Kendrick Lamar Shares Striking New Album Art for ‘Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers’
Rapper’s highly anticipated fifth studio album arrives Friday
Kendrick Lamar performs during the Pepsi Halftime Show during the NFL Super Bowl 56 football game, Sunday, Feb. 13, 2022, in Inglewood, Calif. Cooper Neill/AP
Kendrick Lamar continues to roll out clues for his highly anticipated album, Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers, due to arrive on Friday. On Wednesday, he revealed what appears to be the cover art of his final release for Top Dawg Entertainment.
On Instagram, Lamar shared a striking photo featuring him wearing a crown of thorns as he holds a child in the foreground. In the background, a woman can be seen on a bed cradling a baby. It was shot by Renell Medrano.
Earlier this month, Lamar shared the album’s first single, “The Heart Part 5,” and its video, which features the rapper morphing into various digitally produced celebrity “deep fakes,” including Kanye West, Will Smith, and the late Nipsey Hussle.
Lamar began the long tease to his follow-up to 2017’s Damn. back in August, when he shared a note on his Oklama website announcing that Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers would be his last release on TDE. Since then, he has provided other hints that tip to the possibility that it might be a double album and maybe even a book, and a release featuring the letterhead of his company pgLang announcing the album’s release date.
Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers is Lamar’s fifth studio album, not including his work on 2018’s Black Panther album. He’s since collaborated on songs with Beyoncé, Busta Rhymes, and Baby Keem, among others. Last month, he won a Grammy for his work with Keem on “Family Ties.” This summer, he will headline Glastonbury and Rolling Loud Miami festivals.
From Rolling Stone US.
