At this moment no other hip-hop figure touches Kendrick Lamar’s cultural preeminence with my college-aged students. Roddy Ricch, DaBaby, and Polo G — who? Lamar is their Beatles: never taken for granted. From DAMN‘s impressive 2017 performance — three consecutive months in the top three, culminating in a return to #1 in late August — and a Pulitzer Prize to the cultural space he occupies in the form of guest spots, allusions, and tips of the hat from David Bowie and collaborations with Kamasi Washington, commercially and critically he’s on his own. A rigorous, sometimes buoyant, and often despairing act of desecration, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers functions as a showcase for a rapper of genius for whom fame and the persistence of systemic racism provoke a righteousness that by album’s end hardens into a wrathful self-reliance beyond the bromides of Eckhart Tolle and the toxic presence of Kodak Black. He offers no comfort. He does not want to be your friend, much less a statue in the park.
This means clear-eyed criticism is more necessary than usual: that statue-in-the-park thing. A solid mimic and master of polysyllabic flow, Lamar can also get tangled in his syntax; on the weakest To Pimp a Butterfly tracks he and the dense overdubs or live performances don’t gel. Less of a problem on Good Kid, M.A.A.D City. The offhand cruelty both observed and lived in “The Art of Peer Pressure” finds its correlative in Lamar’s offhand delivery; the prissier he sounds, the worse the news. Because of the ambition, he will record a turkey soon, though thanks to those Drake diss tracks he may have extended his good will another couple years. I don’t want to watch the critical somersaults.
On the flight home after a superb weekend at a buddy’s wedding, I was listening to Tem’s Born in the Wild when at its conclusion Spotify’s algorithms forced a switch to Section. 80. Whatever — I didn’t complain. Before he became a Voice, an institution, we loved Kendrick Lamar because the way he sounded. I had forgotten “Ronald Reagan Era,” “Poe Mans Dreams,” and “HiiiPower.” Strong hooks. (Heading to meet my Uber I was mumbling the FUCK DAWT part in “A.D.H.D.”). On “Rigamortis” he reminds me of Trife, Ghostface’s mid ’00s foil.
1. The Art of Peer Pressure
2. King Kunta
3. DNA
4. Swimming Pools (Drank)
5. The Blacker, The Berry
6. Poetic Justice
7. Rigamortis
8. Worldwide Steppers
9. untitled 02 | 06.23.2014
10. Humble
11. Rich Spirit
12. Hood Politics
13. Compton
14. A.D.H.D.
15. Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst
16. Alright
17. i
18. Duckworth
19. Backseat Freestyle
20. Purple Hearts
21. Not Like Us
As Featured Artist:
1. ASAP Rocky featuring Drake, 2 Chainz and Kendrick Lamar – Fuckin’ Problems
2. Danny Brown featuring Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul and Earl Sweatshirt – Really Doe
3. Future, Metro Boomin and Kendrick Lamar – Like That
4. The Spiteful Chant (ft. Schoolboy Q)
5. Beyoncé ft. Kendrick Lamar – Freedom
6. A Tribe Called Quest ft. Kendrick Lamar – Conrad Tokyo
Humanizing The Vacuum 