UNHEARD, I pointed out the similarities and differences between Kendrick Lamar and Earl Sweatshirt, saying "Kendrick is able to make 100 ingredients digestible for a large audience, while Earl will give you 100 ingredients and not care if the listener likes the taste or not."
Side A is Kendrick making his messages digestible — he sweetens his romantic trouble by pairing it with a sure-to-trend back-and-forth on "We Cry Together," and he does his best J.Cole impression to discuss generational trauma on "Father Time." A majority of social media posts and favorite songs will come from this side.
Side B is less tasty, rawer and reveals the biggest takeaway of the album: Kendrick Lamar just announced his retirement.
Those romantic troubles worsen into marriage separation and co-parenting issues, generational trauma turns into vivid stories on trauma, NoName gets used as a springboard for an inner discourse on fame, and a couple of other deep takeaways are tightly woven across Side B.
That tight weave of personal issues paired with the above quote retweet, the album's cover, and three specific Side B tracks — "Crown," "Savior" and "Mirror" — paint the main story of Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.
The idea of Kendrick being ready to walk away from music is actually introduced in the opening lines of the first song, "United In Grief." A voice (seemingly, representing Kendrick) wishes the album's listeners peace, while a woman aggressively pushes him to "tell the truth" behind his wish — truth is, he won't be there to help them find peace (think, Magic Johnson's "I'm not gon be here" meme).
On "Crown," Kendrick is battling with the responsibility that comes with his King Kendrick nickname: his greatness is only respected as long as he's giving more of it. When the music stops, the love turns to hate or indifference, and after a five-year hiatus between DAMN. and Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, Kendrick seems to fully understand those fickle feelings. He knows he "can't please everybody," and by the time "Mirror" plays, he paints a picture detailed enough to make his decision to walk away understandable.
But first, "Savior" and the album cover.
Throughout Side A, Kendrick is attacking his fellow celebrity (and hyping himself up for Side B). "N95," a three-minute and 16-second plea for celebrities to take off their hyperbolic masks and speak their mind without fear of cancellation, is the best example.
The reasoning for this plea is made more clear several tracks later on "Savior." Kendrick, the anointed savior of "real rap" and "the spirit" of rap's decade-long Big-3 of Drake, J.Cole and himself, bows out of the savior talk and asks for other celebrities/rappers to share the burden, rapping "Yeah, Tupac (a reference to himself) dead, gotta think for yourself, Yeah, hero's looking for the villains (the same celebrities he attacked) to help."
What's the reason for Kendrick bowing out of his savior role? The album cover.
Side B spends a large chunk of time painting the picture of Kendrick's familial situation — his fiance left him, he has trauma dating back to when he was five, co-parenting is awkward, and the list goes on. The "savior" can either focus on his family or keep trying to save the world through music, a mission he realized on "Crown" is thankless and never-ending.
He chooses to save his family, and in turn, himself on the ultimate conclusion track, "Mirror." The track features a summary of all the reasons why Kendrick is retiring and even lets his fans argue with him through a representative "she" point of view.
But the argument is futile, and the final message is clear.
After being begged to "tell the truth" on "United In Grief," Kendrick starts "Mirror" off by saying "The pressure's taking over me, it's beginning to loom, Better if I spare your feelings and tell you the truth."
Kendrick Lamar just announced his retirement.
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